Interview with Bilal Anwar, CEO of NDRMF Pakistan
On 31 May 2022 we were lucky enough to be able to interview Bilal Anwar, CEO of Pakistan’s National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), an enormously experienced ‘climate policy practitioner’ with wide responsibilities in his home country. The NDRMF is a financial intermediary, that mobilises hundreds of millions of dollars of donor funding and applies it to programmes building Pakistan’s resilience to disasters. We wanted to see how it was tackling the impacts of climate change in Pakistan.
Bilal Anwar has worked on climate issues for the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany; for ERM in London, England; for Perry Johnson Registrars Carbon Emissions Services in Michigan, USA: for the Centre for Climate Research and Development at COMSATS University In Islamabad, Pakistan; and for the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub in Port Louis, Mauritius.
This is an extract of the interview:
COP26andBeyond: Reflecting on your extremely wide experience, working on climate issues in many different countries, what is different about the impact of climate change today from when you started working on it?
Bilal Anwar: It feels very different now. When I started working at the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany in 1999, 2000, the issue was not as prominent in political negotiations. Now it is widely recognised by all the major political forums, such as the G7, the G20, the EU. This upbeat interest has certainly expedited the international policy action on climate change.
Also, the science has become more understandable, as efforts to communicate it to the public have significantly improved. In this regard, I would like to commend the efforts made by IPCC who have made their Scientific Reports a lot more accessible and understandable. And the impacts of climate change are now directly experienced by countries, like Pakistan, or Small Island States, and by people, like a mango grower in Pakistan or a farmer in Zambia.
The NDRMF has very wide responsibilities - where does climate change fit into that? What proportion of the NDRMF’s work is addressing the impacts of climate change?
The NDRMF has a broad mandate, as a financial intermediary, established by the Government of Pakistan, the Fund has been able to mobilise donor funding. It has a mandate to build resilience Pakistan against the natural disasters and since its inception, it has worked on building resilience to disasters such as the earthquake of 2005, and most recently on the response to COVID 19, where it helped get a large part of the population vaccinated.
Its climate change focus and portfolio is related to following aspects:
Ecosystem Restoration
Water sector
Ecotourism
Electric Vehicles Piloting
Increasingly, too, climate is seen as a part of all disasters and we in Pakistan are seeing and witnessing it. In this context, NDRMF’s mandate and mission – addressing both disaster risk reduction and climate change complement each other.
Is Pakistan particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and if so in what ways?
Pakistan is one of the top 10 countries – actually 6th out of 10 – most vulnerable to climate change. It has very large glaciers, and whole water systems dependent on them. In the last 20 years there have been regular Glacier Lake Outburst Floods – and in the recent past the frequency of such incidents have alarmingly increased. Also there is the associated challenge of some seismic vulnerability.
With the increasing population pressures and rapid urbanisation the adverse impacts of climate change are likely to become even more critical. Pakistan’s water system, and agriculture that depends on it, are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
What impacts are heatwaves having on Pakistan? What sort of actions will the NDRMF be taking to build resilience against future heatwaves?
Heatwaves of the present frequency and intensity are a recent phenomenon. There is a clear link to climate change. One reason is the extent of the desert areas and proximity to the ocean.
The NDRMF is working with the government of Sindh. For example, some analysis has suggested that it is not necessarily high temperatures alone which can impact people, but also the urban environment and population. Creating urban forestry, and supporting the agencies that do that, can result in temperature differences within urban areas of 4oC to 5oC, which can make a huge difference.
We have seen this month how a Glacier Melt Outburst Flood destroyed a bridge at Hassanabad in Gligit Baltistan. What sort of actions to build resilience against this might be possible? Is this a priority for the NDRMF, given the number of glaciers in Pakistan’s Northern areas?
Some images of the effects of this flood are here.
Collapse of Hassanabad (bridge) attracted international attention. We need to understand and I can say that Government of Pakistan is conscious of the fact that with increasing impacts of climate change, glaciers in Pakistan are under threat. I visited the area myself and witnessed the damage. The immediate cause was melting from the Shishper Glacier receding.
However, the NRDMF had already been promoting work on interventions and flood prevention further down river.
Looking forward, there will be a need for further studies of glaciers. The NDRMF is collaborating with local government on flood protection, agricultural protection, better structural information and further developing an Early Warning System for the area. There are 30-40 other glaciers in that region alone.
What are the implications of glacier melt for Pakistan’s water supplies and future droughts?
Severe. Critical. Serious.
This affects all river systems and canal systems. Essentially they need a stable flow of water and with increasing outbursts the water flow systems are being disturbed. What is happening with Glacier Lake Outburst Floods is that in some years there are very heavy flows, which run to waste as there is limited water storage, while other years experience dry spells. Erratic flows in rivers is a problem for agricultural practice, as it is not easy to adapt quickly.
There has been heavy overreliance on groundwater, and Pakistan is moving rapidly to becoming a water scarce country.
One project which NRDMF is working on involves helping ecosystems to re-charge the groundwater.
How does the NDRMF assess and prioritise actions needed to build resilience against climate change impacts on Pakistan?
The NDRMF is still quite a young entity. In the past it has looked particularly to flooding, landslides. Now it is looking more towards the high impact of major aspects like drought-affected regions. Water is another priority area. Another component is traditional flood protection in communities.
In the longer term, water, climate change, drought and heatwaves and the response to these are all priorities. The NDRMF also learns from the experience and recommendations of its donors.
Preparing for this interview we contacted a young Pakistani studying Disaster Risk Management at Newcastle on a Chevening Scholarship, Usman Shamim, about the background to the Hassanabad bridge flood – and whenever we get daunted by the scale of climate change problems we are often cheered up by the determination of young people to play a part in addressing it.
How does the NDRMF plan to harness some of the energies and talents of young Pakistanis in carrying on its exceptionally important work for the future?
There is a big wave of youth taking on this issue. I’ve been to so many COPs, and many times we have felt the pressure of youth, leading to better decisions and outcomes.
In Pakistan, youth see climate change as a threat to their futures. They see their futures being taken away, and not of their fault. I see this on visits to universities and schools, there is a lot of interest in the subject.
The NDRMF is working on a policy to engage youth in assignments and internships. It is also encouraging its partner organisations to engage youth on the implementation of projects.
I went and spoke at the Islamabad Career Expo and I was amazed to see the turnout, of girls, and boys, and at their interest and questions. The NDRMF will be engaging with universities, and will be taking on interns and working with its partner organisations to do the same.
We seem to have worked round to a positive and upbeat conclusion! Thank you very much indeed for taking the time and trouble to speak to us.
For further reading on related topics, see our previous blogs on COP26 as seen from Pakistan, COP26 as seen from Bhutan, & The Peruvian Farmer and a Climate Case of Worldwide Importance.