Pakistani Prime Minister and UN chief Guterres seek $8bn for Pakistan’s flood relief at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan

09-01-2023

Finia Hilmes

Pakistan & Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On Monday, the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought $8 billion from international partners over the next three years for the purpose of rebuilding the country after it had been hit by disastrous floods in the summer of 2022 (Dawn et al., 2023).

The Prime Minster made the remarks together with UN chief Antonio Guterres at the ‘International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan’ which was kicked off in Geneva (Dawn et al., 2023). The purpose of the conference is to organize international support to rehabilitate the population affected by the floods and to reconstruct the damaged infrastructure (Dawn et al., 2023). Several countries such as France had already promised the Prime Minister millions of dollars before the pledging part of the conference had even begun (Dawn et al., 2023). Furthermore, the European Commission announced its contribution of €500 million towards Pakistan’s reconstruction and €10 million towards humanitarian assistance (Dawn et al., 2023). In addition, the Islamic Development Bank pledged $4.2 billion while the World Bank pledged $2 billion (Dawn et al., 2023).

Moreover, in his opening address at the conference, Prime Minister Sharif emphasised that the world was standing at a turning point in history and that the conference was not only about the flood relief of Pakistan but about the solidarity and vision needed to ensure a future (Dawn et al., 2023). In addition, the UN chief in his opening remarks asked the international community to support Pakistan in its recovery, pointing out that the people of Pakistan were “double victimised” by climate disasters and  the “morally bankrupt” global financial systems (Dawn et al., 2023). Finally, Guterres stated that the global financial systems consistently deny middle-income countries of debt relief and concessional relief needed to invest in resilience against natural disasters and that honesty is needed in regard to the injustice suffered by developing countries due to climate change (Dawn et al., 2023).

Sources and further reading: 

Dawn, Reuters, & AFP. (2023, January 9). ‘Race against time’: PM Shehbaz, UN seek $8bn for Pakistan’s flood recovery. DAWN.COM. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1730748/race-against-time-pm-shehbaz-un-seek-8bn-for-pakistans-flood-recovery.

Desk, W. (2023b, January 9). At Geneva summit, global community pledges $8bn flood aid to Pakistan. The News International. Retrieved January 9, 2023, from https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1028818-pm-shehbaz-sharif-addresses-international-conference-on-resilient-pakistan.