Oxfam Pakistan - Food Climate Change and Women Briefing Paper

OXFAM PAKISTAN BRIEFING PAPER

OCTOBER 2016

“Half of the family members don’t have enough food since many years; this climate is snatching our food.” Amun Bai and her family, village Shaikh Keerio Bhandari, Union Council Bugrah Memon, District Badin.

Credit: Oxfam

FOOD, CLIMATE CHANGE, & WOMEN Women farmers key to reversing agricultural decline in Pakistan Climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector is key to achieving prosperity in Pakistan. Women smallscale farmers play a hugely significant role in food production, yet policies and investments fail to recognise their contribution, meet their needs, or unlock their enormous potential to eradicate hunger. Urgent investment is needed in women smallscale producers on the frontline of climate change impacts who are struggling to feed a nation.

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SUMMARY The production of food is fundamental to achieving universal food and nutrition security and prosperity in Pakistan. Agriculture employs 42.3 percent of Pakistan’s labour force, but currently generates only 19.8 percent of GDP.1 Women play a significant and increasing role in food production in Pakistan, with 72.7 percent of women engaged in agricultural activities.2 Smallscale producers represent 86 percent of all farms, and collectively farm 44 percent of the cultivated land in Pakistan.3 Agriculture by its nature is highly climate-sensitive, and therefore it is food production - and Pakistan’s women and men smallscale producers bearing the greatest brunt of climate change impacts. 4 Climate change is demonstrably taking its toll on lives and livelihoods in Pakistan. It is estimated that over the past two decades 141 recorded climate-related extreme events have caused an average of over 500 deaths per year and average annual economic losses of more than USD 2 billion5, which is equivalent to nearly half bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Pakistan in 2014.6 Pakistan faces enormous challenges from climate change; in 2014 it was the fifth most climate change affected country in the world.7 Yet each year planning and budget allocations largely ignore the realities of climate change and the food production challenges faced by smallscale producers.

Years of underinvestment has led to an agricultural system that is failing to meet the food and nutrition needs of Pakistan’s growing population.

Pakistan is ranked joint 11th from bottom in the 2016 Global Hunger Index, with 22 percent of the population undernourished, and 45 percent of children under five stunted.8 58 percent of the population was found to be food insecure in a 2011 national survey.9 Agricultural systems are not sustainable, resilient, or equitable; and climate change is fast undermining productivity and making investment both more urgent and more difficult than ever before.

Three issues are critical for making agriculture work for the poor in Pakistan. Firstly the heavy underinvestment in this key sector must be recognised and reversed. Second, climate change adaptation must be mainstreamed through all national and subnational plans and investments related to agriculture, fisheries, and forestry in order to move towards an agricultural system in Pakistan that is adapted to climate change realities. And finally, given the role of women and smallscale farmers in Pakistan’s food production; policies and investments must respond to the conditions that smallscale producers face every day, and urgently address the barriers that are preventing poverty reduction and sustainable agriculture in Pakistan.

At present domestic investments in agriculture and climate change adaptation are far from matching the scale of the challenge. A mere 3.36 percent of the 2015-16 Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) budget was allocated to supporting agriculture.10 Further identifying whether any investments specifically support women smallscale

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Agriculture employs 42.3% of Pakistan’s workforce, but generates only 19.8% of GDP

72.7% of women in Pakistan are engage in agriculture.

On average more than 500 deaths and USD 2 billion of economic losses are caused each year by extreme climate events in Pakistan.

Years of underinvestment has led to an agricultural system that is failing to meet the food and nutrition needs of Pakistan’s growing population.

producers’ agricultural productivity and adaptation to climate change is not possible from budget and planning documents that are readily available. Whilst bilateral ODA to Pakistan in 2014 amounted to USD 4.5 billion,11 only a very small portion – just USD 50.6 million - had climate change adaptation as its principal objective.12 Multilateral contributions to climate change adaptation amounted to USD 307 million,13 but of that Oxfam estimates only approximately USD 3.4 million was actually in grant form. The bulk of multilateral climate finance to Pakistan was for climate change mitigation – not urgently needed climate change adaptation - and was in the form of loans or equity.

This level of financing is inadequate to respond to the challenges climate change is placing on the production of food in Pakistan. Further opportunities for citizens and local organisations to engage with these important issues are limited. Transparency and accountability of adaptation finance are critical to ensure that those who are most vulnerable to climate change receive the support that they need to adapt.14 The Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative calls for the principles of equity, participation, responsiveness, ownership, and transparency to be central to climate change adaptation. 15 Communities and citizens, as well as donors and the international community, are key allies with the Government of Pakistan to be able to effectively take on these challenges to achieve food and nutrition security for all in the face of climate change, and as such Oxfam Pakistan makes the following recommendations:

R1: National, provincial and district governments must mainstream climate change and gender across all annual and multi-year development plans and programmes. Climate change analysis and bottom-up inclusive vulnerability assessments are needed to enable effective mainstreaming and develop Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC that meet the needs of the most vulnerable in Pakistan.

