Karachi, 11 April 2023 (GNP): Droughts can have severe impacts on agriculture, water resources, and livestock, among other things, and these impacts can be difficult to reverse once they have occurred. To prevent drought crises, planning anticipatory action together with the stakeholders by developing early warning systems and providing financial and technical assistance to vulnerable communities and stakeholders is key.
To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is organizing a four-day simulation exercise on Drought Anticipatory Action (AA) from 10 to 13 April in the Karachi and Tharparkar districts of Sindh.
In this regard, a provincial-level workshop was organized in Karachi on Monday in collaboration with Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Pakistan Metrological Department and other relevant public institutions and humanitarian organizations.
The objectives of the provincial workshop were to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to simulate drought anticipatory actions following trigger and threshold-based early warning mechanisms and gauge the effectiveness of anticipatory actions ahead of drought, examine the efficiency and accuracy of early warning alerts, and improve coordination and interoperability of different actors to respond before a disaster takes place.
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Workshop provided a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to rehearse a scenario in which every stakeholder performed its role per anticipatory actions protocol: from issuing an alert to organizing consultations and launching a response for the community and mitigating the impact of drought through planned interventions.
The simulation workshop was participated by national and provincial disaster management authorities, relevant line departments, non-governmental organizations, farmers and other key stakeholders.
The workshop will be followed by another workshop in Tharparkar on Tuesday and a two-day simulation exercise with the communities in identified villages.
The simulation exercise will prioritize the loss of crops & other on-farm productions due to seasonal droughts and livestock mortality due to reduced fodder availability & vaccine as the risks. During the simulation, 800 households will be targeted by supporting them through multi-purpose cash assistance and livestock feed with a special focus on women in targeted villages.
This simulation exercise is part of FAO Pakistan’s regional project on increasing the capacities and scaling up the understanding of Anticipatory Action, including through Social Protection Systems, which is funded by the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). The Anticipatory Action Simulation Exercise (AA SIMEX) aims to integrate the AA approach into ongoing country-level hazard-specific contingency planning processes.
