By Tahir Ali Wahid

The Pakistan floods are a tragedy of biblical proportions which Pakistanis are confronted with at every turn. In this tragedy – unlike the story of Noah – there was no Messiah to warn us and it appears, no Messiah to save us. As Pakistanis we have wailed against our government for its ineffective response and witnessed torturously sluggish international mobilisation of aid commitments. This, however, is the moment for the Pakistani Diaspora all over the world to rise to the challenge and replace conventional emergency responses with fresh ideas.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the floods as ‘one of the greatest tests of global solidarity in our times.’ They have massively crippled food production capacity, destroyed basic infrastructure and could take thousands of lives due to the scourge of disease.

There need to be three different facets of an effective response to this crisis. Firstly, what the Pakistani government – despite its meagre resources – should be able to extract from world leaders. Secondly, what the international community should be able to extract from the Pakistani government. Lastly, what individuals all over the world of Pakistani heritage – the Pakistani Diaspora – can achieve in terms of focusing pressure and mobilising resources provided they do it collectively and with a strategic resolve. All three facets require an eye beyond the current crisis and into the arena of sustainable development.

Firstly, the Pakistani government needs to chisel its message effectively to international statesmen. David Cameron in particular needs to clarify that his remarks made in India on the alleged duplicity of the ISI has nothing to do with the overwhelming need for relief aid for victims. Similarly, President Obama needs to emphasize the need for more aid regardless of the amount that has already been given considering Pakistan’s crucial role in Afghanistan. Lending more helicopters to the aid effort beyond the current pitifully low number would be a good place to start. The number of drone attacks by unmanned US planes controlled in the US if matched by the number of helicopter deliveries of aid, would be a powerful metaphor if the US truly wants to convince the Pakistani people of its authentic message of friendship. This is a simple request framed in the politics of the real world.

Next, Pakistani politicians should cease blaming extremists for capitalising on this humanitarian crisis to further their own recruitment. This confuses an ambivalent international audience that has already grown accustomed to – unfairly – associating Pakistan with terrorism. Aid to the 20 million people impacted by these floods should not be hampered by this association. The key to amassing global support requires the Pakistani government to get its message across in a simple but effective way. You don’t need to be a rich country to be able to convey an authentic appeal in a coherent way.

Yet this crisis also means that the international community finds itself in a place where it can insist on a multi-generational commitment to sustainable development from the Pakistani government. It provides the impetus to push a series of initiatives that can focus on formalising partnerships between the Pakistani government on one hand, and NGOs and private enterprises that can operate outside the marginal scope given by a withering domestic Pakistani budget. A panel of international experts and Pakistanis should be convened that is assured governmental cooperation in the implementation of a ten-year development agenda, which only reports to the UN. If the government does not use its internal networks to facilitate the agenda of this body, it could have a punitive impact on the disbursement of further international loans.

Lastly, this is a moment for the Pakistani Diaspora to unite and to determine not only the response to the latest devastation but a tangible commitment to sustainable development. The power resides in us as citizens of the world. The key will be to ensure intelligent and coordinated intervention. Five years ago I found myself flying to Kashmir, like thousands of others from the UK, to make sense of the devastation wrought by the earthquake. I helped bury dead bodies and purchase food that was transported from Murree to Kashmir in lorries. Last year again, I found myself in refugee camps talking to those that fled the Taliban's struggle with the Pakistani army. I have spent more time looking at dead bodies and talking to refugees then most of the people that I know put together. But this was not intelligent intervention. This was an emotional response that made not an ounce of difference to the tangible outcomes on the ground.

Intelligent intervention can be unleashed when Diaspora Pakistanis from all over the world coordinate and use their collective strengths in the pursuit of one goal. It comes from organisation, coordination and marshalling the collective voice of the people behind a sustained campaign that lobbies their domestic governments and the Pakistani government towards a particular course of action. It has become clear over the last few decades that relying purely on the government sector and aid agencies to effect long term development goals is an outdated solution that will never work. Only when we synchronise the government, the private sector, civil society and the NGO sector as joint and equal stakeholders will we achieve sustainable reconstruction and development. This test of global solidarity should spark one of the greatest experiments of our time, where we fuse the world's greatest minds, international aid organisations, social entrepreneurship vehicles, international private enterprises and governments around the world to work together as a collective whole with the momentum coming from Pakistanis all over the world.

On the ground, the Pakistani Diaspora in the UK and overseas can organise itself into groups that focus on rehabilitating the affected areas village by village. Live web transmissions can charter progress and specific needs can be projected to donors. This can be done in coordination with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and with private enterprises that can provide pro bono services. Websites can also be spawned with innovative fundraising ideas where for example, 1000 individuals can be challenged to raise £1000 each through their collective networks.

A series of incentives can be devised to procure results at the individual level (through recognition), the corporate level (temporary credits on either tax or import duties) and the foundation level (exposure and the chance to have a meaningful seat at the table for development initiatives), to encourage collaboration across all three levels. We need game-changing ideas where individuals of all backgrounds can be as instrumental in devising tailored solutions to innumerable niche problems as the blunt tool of inter-governmental aid distribution.

As citizens of the UK or of other countries, we can also lobby our home governments to direct their funding away from simply giving to the Pakistani government but rather to NGOs with a proven track record of success. Social entrepreneurship funds like the Acumen Foundation can be scaled and backed by international trade organisations active with Pakistan that enhance its funding and are connected to local groups that deepen its domestic reach. Acumen Foundation is foremost among international organisations that back talented entrepreneurs creating businesses in the areas of water, health services, and affordable housing for the poor that aim to reach 1 million people over a period of a few years.

Credible and inspiring Pakistani charitable organisations like Care, TCF, and DIL which all focus on providing free education to the poor should receive greater exposure by international governments, who can marshal their own resources to connect them with philanthropists and private enterprises.

A multitude of taskforces made up of a consortium of these organisations in addition to agricultural specialists, engineers, and health organisations can be established to administer to the needs of each of the impacted areas of Pakistan for the next few years. All of this is not the role purely of government or of international groups anymore. The modern age has empowered us as individuals through the democratisation of information and the mobilisation of capital to be key stakeholders in multifaceted solutions to seemingly overwhelming problems thousands of miles away. We are more influential as individuals then we have ever been because of the ability to organise, voice problems, share solutions, hold others accountable, observe results and inspire imaginative responses. As a Pakistani sitting in London, New York, or Singapore, we are as relevant as those of our countrymen in Karachi or Lahore; unless we choose not to be.

Pakistanis all over the world constantly search for their Messiah and bemoan his absence. But he lies in each one of us. He lies in our collective conviction, our collective imagination, and our collective actions. This great test of global solidarity will not be solved by disinterested international statesmen or our own leadership or age-old conventional responses. It will be solved only if the Pakistani Diaspora unites in intelligent intervention.

Tahir Ali Wahid is a banker based in the City of London. He is active in Pakistani Diaspora affairs.