More than $16 billion is needed to help Pakistan recover from devastating floods that submerged a third of the country last year, and to better resist the impact of climate change, the United Nations said Thursday.
In a bid to meet the towering needs, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host an international conference in Geneva next week.
The one-day event will gather high-level representatives from dozens of countries, including several heads of state and government, who have yet to be named.
While not strictly a pledging conference, UN and Pakistani representatives said Thursday that it aimed to mobilise support as the country deals rebuilds after the massive floods that left more than 1,700 people dead and affected over 30 million others.
Less than half of the $816 million sought in a previous plea to aid Pakistan’s catastrophic monsoon flood victims has been raised thus far.
However, even months after the monsoon season has passed, the situation is still terrible because flood waters have not yet subsided in several areas of southern Pakistan.
Many of the millions of displaced individuals have started to return home, but Ostby reported that they were doing so to homes that had been damaged or destroyed as well as muddy fields that could not be cultivated.
