Pakistan continues to be subject to considerable socio-political, economic and environmental volatility, and in 2010 experienced its worst natural disaster in living memory. What started as monsoon-related flash flooding in the country’s north, later developed into a crisis of national and unprecedented proportions. As rivers swelled to more than ten or twenty times their typical size, almost one-fifth of the country’s total landmass was submerged. Infrastructure, power and telecommunications systems were severely damaged or destroyed entirely. Millions of people were left without access to food, clean drinking water or health services, posing an enormous threat to their survival. Amid severe damage to the agricultural sector, one of the country’s economic mainstays, people’s prospects for recovering their livelihoods were severely threatened. The government estimated that some 20 million people across the country were affected by the crisis, of which more than 10 million were found to be in need of immediate assistance.
At the same time, militant extremism still exacts a heavy social and financial toll in Pakistan. Military operations in the north-west continue, as do terrorist attacks against both government and civilian targets. Economic turbulence, power shortages and high food and fuel prices exacerbate instability, with unemployment on the increase and wage levels unable to keep pace with an inflation rate estimated at 16 percent by the end of 2010.
One result of these recurrent natural and man-made crises has been a sharp decline in food security across the country, despite sufficient national food production to meet the needs of Pakistan’s 170 million people. By 2009, almost 50 percent of the population, or 83 million people, were food insecure, up from 38 percent in 2003. In the aftermath of the flooding, it is believed that this figure may yet have risen to upwards of 90 million.
Similarly, disparities in socio-economic indicators between rural and urban populations have continued to widen, and progress in narrowing the gender gap remains limited. Women face considerable difficulties in finding employment and accessing education opportunities, particularly in areas where insecurity constrains mobility. Recent assessments show no improvement in Pakistan’s 57 percent literacy rate or worryingly poor nutritional indicators recorded in 2001: including 13 percent wasting among children aged 6-59 months, with levels of stunting and underweight at 37 and 38 percent respectively. A third of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies are widespread. An estimated 45 percent of women and 67 percent of children under five are anaemic.
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