Pakistan: Building resilience, saving lives

ORGANISATION
Aga Khan Agency for Habitat Pakistan

LOCATION
Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 845 settlements nationwide – Pakistan

Setting the context

Pakistan is highly exposed to natural hazards, including floods, landslides, earthquakes, and extreme weather events. Communities in hazard-prone regions have historically faced repeated loss of lives, livelihoods, and assets due to underinvestment in resilience and reactive disaster response.

Disasters are never natural – they are the result of choices and systems that fail to prepare communities for risk. Recognising this, the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat Pakistan (AKAH) has taken a long-term, community-led approach to reduce vulnerability, protect lives, and ensure communities are ready for future hazards.

The approach: Community-centred preparedness

AKAH begins with Hazard Vulnerability and Risk Assessments (HVRAs) in communities, combining scientific analysis with local knowledge to identify risks and inform interventions. Based on these assessments, Community Emergency Response Teams and Specialised Search and Rescue Teams are established, with 50% women participation, promoting inclusive disaster management.

Communities are equipped with emergency stockpiles (345 sites) and helipads for rapid access in remote areas. Training on Early Warning Systems, Automated Weather Stations, and Weather Monitoring Posts, alongside emergency drills and nature-based mitigation measures (stone masonry walls, rip-rap structures, plantations), further strengthens preparedness. HVRAs also guide risk-informed land use and development decisions, ensuring that infrastructure investments align with resilience priorities.

Impact in people’s lives

AKAH’s work ensures that when disasters strike, communities can respond effectively and recover quickly:

• Over 1,000 families have received prefabricated or permanent homes, and 250+ structures have been retrofitted for safety
• 1,419 schools and 18,491 committees now protect over 400,000 students and 3,000 staff through safer infrastructure and preparedness programmes
• During recent monsoon floods, AKAH-supported areas in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral experienced minimal loss of life, whereas neighbouring regions without AKAH support faced severe destruction
• Over 35,000 trained volunteers are ready to mobilise during crises, ensuring rapid evacuation, emergency response, and continuity of community functions

Lessons and insights

AKAH demonstrates that resilience is most effective when local communities lead. Integrating science, gender inclusivity, local knowledge, and anticipatory planning reduces disaster losses and empowers communities.

The programme highlights GNDR’s core belief: civil society is essential in translating disaster risk finance into action, connecting institutions and resources with the most vulnerable, and ensuring long-term sustainability.

Looking forward: call to action

Through decades of sustained investment, AKAH has enhanced resilience for over 943,000 people in Pakistan. Its model illustrates that investing in proactive disaster risk reduction saves lives, protects livelihoods, and strengthens systems.

To reduce future losses nationally, governments, donors, and financial institutions must prioritise funding for resilience and support community-led initiatives like AKAH’s. Disaster risk finance is most effective when it empowers civil society, ensuring knowledge, capacity, and local leadership are at the heart of preparedness.

This International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, GNDR calls for governments, donors, the private sector and financial institutions to prioritise funding for resilience, not just funding for disasters when they strike.

All photos: Aga Khan Agency for Habitat