The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expressed its commitment to helping the government of Pakistan increase cash transfers to the flood-hit families. ADB Country Director Yong Ye said the Manila-based lending agency would continue to assist Pakistan in helping flood-affected people.

“The recent floods in Pakistan have affected 33 million people with many having lost their homes, jobs, and businesses, and a large number of cattle and crops devastated, while tens of thousands of people are still homeless,” ADB chief said in a video message, reports WealthPK.

Yong Ye said as the flood water was receding, infectious diseases and severe food shortages were looming, and in this situation, ADB moved swiftly to support Pakistan's flood response through immediate relief, early recovery, and reconstruction assistance.

He said that the recently approved $1.5 billion BRACE (Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures) programme would provide much-needed support to expand social protection and food security coverage to mitigate the impacts of rising food prices and loss of livelihood.

The ADB country director appreciated the Benazir Income Support Programme’s ongoing Prime Minister Cash Relief in calamity-hit/flood-affected areas and said it’s a good example that BISP had quickly disbursed more than Rs66 billion out of a Rs70 billion package announced by the government of Pakistan.

“This is proving to be timely and great help to affected families during the relief and early recovery stage, before the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects kick in,” he said.

“ADB's assistance will not only help enhance the number of families receiving cash transfers but also increase the number of children enrolled in primary and secondary schools and expand geographic coverage of health services and nutritional supplies through BISP,” he added.

He further said that ADB would continue to support BISP to make it a more efficient, shock-responsive social protection agency.

Yong Ye said that the transition of the BISP database, the National Socio-Economic Registry, from a static to a dynamic registry, has enabled the government to rapidly identify and connect with the affected families.

Yong Ye assured that ADB and other international agencies were committed to working closely with the government to help and rebuild the lives and livelihoods of the people affected by this climate-triggered disaster.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk