EU Lives in Dignity Grant Facility Awards €2 Million to Combat Disaster-Induced Displacement in Northern Pakistan
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EU Lives in Dignity Grant Facility Awards €2 Million to Combat Disaster-Induced Displacement in Northern Pakistan
Geneva, Switzerland, 27 January 2022. Following the launch of the Lives in Dignity Grant Facility and the first call for proposals in June 2021, the European Commission has awarded €2 million to the Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan and the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, Pakistan. The project addresses the impact of climate change on communities in the Immit Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan, a region that has high exposure to disasters and whose inhabitants have limited access to coping and adaptive strategies.
Pakistan is, according to Global Climate Risk Index, among the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, with 173 extreme weather events having occurred between 2000 and 2019. The rising frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters is triggering and intensifying widespread migration and displacement within Pakistan. According to IDMC, 829,000 people in Pakistan were displaced as a result of disasters in 2020 alone.
The mountainous north of Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to acute and frequent disasters exacerbated by climate change, which has led to the intensification of avalanches, flash floods, erratic precipitation patterns, and glacial recessions. In these disaster-prone areas, marginalized communities, characterized by low socio-economic profiles and multidimensional poverty, are often forced to relocate to unsuitable settlements that lack basic services.
This project, funded by the Lives in Dignity Grant Facility, will contribute to the resilience, socio-economic growth and development of displacement-affected communities in the Immit Valley, by enhancing their capacities to anticipate and respond to disasters.
The EU-UNOPS Lives in Dignity Grant Facility was founded in 2020 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). The purpose of the Facility is to efficiently and effectively channel funding to promote development-oriented approaches to new, recurrent and protracted displacement crises, with the aim that refugees and other displaced persons are productive members of their host communities and participate in furthering their common resilience, socio-economic growth and development. To find out more, visit https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/programmes/lives-dignity-grant-facility_en
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NOTES TO THE EDITOR:
Media contact: Murray Garrard, Communications Specialist, LiD Grant Facility: murrayg@unops.org
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