Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to begin by thanking the committee for allocating some time to talk about the devastating humanitarian crisis unfolding in Pakistan.
I'm sure at this point we're all aware of the magnitude of this climate-induced disaster, and subsequently Canada's role in providing aid to the people of Pakistan.
Since 1984, the International Development and Relief Foundation has provided effective humanitarian aid and sustainable development programs through human dignity, self-reliance and social justice principles. A Charity Intelligence top 100 charity, IDRF works in a localization model whereby the majority of our international work is done through reputable local partners to reach the most vulnerable, most efficiently.
We all know that Pakistan is largely being affected by climate change, but they're not largely responsible for it. As we continue to see more and more extreme weather events around the world like this one, it's a little outrageous that climate action is still being put on the back burner as global emissions of greenhouse gases are still rising, putting all of us everywhere in growing danger. The funding Canada has provided in climate financing is not adequate for these kinds of events that are happening more frequently and with rapidly increasing severity. Will Canada wait until these devastations are at our doorstep before we put together a serious plan of action?
At the end of August, we wrote an open letter calling on the Government of Canada as a key ally in support of our humanitarian response in Pakistan, where some 30 million people had been impacted by these destructive floods. In line with the humanitarian principle of “do no harm”, we felt it was necessary to have the Government of Canada provide support to organizations outside of just a few selected humanitarian members of a coalition. Equally important is the commitment to have the greatest impact by providing assistance to the many international organizations that have a strong footprint already in Pakistan.
In this open letter, we not only detailed our 30-year-long history of working in the region as an international organization but also highlighted our work in the 2010 Pakistan flood relief, where we constructed over 1,000 homes, operated maternal health clinics where pregnant women were allocated health benefits and built over 1,000 hand pumps to supply fresh water. This was really to outline our strength in this type of disaster relief.
Along with many of our peers in the humanitarian space, we invited the government to reconsider its policy of distributing Canadian matching funds through a handful of organizations, as it would directly impact the ability for us to help the most people, and still we were left disappointed. Thankfully, our community of supporters rallied behind us, and we were able to raise $3 million to support the people of Pakistan—a true testament to the reputation and integrity of both our organization and its supporters.
The 2010 floods took about three years in recovery, and it's expected that the recovery from the 2022 floods is going to take more time, since the damages are already climbing up to $10 billion. Coupled with economic instability and inflation, recovery will be even more challenging without adequate funding for these communities. Similar to 2010, we are asking that the government establish a Pakistan relief fund in support of continued humanitarian response to provide both immediate and long-term rehabilitation.
IDRF is uniquely positioned to be able to access communities through our local network of partners and a robust network of community-based organizations. A key success to our work is our localization model. It's important that IDRF ensures our projects and programming are relevant, context-specific and culturally appropriate. We customize our response to the needs of each community.
I'll leave it at that, and I look forward to a thorough discussion.
Thank you.