R2: National, provincial, and district plans and budgets lack clarity on what constitutes climate change adaptation. Given the growing negative consequences of climate change on communities across Pakistan, climate change adaptation actions need to be articulated and prioritised, thus enabling opportunities to attract increased flows of international climate finance. The Federal government should develop and implement national indicators or criteria for climate change adaptation.

R3: Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) are needed in all districts to direct resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. LAPAs should be developed in a participatory way involving women and men smallscale producers, vulnerable communities, and all marginalised groups. These LAPAs should inform development planning and budgeting processes, and provincial and district government should allow for greater public participation in those processes, as well as transparent reporting back to the communities affected.

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R4: The Agriculture and Food Security Policy must be finalised urgently with a priority on reversing the decline in the agricultural sector and achieving universal food and nutrition security, through targeted investments for smallscale farmers particularly women who have largely been ignored to date, and climate change adaptation.

R5: Capacity building is required at all levels of government on gender mainstreaming on all policies and plans, and particularly in the agricultural sector. This should include collection of gender disaggregated data on women’s agricultural engagement and the challenges they face, and the provision of services specifically for women smallscale producers including increased number, reach, and expertise of women extension workers, and opportunities for technology transfer and input provision for women farmers.

R6: COP 22 in Marrakesh should agree a global goal of USD 35bn per year in public finance for climate change adaptation by 2020, and all developed countries must commit to ensuring at least 50 percent of their public finance contribution to climate finance by 2020 is for climate change adaptation.

The State of Food and Agriculture, FAO October 2016 Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly foodinsecure. These impacts will jeopardise progress towards the key Sustainable Development Goals of ending hunger and poverty by 2030; beyond 2030, their increasingly negative impacts on agriculture will be widespread.

More resilient agriculture sectors and intelligent investments into smallholder farmers can deliver transformative change, and enhance the prospects and incomes of the world’s poorest while buffering them against the impacts of climate change.

There is no simple “technological fix”. What is needed is a reorientation of agricultural and rural development policies that resets incentives and lowers the barriers to the transformation of food and agricultural systems.

Particular attention should be given to supporting low-income smallholder farmers in strengthening their capacity to manage risks and adopt effective climate change adaptation strategies.

The time to invest in agriculture and rural development is now. The challenge is garnering diverse financing sources, aligning their objectives to the extent possible, and creating the right policy and institutional environments to bring about the transformational change needed to eradicate poverty, adapt to climate change and contribute to limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

FAO (2016) The State of Food and Agriculture: Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.16

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INTRODUCTION Pakistan is ranked joint 11th from bottom in the 2016 Global Hunger Index, with 22 percent of the population undernourished, and 45 percent of children under five stunted.17 The majority of them live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.18 The agriculture sector in Pakistan needs vital investment in order to urgently address this widespread hunger, malnutrition, and rural poverty. Women are key to achieving these outcomes given their dual role both in agriculture – 72.7 percent of women are engaged in agricultural activities19 – and their responsibilities for feeding and caring for their families.

Pakistan is ranked joint 11th from bottom in the Global Hunger Index.

Global Hunger Index 2016

Agriculture is the largest sector in Pakistan, employing 42.3 percent of the population, however productivity is low and the sector currently generates only 19.8 percent of GDP.20 The sector also contributes the raw materials for manufacturing, notably Pakistan’s two largest exports textiles and agro-food products, which account for 70 percent of export earnings.21 Agriculture is absolutely fundamental for prosperity in Pakistan.

The sector enjoyed good output growth from the 1960s to the late 1980s, however since that time it has been in decline, largely due to limited uptake of technology and poor maintence of physical infrastructure and systems for effective agricultural education and extension services, all of which is now further compounded by increased environmental degradation and climate change.22 Smallscale23 producers account for 86 percent of all farms in Pakistan, and collectively farm 44 percent of cultivated lands.24 This is a considerable proportion of a sector vital for the nation’s food and nutrition security and prosperity; yet policies, planning, and budgets are not geared towards meeting the needs of smallscale farmers and strengthening their productivity and resilience. Further a significant and growing proportion of these farmers are women, yet their work is largely unpaid and unrecognised both in the formal sphere – through policies and planning processes – and the domestic sphere where they hold little decision-making power in the agriculture they contribute 12-15 hours of their day to.25 The livestock sub-sector is also critical for rural livelihoods, especially for women without landholding. Nearly 8 million rural households keep livestock26 and it is primarily the women’s responsibility. Livestock generates approximately 58.6 percent of agriculture value added, and contributes 11.6 percent to overall GDP.27 However this is also an underperforming sector with women unable to achieve a fair price for their milk as their movement and access to markets are severely limited.28

Women’s contribution in agriculture is unrecognised, unpaid, underrated, and overlooked.

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

Livestock rearing is a major part of farming systems and is a critical element in the livelihood strategies of the poor and women.

