* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Rapid Response Fund Payment Request No. 8/2015
Funds Sent To: Community World Service, Asia
Amount Sent: US$59,998
Date: 29 October 2015
Details of Response
Emergency: Earthquake in Pakistan
Date of Emergency: 26 October 2015
ACT Requesting Member: Community World Service Asia
I. NARRATIVE SUMMARY
DETAILS OF THE EMERGENCY
Six months after the devastating earthquake in Nepal, a powerful earthquake has once again hit the region. The earthquake occurred at 2:09 pm Pakistan time on 26 October 2015. The Pakistan Metrological department reported the magnitude of the earthquake as 8.1 (US Geological Survey reports it at 7.5). The quake was 196 km (120 miles) deep and centred at 82 km (51 miles) south-east of Feyzabad in a remote area of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
Severe tremors of this earthquake were felt across the country from north to south, in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Sialkot, Quetta, Peshawar, Swabi, Kohat, Abbottabad, Swat, Malakand and Gilgit etc. According to US Geological Survey, the powerful quake was also felt in India, Afghanistan and UAE.
At least 94 people have been killed and over 300 people reported to be injured so far across the country. However the number of damages and losses is expected to increase manifold as communication networks including roads and mobile phone service in some of the more northern parts of the country including KP province are disrupted. Hundreds of building collapsed in Peshawar, Swat, Lower Dir, Charsadda, Shangla, Nowshehra, Batagram, Bajuar, Abbottabad and Mansehra of KP province. Damage and loss are also reported in Bajur agency, Gilgit, Hunza of Northern areas as well as in Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Multan, Kasur, Jehlum Gujranwala districts of Punjab province.
ACTIONS TO DATE, AND EMERGENCY NEEDS
Emergency Response Teams were activated on 26 October and action plans have been finalized. Teams were sent to severely affected districts for rapid needs assessments on 28 October. Community World Service Asia has been coordinating at national, provincial and district level and engaging with both government and non-governmental organizations to accurately identify the needs on the ground. Based on initial assessment results, Shangla District has been identified as severely affected with acute needs for food and emergency health care, among others.
PROPOSED EMERGENCY RESPONSE
OBJECTIVE(S) OF THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE:
Provide life-saving support to earthquake-affected families in District Shangla.
PROPOSED ASSISTANCE:
The project aims to provide food packages (1-month ration) to 300 earthquake-affected families in Shangla District. Furthermore, through the deployment of a Mobile Health Unit and its own Mobile Laboratory, provide much needed emergency health services to those affected by the earthquake.
TARGET POPULATIONS:
The project will provide assistance to families who have not received similar assistance from other agencies or organizations and have no means to access these interventions on their own. Especially for food distributions, priority will be given to female-headed households, households with a higher percentage of non-earning members; households with higher number of elderly or persons with disabilities (PWDs).
IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS:
Community World Service Asia will be implementing this project directly in the affected communities.
COORDINATION:
Community World Service Asia is coordinating at several levels and will continue to include local authorities, local and international NGOs and CBOs and, where relevant, other agencies. The program will continue to be implemented in coordination with the relevant government authorities in the areas concerned. Coordination with other national and international NGOs and CBOs at the field level is well established and will be continued and strengthened to avoid duplication. The project activities carried out by each partner would strengthen and support the interventions of the other partner.
Community World Service Asia maintains a regular liaison with the government line departments including at the federal, provincial and district level to ensure smooth execution of activities as well as to help in reducing overlapping of interventions in the same target area of response.
Community World Service Asia coordinates closely with the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF) that includes many international NGOs and donor agencies.
Attendance in general coordination meetings as well as different cluster meeting organized by the UN is also ensured. Within this cluster system, the organization is actively participating in clusters especially on Food, Shelter, Health, WASH, Livelihood, Education, Early Recovery and coordination and is also part of the UN Cluster Appeal.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Community World Service Asia’s Communication Office co-ordinates closely with the disaster management team in order to provide timely information sharing with ACT members and partners. Situation updates, human interest stories and photographs are regularly disseminated through email and the website.
During the course of project implementation, the communications team will continue to provide updates, stories, videos and photographs as appropriate and be available for other communications and media activities. A communications strategy has been developed to raise visibility for the emergency and the response.
PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS:
Emphasis will be given to ensure application of Sphere standards, HAP Principles and ACT Code of Conduct during the whole project cycle. No major constraints foreseen in the application of the Code of Conduct. During the assessment and design stage, Community World Service Asia ensures active participation from the affected community and integrates findings into the programme design. The joint needs assessment has tried to ensure the participation and inputs of members of the community (giving special attention to the vulnerable population), local government officials and other local stakeholders. A proportions of female respondents contributed directly in the assessment and paved the way in the finalization of priority interventions. Community World Service Asia remains in close contact with all the stakeholders and organizations that were involved in the needs assessment and screening IDPs for eligibility for assistance.
Community World Service Asia has several accountability measures in place to ensure that beneficiaries are well-informed and are aware of how to approach Community World Service Asia with feedback at all stages of project cycle. These measures assist beneficiaries in holding teams accountable to the humanitarian principles:
- Community World Service Asia has developed its own Accountability Framework which guides its teams in ensuring dignified assistance.
- Community World Service Asia shares planned project activities with communities through community committees that are established when Community World Service Asia start a project in a new community.
- Communities can communicate with Community World Service Asia directly through these community committee structures.
- Beneficiaries can provide feedback through a helpline, emails, staff field visits, comment boxes and community committees. Community World Service Asia uses this feedback to solve any issues that arise and adapt programming plans to better suit the needs of communities.
PLANNED IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD:
Project implementation is planned from 28 October to 15 December 2015 (1.5 months).
HUMAN RESOURCES AND ADMINISTRATION OF FUNDS:
Human Resources:
Community World Service Asia has an established Human Resources Development Department with required HR tools. The Human resource development department supports the project in getting the right people for the jobs and preference is given to the locals human resources. Any new staff have to go through an orientation process. Staff related to implementing the program will be based in the project sites while support will also be provided from staff members and officers based in the main and field offices, both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
Administration of Funds:
Financial management will be supported by the Karachi and Islamabad offices in Pakistan.
The Financial Management and Reporting System of Community World Service Asia are centralised from the Karachi Office. All original invoices for this project will be submitted to the Islamabad Office for review and further forwarded to Finance Department at the Karachi Office. Reports will be collected and vetted from Islamabad office and will then be forwarded to the regional office in Karachi. Financial Reports/Updates are compiled and generated from Karachi, which in turn provides financial reports to the Senior Management Team on a regular basis. Fraud Risk Assessment and protection training have also been conducted to better administer the funds and improve the financial monitoring system.
Procurement:
Community World Service Asia follows a standardized procurement procedure that fulfils the compliance requirements of International Standard Operations (ISO). As per guidelines, quotations are required after exceeding a threshold purchase limit, and then the comparative statements are developed on the basis of product specification, quality and cost factor. After going through the quality control check, procurement of items is done and then distributed accordingly.
Material and human resources required for the execution of project activities will be deployed according to organizational rules and regulations. The Procurement Policies and Guidelines will also be followed by partners for procurement that needs to be done by the IP.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION:
During implementation of the project, regular monitoring will be undertaken to check progress and performance of the proposed interventions. Monitoring will also involve reviewing and planning of work on a regular basis, assessing whether activities are carried out as planned (including beneficiary selection), identifying and dealing with problems during implementation. Emphasis will be given to ensure application of Sphere standards and ACT Code of Conduct during the monitoring process. Monitoring of all planned project activities by the project staff will result in preparation of the consolidated reports, to be shared with all the stakeholders.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in designing the monitoring formats. The Do-No-Harm principles will be considered while designing the monitoring tools.
In addition, project staff will ensure documentation, photographs, and video clips to show the overall process. Case studies will be developed by staff to gain additional understanding of the impact of the project (positive and negative). Additionally, people’s living conditions will be monitored through frequent interviews and direct observations.
Reports will be compiled by the Disaster Management Programme (DMP) team at Islamabad with support from the Resource Mobilization Unit (RMU). These reports will then be sent to the senior management for programmatic review and will afterwards be sent to the donor according to the agreed reporting schedule.
For the full document including budget, please click here.
