Last month, the MCII Analytics Team led a mission to Pakistan to support the development of Sectoral Climate Risk Guidelines for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the Improving Climate Governance in Pakistan (ICG-PAK) project.

In close collaboration with the University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Peshawar and GIZ Pakistan, two Provincial Meetings on Sectoral Adaptation Pathways were held in Lahore and Peshawar. These meetings brought together representatives from the agriculture, water, infrastructure, health, education, and urban development sectors.

A hallmark of this mission was its participatory modeling process, which ensured that stakeholders were directly engaged in shaping climate risk assessments and solutions. During the workshops, participants validated CLIMADA-based hazard and impact assessments, co-developed sector-specific adaptation goals for floods and droughts, identified enabling conditions and milestones for disaster risk finance, and narrowed down priority adaptation investment options for 2050. The strong ownership and valuable insights from provincial stakeholders are now feeding directly into the forthcoming Sectoral Climate Risk Guidelines.

Integrating Voices of Vulnerable Communities

In parallel, the MCII Analytics Team, together with the Adaptive Social Protection Programme of GIZ Pakistan, conducted two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) – one in Lahore (Punjab) and another in Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). Participants were women beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which provides financial assistance to vulnerable households.

The FGDs provided valuable insights to understand how floods and droughts impact vulnerable populations across sectors, assess how BISP support is used in preparing for and responding to climate shocks and explore gender-related dimensions of vulnerability and resilience during disasters. These discussions highlighted the lived experiences of climate risk and enriched the technical modeling work with a social perspective, ensuring that the guidelines are grounded in both data and reality.