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

Agriculture in Pakistan is under-supported, under-performing, and in decline. As reported in the Pakistan Economic Survey, “during 2015-16 the performance of agriculture sector as a whole remained dismal as it witnessed

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a negative growth of 0.19 percent”.29 The sector is also facing significant changes for which it is ill-prepared. Firstly population growth means that the food system will need to feed 31.6 million more people over the next 10 years.30 Second, climate change is undermining the viability of staple crops and increasing the incidence of extreme weather events wiping out harvests and destroying vital resources. Around 38 percent of the cultivated land in Pakistan is already suffering from environmental damage,31 and 11percent of arable land is classified ‘disaster area’ due to severe waterlogging and salinity.32 It is estimated that over the past two decades, 141 recorded climaterelated extreme events have caused an average of over 500 deaths per year and average annual economic losses of more than USD 2 billion,33 equivalent to nearly half of bilateral ODA to Pakistan in 2014,34 an indication that climate change is literally wiping out development gains.

Widespread flooding in 2010 affected 4.5 million people, two-thirds of them working in agriculture. Over 70 percent of farmers lost more than half of their expected income, and the sector as a whole suffered half the total economic impact of the floods.35 More and more responsibility for farming is falling on women – especially as men migrate to find jobs in urban areas as a result of agricultural decline and climate change impacts – yet current policies and extension services largely do not reach women farmers. Urgent action and investment is needed in agriculture, climate change adaptation, particularly to meet the needs of women smallscale producers in order to reverse the decline in the agricultural sector and to bring about prosperity for rural communities in Pakistan.

Agricultural losses are outweighing investments Flooding from July to September 2010 was unprecedented, affecting the entire length of the country and more than 20 million people - over onetenth of the population of Pakistan.

The floods cost Pakistan USD 10 billion with the agriculture sector hardest hit, suffering USD 5 billion in damage and losses. By contrast, just USD 200 million was allocated to the country’s agriculture sector in the 2014/15 national budget.

Cotton, rice, sugar cane and vegetable harvests were all lost to the floods, in the order of 2.4 million ha of crops, as well as 1 million tonnes of food and seed stocks.

FAO (2015) The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security

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Pakistan’s women smallscale producers Women are key to food production across rural Pakistan. Whilst 72.7 percent of women are engaged in agriculture, their significant contribution to food security and the economy is largely overlooked. Policies and investments related to agriculture and food production in a changing climate do not consider the vulnerabilities women smallscale producers face or the extraordinary potential they offer to reverse the decline in the agricultural sector and to secure food and nutritional security for their communities.

Many women work 12-15 hours a day on agricultural activities, in addition to their domestic chores, and for the majority this is unpaid. This work is almost exclusively manual, hard physical labour, even where machinery is available that is more efficient and would dramatically reduce their time and energy burden. Often times women’s manual labour is used because it is cheaper than the use of machinery, and for women farmers themselves they work manually because they do not have the means to buy or hire equipment and because they have not been trained to use it, trapped by a cultural perception that machinery is for use by men and women are incapable of using it.

Women are engaged in crop farming, vegetable and fruit production, and livestock rearing. For staple crops this is most often the domain of men, but women are used extensively in the physical labour required for preparing the fields, weeding, and harvesting. Women’s contribution to livestock rearing is higher than crops, and animals are often kept by women who have limited access to land. As a result milk production is dominated by women, yet they are prevented from securing a fair price for their milk because of limitations on their mobility and virtually no access to markets.

Women are responsible for cleaning animal sheds; fodder collection; poultry; egg collection; watering animals; grazing cattle; milking; preparing butter, oil, and manure; tending to sick animals; attending birth difficulties; and the care of pregnant animals. By comparison, men are responsible for fodder production; purchase of feed and medicines; stall-feeding; selling animals; breeding; and veterinary care.

The farm work of women is usually ignored by men and not counted as an economic activity. In spite of her roles and responsibilities in agriculture, women have minimal role in decision-making due to existing cultural norms.

Female farmers are major contributors in agricultural production in Punjab, but through their exclusion from policies, education, market places, and investments the full potential of agriculture in Punjab cannot be achieved.

FAO Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

The comparison of roles reflects the limited decision-making power women are allowed in agriculture, despite their significant manual contribution without which agriculture in Pakistan would grind to a halt. Few women own the land they work, indeed whilst legally the situation has improved with regard to land ownership for women in Pakistan, culturally women are still discouraged by their families from claiming their rights to land. In addition women are largely excluded from education, training, extension services, and financial opportunities that would enable them to improve their productivity, resilience, and profitability, and decrease their time and energy burden. Low levels of girls and women’s education and literacy across Pakistan prevents their engagement in skills development opportunities.

Cultural norms still prevent women receiving support from male extension officers, and whilst female agricultural extension officers are employed in places, they are restricted in their reach through mobility limitations and a lack of mandate to lead an uplift in women’s agriculture in Pakistan. Further transfer of technology to farmers through the Agricultural Extension department is still focused on reaching men; as a result women farmers remain technology deficient.

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan.

