Pakistan Emergency Response

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) has extensive experience from long-term development aid and emergency relief work in Pakistan. Since 1981, NCA has supported Afghan refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province through NCA’s Afghanistan office, which was then based in Peshawar. In 2007, NCA established a country office in Islamabad to better implement and coordinate its country strategy in regards to long-term development aid and emergency relief work. NCA works closely with its local partners and has so far implemented 21 emergency response projects since 2005, operating in disaster and conflict prone locations.

November 2016

Hygiene Sessions in progress in a primery school in Haveli district, a flood affected area. Photo: NCA WASH team/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan
Hygiene Sessions in progress in a primery school in Haveli district, a flood affected area. Photo: NCA WASH team/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan

Goals for NCA’s Pakistan Emergency Response

Due to the repeated natural disasters and armed conflict in Pakistan, emergency relief has become an increasingly important component of NCA’s work in the country. Anchored in a contextually appropriate conflict sensitive design, NCA’s Pakistan emergency response adheres to humanitarian principles, ensuring provision of emergency relief in an impartial manner with an emphasis on LRRD principles.

  • Bringing assistance to people most in need across conflict lines.
  • Advocate for humanitarian access and protection of civilian population.

Scope of NCA’s Pakistan Emergency Response

  • Emergency preparedness and risk mitigation
  • Recovery and Rehabilitation
  • Capacity Building and Accountability
  • Advocacy

What We Do

NCA’s emergency response strategic priorities are in WASH with integrated protection specific measures curbing gender-based violence in emergencies, food and non-food items and shelter.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Rukhsana from the village Haji Pur in Rajanpur district, collecting water from NCA Water Treatment Point. Photo: Zohaib Hassan/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan
Rukhsana from the village Haji Pur in Rajanpur district, collecting water from NCA Water Treatment Point. Photo: Zohaib Hassan/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan

NCA contributes with clean drinking water, and adequate sanitation, as well as support for hygiene awareness and Non Food Items (NFIs). NCA is also positioning itself to be among the first phase responders in emergencies in the country by decentratlisation of emergency response through establishment of provincial hubs and developing a local roster for WASH and emergency experts for immediate start-up and response. NCA has currently prepositioned 8 Water Treatment Units (WTUs) to be deployed as part of a swift response plan, along with WASH/NFI stocks that can be distributed, through Pakistan Humanitarian Pool Fund (PHPF) previously known as Emergency Response Fund (ERF) administered by OCHA.

A young boy is demonstrating right method of hand-washing in Naushero Feroze, Pakistan. Photo: Margrethe Volden/Norwegian Church Aid
A young boy is demonstrating right method of hand-washing in Naushero Feroze, Pakistan. Photo: Margrethe Volden/Norwegian Church Aid

Gender Based Violence

NCA Pakistan has expertise on GBV and gender mainstreaming in emergencies. Particularly in WASH interventions, NCA has built the capacity of its partners and has lent expertise to the national and provincial WASH clusters. NCA was gender and DRR focal point for the national WASH cluster and an active member of Gender Task Force (GTF) led by OCHA.

From 2010 to 2012, critical life saving (blankets, hygiene kits and cooking utensils) items were distributed to people displaced as a result of natural disasters and armed conflict for survival during the winter months and other non-food items.

Where We Work

NCA has operational emergency relief programmes in conflict and disaster prone areas in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and in Azad Jammu Kashmir, assisting people affected by conflict and natural disasters.

How We Work

Hygiene Session for Flood Affected Children, District Ghotki in Provience Sindh. Photo: Ammar Orakzai/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan
Hygiene Session for Flood Affected Children, District Ghotki in Provience Sindh. Photo: Ammar Orakzai/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan

NCA Pakistan office has build partnerships with UN agencies, developed close relations with government/local disaster management authorities and is an active member in regional humanitarian WASH cluster. In addition to NCA Pakistan’s WASH team, it also relies on 5 local partners and has also identified and assessed three new partners in three target provinces. The new partners have specialization in WASH and strong outreach in the most vulnerable geographical locations prioritized in Humanitarian Response Plan by OCHA. Through ACT Forum in Pakistan, NCA has developed Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) in order to respond to medium to large scale disasters.

Results

NCA Water Treatment Point in the village Haji Pur in Rajanpur district. Photo: Ammar Orakzai/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan
NCA Water Treatment Point in the village Haji Pur in Rajanpur district. Photo: Ammar Orakzai/Norwegian Church Aid, Pakistan

According to NCA’s 2015 Global Report on Results, there were 119,462 beneficiaries of emergency related WASH programmes for the year and a total of 657,671 beneficiaries from 2011 to 2015.

Responding to the floods following monsoon rains of 2014 and in collaboration with local partners, Norwegian Church Aid installed water treatment units and build emergency pit latrines at camps and other places where people fled to await the receding of the water. To prevent diseases, 18,300 NFI and hygiene kits were distributed, in addition to information campaigns about hygiene promotion.

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