Information Flows Faster than Water: How livelihoods were saved in Pakistan’s 2010 floods

Overview

Oxfam’s Community-based Disaster Risk Management and Livelihoods (CBDRML) Programme sought to reduce the loss of life and livelihoods and promote resilience in disaster-prone communities in Pakistan. When in 2010 the country suffered the worst floods in its history, the CBDRML Programme was already in place, operated by partner organizations in four districts.

In December 2011 Oxfam undertook an effectiveness review of the work carried out under this programme by Oxfam’s partners in Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts in Punjab Province. The review found strong evidence that participating households were much better prepared to manage flood-related risk than those outside the programme, and so lost significantly fewer assets during the 2010 floods.

This report is based on in-depth research undertaken to explain this and other results of the earlier evaluation, with a view to understanding why the CBDRML Programme had the impacts that it did, and so which approaches are most likely to be effective in building community resilience and empowerment.

This research report is the first of a series of follow-up studies designed to build upon Oxfam’s Effectiveness Reviews, using a mixed methods approach to draw out programme insights and demonstrate the value of in-depth evaluation.