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POLICIES AND INVESTMENTS There are a number of key national policies and investments recognising these challenges, as well as efforts at the provincial and district levels.

National Climate Change Policy The National Climate Change Policy was approved in 2012 and outlines both climate change adaptation and mitigation policy measures for different sectors including agriculture and livestock, water, human health, forestry and biodiversity, vulnerable ecosystems, energy, and transport.

The policy includes a detailed framework for implementation, and is intended to guide national and subnational authorities to develop an action plan to adapt to the impacts of climate change, but as yet none have been forthcoming at the subnational level. The overall goals of the national policy are far from being met currently due to a lack of implementation plans and strategies to access funding, as well as low capacity at subnational levels.

Agriculture and Food Security Policy The Agriculture and Food Security Policy is still in draft form and the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has been functioning without a policy since 2011.36 The draft policy does however recognise some of the challenges outlined above; it draws emphasis on poor rural areas with a high concentration of smallscale producers and landless agricultural workers, highlighting the need for subsidies and other public sector investments to meet the specific needs of marginalised groups including smallscale producers, landless, women, and pastoralists, recognising that these groups, which have often been ignored in the past, can make a significant contribution to overall agriculture growth. It also seeks to adopt an approach that targets smallscale farmers through improved access to technology, inputs, infrastructure, and finance. It outlines a major shift from promoting agriculture development simply in terms of increasing production, to a more livelihoods and people-centric approach. It further recognises the realities of climate change and the increasing role of women in agriculture, and seeks to mainstream both.37 Urgent action is needed to finalise the policy and build capacity across levels of government in order to implement this more people-centred approach to agriculture with climate change and gender mainstreamed.

National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy Approved by the Federal Cabinet in 2013, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy of Pakistan provides a guiding framework for reducing disaster risks within the context of prevention, mitigation, and preparedness. It takes guidance from the Hyogo Framework for Action and the National Disaster Management Act 2010, to spell out detailed mechanisms and prerequisites for promoting disaster risk reduction (DRR) as well as environmental and climate change sensitive development planning by developing the knowledge base at individual and institutional levels. Moreover, the policy adopts a multi-hazard 8

approach and promotes the integration of DRR strategies across social, economic, infrastructure, and human resource sectors at the planning stage to share knowledge and reduce risk.

The policy was developed after extensive consultation at the national and provincial level. The policy takes into account the special needs of vulnerable people as well as recognises the importance of the involvement of communities in risk assessment and decision making process. It includes a detailed implementation framework, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, policy review framework, financial arrangements, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The National Disaster Management Authority Pakistan is responsible for developing technical guidance for sectoral implementation of the policy, and for coordinating the implementation of the policy in collaboration with provincial and local authorities and key federal ministries and technical institutions. Where the policy falls short is the absence of communitybased vulnerability assessments to inform planning and investments, and the failure to use forward looking climate change projections and analysis to understand and plan for how risk profiles are changing and will continue to change over the coming decades.

Decentralisation and local planning Decentralisation, following the 18th Amendment, requires provinces to develop their own policies and implementation plans using national policies as their guiding framework. Local institutions generally do not have the capacity to fulfil their designated roles and responsibilities, or are often unaware of what is required of them under different national and provincial policies and frameworks. Low levels of budget, mandate, staff, as well as low levels of knowledge, skills, and capacities, are hampering process towards implementation of these national priorities.38 In Punjab and Sindh the provincial governments have started the process of policy formulation following the National Climate Change Policy, with support from Oxfam and LEAD Pakistan. So far 11 districts in Sindh and Punjab have been supported to conduct vulnerability assessments with participation from communities and district officials. Through these assessments local vulnerabilities have been identified and Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) developed for each district to enable the integration of climate change and community priorities into local level planning processes. In Punjab six of these have been formally endorsed by the district government.

Implementation effectiveness Moving from national policies to effective implementation is always a challenge, and requires both high-level political leadership and commitment to priority issues, as well as participation of those most impacted by the policies and outcomes. Processes in Pakistan are dominated by technical experts and officials, and rarely allow for a greater integration of a wide range of stakeholders voices at different levels.39 Many of the policies and initiatives outlined above lack implementation 9

plans and budget allocations at the local level, and therefore have not led to the changes sought. Plans are needed to articulate roles and responsibilities, mechanisms for dispute resolution, funding arrangements, accountability, monitoring, and evaluation of impacts and outcomes. Despite relevant guidelines, frameworks, and operating procedures in administrative arrangements at sub-national and local levels, there this still a capacity gap to enabling effective cross-sectoral and cross-governmental coordination and cooperation in order to effectively integrate disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, and poverty reduction policies and investments at all levels of government.

Participation, ownership, and transparency The LAPA process outlined above is a new approach in Pakistan, where policy making, planning, and budgeting processes generally are not inclusive, and often lack transparency. In the 2015 International Open Budget Survey,40 Pakistan scored just 10 points out of 100 in providing the public with opportunities to engage in the budget process, and 43 out of 100 for transparency.41 However transparency and accountability of adaptation finance are critical to ensure that those who are most vulnerable to climate change receive the support that they need to adapt.42 The Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative (AFAI) has developed five principles to this end:43 1. Equity: Actions must consider social inequalities and promote equitable distribution of costs and benefits. This means that funds should be targeted at people or groups that are most vulnerable to climate change.

