Maintains is researching the impact of floods and droughts on social services, allowing for a comparison of needs and appropriate shock-responsive strategies across rapid and slow-onset shocks. Explore all our latest research to support Pakistan here.
Pakistan suffers from a wide range of hazards and shocks, and is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with flooding and drought affecting millions of people.
Flooding – from monsoon rain as well as glacial melt – is the most recurring hazard, devastating infrastructure and causing a huge human cost. Unplanned urbanisation has substantially increased the exposure and vulnerability of Pakistan’s urban poor to flooding.
The country is also experiencing an increase in the frequency and severity of drought due to a rise in temperatures and rainfall variability, with Balochistan and Sindh worst affected.
As part of our research, we explore the viability and potential mechanisms for making BISP, Pakistan’s flagship national social protection programme, shock-responsive.
Credit: Russell Watkins/DFID
Research focus for Pakistan
Social protection:
How can social protection targeting be refined for use during disaster responses, particularly drought mitigation?
Health and nutrition:
How can health and nutrition systems adapt and respond to droughts and floods?
- What is the current state of emergency preparedness and the response of health and nutrition services to recent droughts and floods?
- What are successful shock-responsive approaches and programmes and how can they be optimised?
- Is there a need to create greater synergy between humanitarian and sustainable nutrition goals and responses, and how might that be achieved in practice?
In conducting these studies, Maintains works directly with the Government of Pakistan, FCDO, and other development partners. The research builds on and enhances existing evidence and addresses knowledge gaps.
