ISLAMABAD, SEPT 27 (DNA) – The government of Japan has announced its support to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for Seasonal Livelihood Programming in erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The official announcement was made by the Secretary for Livelihood and Production Department, Abdul Latif, and the Ambassador of Japan in Pakistan, H.E. Mr. Takashi Kurai, during a press event in Islamabad.

WFP Country Director and Representative Mr. Finbarr Curran and representatives from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Government were also present at the occasion.

Geographically, the districts formerly known as FATA are vulnerable to disasters and poorly constructed mud and stone houses and other weak infrastructure are often washed away by rains and flash flooding.

The frequency of climatic shocks – as well as conflict calls for the strengthening of disaster risk management systems to mitigate risk. Crisis preparedness capacities need to be boosted to reduce the time it takes for families to recover and for systems to be restored.

Seasonal Livelihood Programming is a risk-informed planning tool to identify interventions suited to a variety of contexts and time frames. It provides the foundations for resilience planning and brings humanitarian and development interventions together by combining seasonal, livelihood, gender, crisis and programme aspects.  Communities, government, and partners, are consulted to design cross cutting plans.

The programme will also pave the way for the digitalization of information gathering and the development of a centralized data hub. This will include the refinement and cleaning of data from key thematic areas and linking to the Decision Support System of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Secretary, Livelihood and Production Department, Abdul Latif said that the Government of Japan has been an active partner of the Government of Pakistan in supporting the socio-economic development of the people in the former tribal regions.

The consultative process will help agencies and the government to establish priorities and make plans to address challenges in disaster preparedness and mitigation to sustain development gains and minimize losses to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Addressing the audience, Ambassador of Japan, H.E. Mr. Takashi Kurai said “We need to start paying more attention in our assistance for former FATA to development support, rather than humanitarian, to eradicate poverty, end malnutrition and improve the quality of lives of people there. We hope that this development intervention through WFP will help them increase their self-resilience and protect their livelihoods.

“The Government of Japan has been a key partner in ensuring food security and livelihood for the vulnerable people in tribal districts. Extreme weather events are expected to exacerbate already tough living conditions and crop failures can further aggravate conflicts,” said WFP representative Finbar Curran.

“Seasonal livelihood programming will help support people where the pressures of climate and conflict intersect, and at the same time strengthen government plans and coordination”.=DNA

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