2. Participation: Processes allow stakeholders (government, private sector, civil society, and affected communities, especially the most climate-vulnerable) to provide informed, timely, and meaningful input in order to influence decisions that affect them.

3. Responsiveness: Resources are directed in response to the needs and interests of the most vulnerable people and communities.

4. Ownership: Stakeholders at the national and subnational levels, as opposed to outsiders, drive the agenda and decide what actions need to be taken. This also means involving communities in the implementation and monitoring of adaptation projects and programs.

5. Transparency: Stakeholders are able to gather information about how funding is allocated and spent. Information should be provided in such a way that it is useable and the government (or other actors handling adaptation funding) can be held accountable.

National budget allocations and Official Development Assistance (ODA) In spite of the declining situation of agriculture in Pakistan, a mere 3.36 percent of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), or PKR 23,497 million, approximately USD 227 million44, was allocated to

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Only 3.36% of the PSDP is allocated to agriculture.

agriculture for the year 2015-16.45 As a percentage of the total budget this has also been declining over recent years, from 10.28 percent in the year 2010-11 to current levels. Tackling climate change is also underresourced. The Climate Change Division was allocated just PKR 39.8 million (approximately USD 385,000) in 2015-16, and only one climate Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) in six districts in Punjab The trouble with too much and too little water – flood and drought affected communities in Layyah Layyah district is highly vulnerable to climate change; its population is mostly rural and heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Skills, knowledge, and resources to adapt to the impacts of climate change are very low, and the system of emergency preparedness is weak. The people of Layyah suffer floods almost every year, but these are getting more severe, more frequent, and more unpredictable as the climate is changing.

At their worst – such as the flooding in 2012 – many villages across the district were impacted by large scale damage and destruction to houses, fields, and vital infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, and schools.

Hundreds of families were made homeless and hungry.

“Before winter and summer season were equal.”

“For years now, only half of our family has enough to eat.”

Kalsoom Bibi, Basti Golly Wala.

Union Council, Chobara. District Layyah.

But flooding is not the only hazard that communities face, the seasons are changing and summer is lasting longer, and with it increasing drought.

Kalsoom Bibi lives in Basti Golly Wala with her nine children. She is experiencing day-to-day the changing of the seasons, and the shortening of the winter; “before winter and summer season were equal”. She says that now they are suffering “a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of production, food and water shortage”, Fetching water is major challenge for women as the area is suffering acute scarcity of water for irrigation and drinking. There is no proper system of water storage and water quality in poor and brackish.

It is against this backdrop that Oxfam has supported the district government to facilitate the development of Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) with the participation of local communities, including women and men who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Participants worked together to understand local vulnerabilities and identify the key risks that different groups face. Both droughts and floods were identified as major risk factors that the communities faced. Building on this local level analysis the communities, officials, and Oxfam worked together to develop a plan of actions that could be taken to reduce the risks that people faced. Actions included protection bands, cultivation of more flood tolerant crops and vegetation, raised platform houses, and community flood/cyclone shelters to address the impacts of floods, and for droughts actions included cultivation of more drought tolerant varieties of crops, rainwater harvesting, and water storage and conservation.

Through the participation of officials in the community vulnerability assessments and LAPA process, the district forum and local authorities have endorsed LAPAs as a means to identify local options for adaptation, and they are supporting their integration into local development plans.

Stakeholders involved in this process are now seeking alignment of these local plans with provincial level planning and priorities actions to implement the national policy. The evidence generated by the LAPA process has been influential in securing increased budget allocations at district level for 201617 to address local communities’ climate risks.

High intensity storms and floods tear down our houses, livestock and crops. We don’t know where to go.

Khurshaid (Layyah, Punjab)

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change scheme was undertaken in the food and agriculture sector with an allocation of PKR 23 million (roughly USD 220,000).46 An overall figure for climate change actions across sectors is not available from the publically available government budget, and this is an area where accountability and transparency could be improved upon.

ODA and climate finance have provided some additional – but limited support to these priorities. Bilateral ODA to Pakistan in 2014 amounted to USD 4.5 billion,47 however of that only a very small portion – just USD 50.6 million - had climate change adaptation as its principal objective.48 Multilateral flows for climate change amounted to USD 1.17 billion in 2014; however the vast majority was for climate change mitigation49 (USD 865 million50) with just USD 307 million51 going towards much needed adaptation to the impacts of climate change on Pakistan’s people and economy. Of concern is that of the multilateral climate finance only USD 16 million52 was actually in grant form, and of that just USD 3.4 million was for climate change adaptation; an area that requires considerable public financing. The bulk of multilateral climate finance to Pakistan went to climate change mitigation and was in the form of loans or equity.

