ISLAMABAD: While appreciating the European Union and its member states’ support for mobilising relief funds worth 123 million euros as well as assistance in kind, Pakistan has sought additional assistance for the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.

In a related development, the World Food Programme (WFP) also ramped up its emergency operations for the flood-hit families.

The request for additional support was conveyed during the EU-Pakistan Joint Commission meeting concluded in Islamabad, says an EU press release on Monday.

The two sides agreed to cooperate to address climate change-related challenges.

The EU expressed solidarity with people affected by the unprecedented climate-induced floods, it said.

Both sides also presented results of the sub-group meeting on trade, and emphasised the importance of EU-Pakistan trade relations, noting that the GSP Plus status had increased bilateral trade to 12.2 billion euros last year. The meeting discussed ways to address issues hampering trade and investment.

The EU stressed effective implementation of the 27 international conventions related to GSP Plus. Pakistan reiterated its firm commitment in this regard and the two sides discussed enhancing cooperation in agriculture, food security, and quality standards.

The EU welcomed Pakistan’s legislation on the protection of women’s and children’s rights, protection of transgender persons as well as protection of journalists.

The two sides discussed legislative proposals, namely the anti-torture bill and the bill on enforced disappearances.

They also discussed electoral reforms process, including recommendations made by the 2018 Electoral Observation Mission. The two sides reiterated their commitment to multilateralism and the UN Charter.

Meanwhile, WFP said its aim was to reach 2.7 million people who were facing emergency-level food insecurity and need urgent humanitarian aid. The WFP is also increasing its logistical support to the government, a WFP press release said.

Nearly 8m people are still reportedly displaced, 644,000 of them are in relief camps. The floodwaters have receded in some areas, but scores of communities are still cut off, creating challenges for the delivery of aid.

There has been an outbreak of waterborne diseases, with 4.4m cases of cholera, dengue and malaria reported nationwide, turning the flood emergency into a health crisis. Some 600,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas have no safe place to deliver babies, while 5m children do not have immunisation and nutrition care.

The floods have exacerbated previously high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition for millions of people. The latest WFP and FAO assessment indicates that the number of people requiring emergency food assistance will go up from the pre-flood estimated 7.2m to 14.6m from December through March 2023.

By Oct 5, the WFP reached over 700,000 flood-affected people with food and livelihood assistance in Balochistan, KP and Sindh. Some 11,200 children under 2 and 12,007 pregnant and breastfeeding women were given special nutritious foods to boost up their immunity against diseases.

The organisation is using 27 boats from the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities to ferry food, reaching 52,000 people (8,000 households) in hard-to-reach areas of Sindh.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022