Building for Long-Term Transformation in Pakistan

One year ago, massive monsoon flooding inundated Pakistan. Today, people are still trying to recover. We've been working to ensure that this recovery is free from exploitation — especially for people traditionally relegated to the margins of society and progress.

Through one of our partners, Doaba Foundation, we are supporting the recovery of a community of 30 flood-affected, seminomadic families. This includes assisting them in becoming self-reliant and helping them access their rights so that they can live with dignity and prosperity.

Doaba is facilitating the acquisition of permanent land for the entire community and building environmentally appropriate, flood-resilient, raised-mud homes (see photo).

There are many aspects of Doaba's work that I find really exciting. Just two of those:  

1. Doaba is working with the communities (both the target community as well as the surrounding communities) to advocate with local and district governments to provide the land for this community. Actually getting the land may be a long shot, but this is the first time such a community-led effort has been made. Already, the request for land has been passed up through a few layers of government. If this effort is successful, it will serve as a model for other communities. (If it's not successful, Doaba and its partner communities will find other ways to acquire the needed land.)


2. The land and the homes will be jointly registered in both husbands' and wives' names. When we first raised this question, Doaba spoke with community members and they agreed joint ownership, which does not always happen in Pakistan, was important. This is a good example of impact — of the impact our questions can have on partners and communities as well as the impact that our disaster-response work can have on long-term transformation.