This is of concern because adapting to the impacts of climate change is the urgent priority facing the people of Pakistan – particularly smallscale women farmers - given the losses they are facing in terms of lives, livelihoods, and vital ecosystems. Whilst climate change mitigation actions, such as those in the energy sector that prevent future, more dangerous levels of global climate change, are important for all nations, these actions must be the priority of richer nations who are the higher emitters of climate change causing greenhouse gases (GHGs). For Pakistan – as a low emitter of GHGs per person - the priority focus must be on protecting lives, feeding the hungry, and securing livelihoods in a changing climate. Therefore grants for climate change adaptation must be a priority. Seen in this way, both domestic and international finance is falling short. Whilst many of the national policies and frameworks lay good groundwork, the severe lack of financing is preventing real action on the ground.

Gender mainstreaming There is very limited institutional capacity across all tiers of government to mainstream gender into planning and decision-making processes.

Gender mainstreaming has broadly been accepted into the government’s agenda, but the means to implement in this way is still lacking in terms of levels of budget, staff, and expertise.53 It was not possible to ascertain from budget and planning documents openly available what, if any, PSDP budget allocations, ODA, or climate finance specifically supports women smallscale producers. Their specific needs and vulnerabilities – as well as enormous contribution to the vital work of food production and efforts to eradicate hunger – continued to be overlooked and underresourced.

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Of USD 1.17bn multilateral climate finance to Pakistan in 2014, only USD 3.4m was in the form of grants for much needed adaptation to climate change.

Strengthening agriculture through climate change adaptation Most of the people who live in coastal Badin District are either farmers or fishers, but just a few years ago both these livelihoods were on the verge of collapse. Seawater was repeatedly entering the land, altering the coastal ecosystem, and destroying people’s livelihoods. Farmland had become saline, and rice, cotton, and sugarcane production dramatically reduced to the few hectares of land still cultivable. Fodder was scare, and so livestock ownership had dwindled. Lakes and creeks had been made brackish from the intrusion of seawater, and there were few fish. Some villagers had moved to urban areas to look for work.

“The sea was 5km away some years ago, now, it’s our neighbour!”

Jeena (Badin, Sindh)

Climate change is causing sea levels to rise globally. In combination with the impacts of upstream dams on sediment flows and in the case of Badin the Left Bank Outfall Drain, this results in increased erosion of coastal areas and greater intrusion of seawater inland. The area is also highly disaster-prone, suffering floods, cyclones, heavy rains, and heat waves.

Climate change has increased these types of extreme weather events, and the science is clear that this will continue to worsen.

Oxfam and the Laar Humanitarian and Development Programme (LHDP) conducted participatory vulnerability assessments with local communities.

The process identified climate related risks and vulnerabilities of the coastal communities in terms of their livelihoods and ecosystem. Using these assessments - and in collaboration with district government, local NGOs, and community members - Union Council LAPAs were developed to support the communities to protect and restore their water resources, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, coastal ecosystems and biodiversity. The vulnerability assessments also led to the construction of an embankment to halt the sea intrusion, built in collaboration with the Sindh Coastal Development Authority by Oxfam and LHDP in 2012. The embankment is 2.26 km in length, running from Pateji to Mirwah Talhar tail-end above the village Shaikh Keerio Bhandari. It is constructed of compressed earth and has a height of 7.5 feet.

“Before the embankment my land was in the sea. Now I am cultivating this land” Farmer from Khamoon Mallah village

The result is that the entire local ecosystem has changed. The embankment has provided a physical barrier to seawater, preventing further flooding of the land. Heavy rains have washed away salt from the surface of the soil, and the land has become cultivable again. Crop production has increased, as has the value of the land. More fodder is available, and women have increased the number of livestock they own whilst at the same time reducing the amount of time they spend on feeding them. More milk is being produced, which women feed to their families and sell surplus to generate income. New enterprises have also emerged.

Bulrush has colonised the newly exposed wet mud, and women are making good use of it for weaving roofing mats to repair their homes and to sell to others. Lakes and creeks are freshwater and abundant with fish once more, and the income and food security of fishing households much improved.

But there are changes beyond the material. Community members say they are happier because they know they will have three good meals a day.

Nearly half of the women Oxfam interviewed said that they felt more respected and were more involved in decision-making as a result of the economic upturn in their lives. There is also renewed optimism; people said they were planning for the future for the first time in years. Some families have even returned from Badin and other towns where they had gone in search of work, now that the land can sustain them once more.

“Now I feel that I can eat easily three meals a day, and have social activities. I am feeling that I am an important person because I have some money” A fisherman, Ashique s/o Baloch Kahn, Shad Man Lund Village

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RECOMMENDATIONS R1: National, provincial and district governments must mainstream climate change and gender across all annual and multi-year development plans and programmes. Climate change analysis and bottom-up inclusive vulnerability assessments are needed to enable effective mainstreaming and develop Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC that meet the needs of the most vulnerable in Pakistan.

