The government is committed to protecting vulnerable and marginalised communities from the economic losses in wake of natural calamities and manmade disasters and in this regard various steps are being taken. This was stated by Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Major General Asghar Nawaz while speaking at a national workshop on Disaster Risk Insurance Framework (DRIF) held here on Wednesday. The workshop was organised by the NDMA in collaboration with Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and LEAD Pakistan.
He added that the framework aims at providing low-income households accessible and affordable insurance, which is a unique and innovative initiative to mitigate impacts on vulnerable communities. This pioneering initiative is a significant contribution towards strengthening disaster risk management (DRM) in the country, he added.
The chairman NDMA said the authority in collaboration with other partners has undertaken a study for this purpose. The findings of the study will indicate strong prospects for setting up a disaster risk insurance mechanism in the country for the low-income groups, Nawaz added.
The participants were informed that the proposed framework is based on the findings of a well-deliberated demand study in five districts including Tharparkar, Poonch, Charsadda, Rawalpindi and Ziarat.
NDMA's Member Disaster Risk Reduction, Ahmed Kamal said the outputs from this study will provide a solid foundation for various stakeholders to move towards implementing such frameworks in the vulnerable areas of the country.