Islamabad: Women in Pakistan face a daily struggle for survival, and every passing day is no less than a crisis, said Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan, Vice-Chancellor of the Health Services Academy (HSA), while speaking at the launch of a joint UNFPA–SDPI report titled “Drought and Deluge: The Silent Sufferings of Women and Girls in Climate Change” held at Margalla Hotel on Thursday.
“Even in normal conditions, women’s lives are crisis-driven. They live to pass the day, not to plan for tomorrow,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s 12.75 million annual pregnancies include six million unintended ones, with 3.8 million resulting in induced abortions, 1.5 million carried to term, and around 700,000 ending in miscarriages or stillbirths. “We must stop demonizing men and start recognizing that sometimes the biggest barriers for women come from within their own social environment,” he noted.
Dr. Shahzad said climate and environmental pressures add layers of hardship to women’s already challenging lives. “We neither caused climate change nor can we beat it alone. What we can do is learn how to survive in this changing environment,” he stressed. He urged that disaster response planning must prioritize the most vulnerable, advocating community-based resilience programs with preventive infrastructure such as protective dams, walls, and barriers.
He called for empowering local communities instead of relying solely on external aid. “Help from outside rarely reaches in time. Real strength must come from within,” he said, proposing a network of trained community volunteers—not necessarily Lady Health Workers—equipped with life skills and leadership training to act during crises. “HSA is ready to train youth nationwide in social work and community-based disaster management, in collaboration with partners like SDPI, UNFPA, NCSW, and NDMA,” he added.
Dr. Shahzad emphasized that policymakers need to move beyond awareness campaigns. “Stop sensitizing them; instead, enable them to build systems and processes. Public-private partnerships are the key to resilience,” he said.
At the event, Minister of State for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Dr. Shazra Mansab Khan Kharal said Pakistan must urgently “climate-proof” its public services to protect women and girls from worsening floods, droughts, and extreme weather. “Every disaster hits women and girls first and hardest. The climate agenda cannot succeed without safeguarding their rights and safety,” she said in a video message.
The report, developed jointly by UNFPA and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), highlights how climate disasters disrupt women’s access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and heighten gender-based violence (GBV).
UNFPA Deputy Representative Dr. Gulnara Kadyrkulova said climate change is becoming an intergenerational crisis. “During the Punjab floods, many pregnant women could not reach healthcare facilities. Pollution has also emerged as another serious health threat,” she said. She reaffirmed UNFPA’s commitment to supporting climate resilience and gender development through national partnerships.
SDPI Deputy Executive Director Dr. Sajid Amin Javed said the findings expose an underreported crisis. “This study brings the silent suffering of women and girls to decision-makers’ attention,” he said, calling for gendered perspectives to be embedded in disaster policy frameworks.
According to the research presented by Dr. Rafi Amir Ud Din of COMSATS University, 8.2 million women were affected during the 2022 floods, with 1.6 million requiring GBV support. Nearly 77 percent of respondents reported difficulty accessing SRH services, while 71 percent needed GBV assistance. The study identified weak enforcement of protection protocols, disrupted health services, and lack of psychosocial care as critical gaps.
UNFPA’s Dr. Rasheed Ahmed outlined an action plan centered on strengthening community resilience, ensuring resilient health systems, improving disaster preparedness, and developing better data systems for climate adaptation.
Panelists, including NCSW Secretary Humaira Zia Mufti, emphasized that climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” with national security implications. She called for a gender vulnerability index and the use of technology to improve women’s inclusion, especially in remote areas.
Dr. Arif Goheer of the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) urged clearer institutional coordination on gender and climate roles, offering GCISC’s technical expertise for data modeling and risk assessment.
Delivering the vote of thanks, UNFPA’s Dr. Tahir Ghaznavi warned that in disaster-hit regions, childbirth itself has become “a fatal gamble.” He urged that sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence data be integrated into national disaster management and planning systems to protect vulnerable populations.
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