R2: National, provincial, and district plans and budgets lack clarity on what constitutes climate change adaptation. Given the growing negative consequences of climate change on communities across Pakistan, climate change adaptation actions need to be articulated and prioritised, thus enabling opportunities to attract increased flows of international climate finance. The Federal government should develop and implement national indicators or criteria for climate change adaptation.

R3: Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) are needed in all districts to direct resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. LAPAs should be developed in a participatory way involving women and men smallscale producers, vulnerable communities, and all marginalised groups. These LAPAs should inform development planning and budgeting processes, and provincial and district government should allow for greater public participation in those processes, as well as transparent reporting back to the communities affected.

R4: The Agriculture and Food Security Policy must be finalised urgently with a priority on reversing the decline in the agricultural sector and achieving universal food and nutrition security, through targeted investments for smallscale farmers particularly women who have largely been ignored to date, and climate change adaptation.

R5: Capacity building is required at all levels of government on gender mainstreaming on all policies and plans, and particularly in the agricultural sector. This should include collection of gender disaggregated data on women’s agricultural engagement and the challenges they face, and the provision of services specifically for women smallscale producers including increased number, reach, and expertise of women extension workers, and opportunities for technology transfer and input provision for women farmers.

R6: COP 22 in Marrakesh should agree a global goal of USD 35bn per year in public finance for climate change adaptation by 2020, and all developed countries must commit to ensuring at least 50 percent of their public finance contribution to climate finance by 2020 is for climate change adaptation.

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NOTES 1

Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Agriculture chapter, page 23. Available to download: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_16/02_Agriculture.pdf

2

Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2014-2015, page 26. Available to download: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labourforce-survey-2014-15-annual-report

3

Task Force on Climate Change, Final Report 2010, Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, page 19. http://www.planningcommission.gov.pk/usefull%20links/Taskforces/TFCC%20Final%20Report.pdf

4

The term ‘agriculture’ is used in this paper in the widest sense, including all aspects of terrestrial food production using crops, trees, and livestock. The terms ‘smallscale farmers’, ‘smallscale producers’, and ‘smallholders’ are used in this paper as a shorthand to refer to farmers, pastoralists and forest dwellers relying on their land or livestock to feed their families as well as to earn an income.

5

IISD (2013) Identifying Priority Adaptation Actions in Pakistan: A Situation Analysis.

6

Bilateral ODA to Pakistan in 2014 was USD 4.5 billion. http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=3

7

Germanwatch (2016) Global Climate Risk Index 2016: Who Suffers Most From Extreme Weather Events? Weatherrelated Loss Events in 2014 and 1995 to 2014, page 7. https://germanwatch.org/fr/download/13503.pdf

8

IFPRI, Welthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwide (2016) Global Hunger Index: Getting to Zero Hunger. http://www.ifpri.org/topic/global-hunger-index

9

National Nutrition Survey Pakistan, 2011, page 25. https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/59_National%20Nutrition%20Survey2011.pdf

10

http://www.finance.gov.pk/fb_2015_16.html

11

http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=3

12

Taken from the OECD database. The figure for climate change adaptation was taken from sheet “Bilateral Flows, year 2014, looking at all instruments (grants/loans/equity). http://www.oecd.org/dac/environmentdevelopment/Climate-Related-Development-Finance.xlsx

13

Oxfam has calculated this figure using the OECD database: http://www.oecd.org/dac/environmentdevelopment/Climate-Related-Development-Finance.xlsx using sheet “Multilateral Flows, year 2014, looking at all instruments (grants/loans/equity). The figure is total of column AF (Adaptation finance) + 0.5 of column AG (overlap). The reason for this is that some projects are scored for both adaptation and mitigation. In some projects this leads to an overlap, where the same project/funding amount is counted both as mitigation and as adaptation finance. In order not to double count, Oxfam subtracts half the overlap on the mitigation side and half on the adaptation side.

14

WRI and Oxfam (2015) From Tracking to Action: Promoting Social Accountability in Adaptation Finance, page 3. https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/publications/from-tracking-to-action-promoting-social-accountability-inadaptation-finance/

15

WRI and Oxfam (2015) From Tracking to Action: Promoting Social Accountability in Adaptation Finance, pages 2627. https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/publications/from-tracking-to-action-promoting-social-accountabilityin-adaptation-finance/

16

http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/sofa2016/en/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=social+media&utm_campai gn=faofsnforum

17

IFPRI, Welthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwide (2016) Global Hunger Index: Getting to Zero Hunger. http://www.ifpri.org/topic/global-hunger-index

18

World Bank estimates for 2010 cited in FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan page 1.

19

Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2014-2015, page 26. Available to download: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/labourforce-survey-2014-15-annual-report

20

Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Agriculture chapter, page 23. Available to download: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_16/02_Agriculture.pdf

21

Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (2010) http://67.228.155.189/statistics.php cited in FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

22

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

23

Defined here as farming on 5 ha or less.

