Pakistan

Context

Pakistan faces significant humanitarian and development challenges. Poverty, inequality and limited access to basic services persist, particularly in rural areas and among marginalised communities. Inadequate health care, education and sanitation contribute to social and economic vulnerability, and the country is highly prone to natural disasters such as floods and droughts, which cause population displacement, damage basic infrastructure and disrupt livelihoods.

The province of Sindh was severely affected by heavy torrential rains and flash floods in July and August 2022, killing nearly 2,000 people, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and homes, destroying the livelihoods of tens of thousands of households, and exposing millions of people to water-borne diseases and widespread food insecurity.A total of 1,739 deaths, 12,867 injuries and the loss of more than 700,000 livestock were reported. Some 11,665 mud houses were completely destroyed, while more than 900,000 houses were partially damaged. In addition, 1,108,264 households were displaced within the country.

15,500 people affected by the rains have lost everything and have been displaced. In Sindh, an estimated 300,000 people are homeless, more than 1.4 million hectares of crops have been decimated, more than 386,039 houses have been submerged and more than 30,000 villages have been flooded.

TGH in Pakistan

In 2023, TGH set out to explore Pakistan in order to take stock of the needs and the associative and institutional actors present in the different regions of the country. The aim of these exploratory missions was to determine in which areas and in which regions TGH’s expertise would be most relevant.

During this period, TGH mobilised internal resources to set up activities in the province of Sindh, which is still severely affected by the heavy rains and floods that hit the region in 2022. The waters have still not receded, posing a serious risk of disease for the population, especially children. TGH has therefore organised a series of hygiene awareness sessions in schools across the province.

At the same time, the NGO began discussions with two partners about future interventions in the provinces of Gilgit Baltisan and Punjab: Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF), a Pakistani organisation, and Nepal Agriculture Cooperative Central Federation Limited (NACCFL), a Nepalese organisation and long-standing partner of TGH. In these areas, family farmers, especially women and young people, face constraints that reduce their economic potential: limited access to markets, climate change, few financing options, etc.

Based on these observations and preliminary exchanges between ASF and NACCFL on the issue of agricultural cooperatives in Nepal and Pakistan, TGH wanted to pool its efforts and develop a joint project to address the above issues. This joint effort resulted in the identification of 15 cooperatives run by women and youth, bringing together some 3,750 members. TGH, ASF and NACCFL have set themselves the target of becoming operational in 2024.