ASSOCIATED PRESS / GREG BAKER Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) 2025 calls on all nations, institutions, and communities to prioritize investments in resilience as the most effective pathway to sustainable development. Disasters are not merely natural events, they are the consequence of unaddressed risks and vulnerabilities. By financing resilience today, we can avert human and economic losses tomorrow, ensuring safer, more inclusive, and more sustainable societies.
In Pakistan, resilience financing is essential to protect lives and livelihoods, safeguard infrastructure, and reduce the burden of recurrent losses. Prioritizing early warning systems, sustainable land-use planning, risk informed health and education services, and climate adaptation is not only a matter of cost efficiency but a moral and developmental obligation.
PRP is committed to:
PRP stands in solidarity with national and international partners in advancing the call to Fund Resilience, Not Disasters, ensuring that resources are invested in building safer communities, protecting development gains, and securing the future for generations to come.
DISASTERS strike without warning and demand speed, clarity and unity of effort. Pakistan has faced earthquakes, floods, pandemics and urban emergencies with courage, but our institutional response remains fragmented at best. Agencies such as the Pakistan Meteorological Department, SUPARCO, Rescue 1122, Safe City projects, the Indus River System Authority and provincial disaster authorities each perform admirably within their mandates, yet the absence of a unified information management system leaves gaps that cost lives and resources. It is time to build a National Disaster Information Management System a digital nervous system that integrates our existing strengths into one coherent framework.
Global best practices offer valuable lessons. In the United States, FEMA’s authority rests on clear legislation, with federated data systems and citizen-facing apps ensuring transparency and rapid mobilization. Pakistan can emulate this legal clarity and citizen engagement by codifying NDIMS in law and launching a multilingual disaster app. Japan’s Meteorological Agency serves as the single authoritative voice for warnings, reducing confusion and ensuring consistent messaging.
DISASTERS strike without warning and demand speed, clarity and unity of effort. Pakistan has faced earthquakes, floods, pandemics and urban emergencies with courage, but our institutional response remains fragmented at best. Agencies such as the Pakistan Meteorological Department, SUPARCO, Rescue 1122, Safe City projects, the Indus River System Authority and provincial disaster authorities each perform admirably within their mandates, yet the absence of a unified information management system leaves gaps that cost lives and resources. It is time to build a National Disaster Information Management System—a digital nervous system that integrates our existing strengths into one coherent framework.
Global best practices offer valuable lessons. In the United States, FEMA’s authority rests on clear legislation, with federated data systems and citizen-facing apps ensuring transparency and rapid mobilization. Pakistan can emulate this legal clarity and citizen engagement by codifying NDIMS in law and launching a multilingual disaster app. Japan’s Meteorological Agency serves as the single authoritative voice for warnings, reducing confusion and ensuring consistent messaging.
Having the unique edge of a well-established partners’ platform, the Pakistan Resilience Partnership (PRP) is taking a decisive step to establish a ‘Network of Networks’. This initiative aims to bring together diverse stakeholders from government, civil society, private sector, academia, media, and international development partners under a unified resilience agenda. The effort is aligned with global commitments under the Sendai Framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement, while strongly anchoring the localization agenda to ensure that communities are at the center of resilience-building.
| Strategic Area | Indicators | Action Plan | Expected Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coordination & Governance |
Number of networks formally linked, MoUs signed, frequency of coordination meetings |
Map and profile networks, establish Coordination through PRP Secretariat, convene launch roundtable |
PRP recognized as coordination hub with strengthened institutional legitimacy |
|
Knowledge & Learning |
Joint policy briefs published, standardized resilience framework adopted |
Develop common resilience KPIs, organize quarterly knowledge exchanges, commission joint studies |
Evidence-based advocacy integrated into national resilience planning |
|
Resource Mobilization |
Funding commitments mobilized, joint multi-stakeholder proposals submitted |
Secure pooled funding, initiate pilot collaborative projects (climate-health-private sector nexus) |
Expanded financing streams under the localization agenda, improved donor alignment |
|
Capacity Development & Outreach |
Capacity-building sessions delivered, digital knowledge hub established |
Launch online platform, deliver training for partners and forums |
Enhanced local capacities for resilience, stronger community-based ownership |
Program for Strengthening Capacity of Governments, Local Humanitarian Organizations and the Private Sector on Preparedness for Response in Asia.
Start Date: 25 July 2017
End Date: 24 Oct 2017
Strengthening Emergency Response Capacity of Local Humanitarian Actors in Asia.
Start Date: 1 March 2018
End Date: 31 July 2019
APP Program Support to Countries during Covid-19
Start Date: 15 June 2020
End Date: 31 Dec 2020
Increase locally led actions to prepared for, respond to, and recover from disasters in selected high risk countries of Asia
Start Date:15 August 2020
End Date: 28 Feb 2023
Project on Locally Led Emergency & Recovery Actions in Pakistan
Start Date: 1 December 2022
End Date: 30 September 2023
