August 25, 2010
Ottawa, Ontario - The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, provided further details of the Government of Canada's $33 million contribution announced on Saturday, August 14, 2010, in response to the most urgent needs of flood-affected populations in Pakistan.
"As the extent of the crisis in Pakistan increases, Canada's humanitarian aid is critical to help the thousands who have lost everything due to the floods," said Minister Oda. "The Government has responded rapidly and, in addition, will be contributing to the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund an amount equivalent to the donations by individual Canadians to support humanitarian assistance, early recovery, and reconstruction efforts."
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has disbursed $25 million to the following international partners and Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs):
- United Nations - $13.6 million
- $6.25 million to assist the World Food Programme (WFP) in supporting the flood- affected families in Peshawar, Charsadda, and Nowshera by supplying family food baskets designed to meet the minimum daily caloric intake of up to 6 million people across the affected areas for a period of three months;
- $2 million to support UNICEF in providing safe drinking water, and sanitation and hygiene promotion services to nearly 1 million people, a large number of whom are children under the age of five;
- $2 million for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide water and sanitation, medical services, and shelter to the most vulnerable flood-affected populations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwah and Baluchistan, as well as to Afghan refugees;
- $1.5 million to support the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in providing assistance services to up to 500,000 families, such as shelter and non-food items. This contribution will also help provide a dedicated logistics platform to handle the receipt, transport, warehousing, and distribution of non-food items and shelter materials;
- $1 million to support the World Health Organization (WHO)'s emergency response to the floods, including making drugs and medical supplies available, supporting vaccination programs, and monitoring and controlling health threats and outbreaks, as well providing safe water and sanitation in health facilities;
- $500,000 to support the WFP in providing logistics and telecommunications support to their humanitarian operations;
- $150,000 for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN agency responsible for the overall coordination of operations in response to humanitarian crises, to help ensure that the international humanitarian response in Pakistan is effectively coordinated; and
- $200,000 to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to provide emergency assistance and protection from gender-based violence for women of reproductive age.
- International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - $5 million
- $3 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to provide up to 910,000 people with humanitarian medical assistance, including health services and safe water;
- $1 million to support the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in distributing essential household items, including hygiene items and shelter material, to up to 350,000 people; and
- $1 million to deploy CIDA's emergency relief supplies to support ongoing emergency relief operations on the ground by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On August 17, a shipment of Canadian supplies, arrived in Pakistan in support of ongoing emergency relief operations by the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS). The shipment contained:
- 1,000 all-weather tents
- 7,060 jerrycans
- 1,000 tarps
- 3,840 mosquito nets
- Non-governmental organizations - $6.4 million
- $2.1 million to Save the Children Canada to provide primary healthcare services to over 270,000 people, with a focus on emergency maternal, newborn, and child healthcare assistance in the Swat, Punjab, and Sindh provinces;
- $1.4 million to CARE Canada to provide shelter, sanitation and hygiene, non-food items, and primary healthcare services to up to 120,000 people in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwah, Sindh, and Punjab provinces;
- $1.5 million to Oxfam Canada to improve access to safe water supplies, sanitation facilities, and hygiene promotion to up to 1 million people;
- $850,000 to the Canadian Red Cross Society to deploy and staff a joint Canadian-Norwegian Red Cross Basic Health Care unit in Sindh province. This unit is designed to provide mobile and flexible health care on the ground and is expected to reach up to 30,000 people;
- $425,000 to Focus Humanitarian Assistance to provide tents, tarpaulins, water, hygiene kits, and blankets, as well as basic healthcare services, to up to 30,000 people in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwah, Gilgit Balistan, Sindh, and Punjab provinces; and
- $125,000 to Global Medic to provide 10 million urgently needed water purification tablets to ensure the availability of 100 million litres of clean drinking water.
The remaining $8 million, of which $5 million will be allocated for bridges identified by the Government of Pakistan as a critical component of its response to the floods, is being disbursed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).
The flood response builds on more than $69 million in CIDA funding since 2009 for Pakistan. This includes bilateral aid programming, as well as $37 million for humanitarian assistance, for such initiatives as food assistance, emergency shelter, water and sanitation facilities, and basic healthcare for conflict-affected people in Pakistan. For further information, please consult CIDA web pages on response to floods in Pakistan.
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Information :
Jessica Fletcher
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of International Cooperation
Telephone: 819-953-6238
Media Relations Office
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Telephone: 819-953-6534
E-mail: media@acdi-cida.gc.ca
