Pakistan Humanitarian Forum urges Comprehensive and Effective Aid for “Desperate” Situation among the Displaced, as UN and humanitarian community launches Flash Appeal

A consortium of 29 of the largest International NGOs in Pakistan is publicly appealing to the international community to immediately fund the United Nations Flash Appeal, for the nearly 2 million people displaced by conflict in northwest Pakistan. The Appeal will be formally launched on May 22.

“The situation for displaced families is desperate,” said Neva Khan, Chairwoman of the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum. “These families are depending upon the donor community to respond quickly and comprehensively to this call for assistance.”

In its statement, the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF) also urged all actors to ensure that aid to displaced people is provided in a sufficient, timely, appropriate, adequately resourced, dignified, and well coordinated manner. Read More

Statement by the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum Regarding the Critical Situation of the Displaced in Pakistan May 21, 2009

On May 6, tensions between the Pakistani Military and insurgents in Swat, Buner, and Lower Dir Districts in Northwest Frontier Province expanded into open conflict, forcing nearly 1.5 million civilians to flee their homes. These people join the nearly 600,000 displaced prior to May 6, bringing the total number of displaced to approximately 2 million. Most are women and children. Nearly 90% are in host communities while the remainder have sought shelter in IDP camps.

UNHCR has stated that they expect the crisis to grow as the fighting continues and curfews are periodically lifted to allow civilians to flee. Likewise, the United Nations and aid agencies expect that it will take many months to resettle the displaced, which foreshadows the continuing needs that IDPs will have for the foreseeable future. In short, the situation is dire. Read More

INGOs working for disaster response in Pakistan formed an informal network by the name of Northern Areas Earthquake Relief Operation (NAERO), right after 2002 earthquake in Northern Areas of Pakistan. The objective of that network was to coordinate response and rehabilitation activities of INGOs in the affected area.

This was very useful experience for INGOs in terms of networking, coordinating and resource sharing, which motivated them to come up with some formal network. In June 2003, a two-day workshop was arranged in Islamabad for brainstorming on the formation of formal coordination body or network. All the leading INGOs working in disaster management participated. After having consensus Pak-Humanitarian Forum was formed to coordinate and strengthen the efforts of International NGOs working in disaster management. The forum collectively represents INGOs to the Government of Pakistan.

For the period August 2007 to August 2008, World Vision is the chair of PHF and as such is the focal point for coordination. Previous chairs included Islamic Relief (UK) from 2004 to 2005, Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006, and Oxfam GB from 2006 to 2007. The chair and immediate past chair of PHF sit on the Pakistan Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Country Team, a coordination mechanism for UN agencies, the Red Cross Movement, and international NGOs.