24

Task Force on Climate Change, Final Report 2010, Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, page 19. http://www.planningcommission.gov.pk/usefull%20links/Taskforces/TFCC%20Final%20Report.pdf

25

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

26

Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Agriculture chapter, page 40. Available to download: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_16/02_Agriculture.pdf

27

Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Agriculture chapter, page 40. Available to download: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_16/02_Agriculture.pdf

28

FAO (2015) Women in Agriculture in Pakistan

15

29

Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Agriculture chapter, page 24. Available to download: http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_16/02_Agriculture.pdf

30

The figure has been calculated by subtracting the current population 2015-16 (195.4 million) from the projected population in 2025 (227 million). The figures used come from Pakistan 2025: One National, One Vision, page 18. http://pc.gov.pk/vision2025/Pakistan%20Vision-2025.pdf and Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16, Population, Labour Force and Employment chapter, page 199. http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey_1516.html

31

Task Force on Climate Change, Final Report 2010, Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, page 19. http://www.planningcommission.gov.pk/usefull%20links/Taskforces/TFCC%20Final%20Report.pdf

32

Government of Pakistan Planning Commission: 11 Five Year Plan 2013-2018, chapter on Environment and Climate Change, page 274. http://pc.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ch23-Environment.pdf

33

IISD (2013) Identifying Priority Adaptation Actions in Pakistan: A Situation Analysis.

34

Bilateral ODA to Pakistan in 2014 was USD 4.5 billion. http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=3

35

FAO (2015) The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security, pages xviii and 12. http://www.fao.org/3/ai5128e.pdf

36

Background research to this paper.

37

Background research to this paper.

38

Background research to this paper.

39

Background research to this paper.

40

http://www.internationalbudget.org/opening-budgets/open-budget-initiative/open-budget-survey/countryinfo/?country=pk

th

41

Defined by the amount of budget information the Government of Pakistan provides the public with.

42

WRI and Oxfam (2015) From Tracking to Action: Promoting Social Accountability in Adaptation Finance, page 3. https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/publications/from-tracking-to-action-promoting-social-accountability-inadaptation-finance/

43

WRI and Oxfam (2015) From Tracking to Action: Promoting Social Accountability in Adaptation Finance, pages 2627. https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/publications/from-tracking-to-action-promoting-social-accountabilityin-adaptation-finance/

44

Converted to USD at the average rate for the year of 103.426

45

http://www.finance.gov.pk/fb_2015_16.html

46

Source for climate related budget allocations: http://202.83.164.26/planningcomission/wpcontent/uploads/2016/08/AnnualPlan2016-17.pdf Converted to USD at the average rate for the year of 103.426

47

http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=3

48

Taken from the OECD database. The figure for climate change adaptation was taken from sheet “Bilateral Flows, year 2014, looking at all instruments (grants/loans/equity). http://www.oecd.org/dac/environmentdevelopment/Climate-Related-Development-Finance.xlsx

49

Climate change mitigation refers to activities that prevent further climate change by reducing the volume of excess greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, either through reducing the amount of GHGs emitted (such as through the burning of fossil fuels) or through increasing sinks (that absorb and store GHGs). In the context of Pakistan mitigation actions are largely in the energy sector. It is worth noting that the term mitigation is used differently in the DRR sector, where is refers to actions more akin to climate change adaptation. Climate change adaptation refers to actions that people and institutions make in anticipation of, or in response to, a changing climate. This includes changes to the things they do, and/or the way they do them.

50

Based on OECD database: http://www.oecd.org/dac/environment-development/Climate-Related-DevelopmentFinance.xlsx sheet “Multilateral Flows, year 2014, looking at all instruments (grants/loans/equity). Total of column AE (Mitigation finance) + 0.5 of column AG (overlap).

51

Oxfam has calculated this figure using the OECD database: http://www.oecd.org/dac/environmentdevelopment/Climate-Related-Development-Finance.xlsx using sheet “Multilateral Flows, year 2014, looking at all instruments (grants/loans/equity). The figure is total of column AF (Adaptation finance) + 0.5 of column AG (overlap). The reason for this is that some projects are scored for both adaptation and mitigation. In some projects this leads to an overlap, where the same project/funding amount is counted both as mitigation and as adaptation finance. In order not to double count, Oxfam subtracts half the overlap on the mitigation side and half on the adaptation side.

52

Based on OECD database: http://www.oecd.org/dac/environment-development/Climate-Related-DevelopmentFinance.xlsx sheet “Multilateral Flows, year 2014, selecting grants in column N (grants/loans/equity). Totals found in column AD, AE (for mitigation) and AG (for adaptation)

53

Background research for this paper.

16

st

Š Oxfam Pakistan 21 October 2016 This paper was written by Catherine Pettengell. Oxfam acknowledges the assistance of Zeeshan Mahr, Asim Saqlain, Derk Byvanck and Anouk Franck in its production.

For further information on the issues raised in this paper please email advocacy@oxfaminternational.org This publication is copyright but the text may be used free of charge for the purposes of advocacy, campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full. The copyright holder requests that all such use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, permission must be secured and a fee may be charged. Email policyandpractice@oxfam.org.uk The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

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