Community-led Infrastructures Projects, Swat, FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Background
The military operations in and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Federaily Adminlstered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and the consequent displacement of households and communities from their areas of origin, has resulted in destruction, damage and depreciation of their settlements. The movement of people from the operational areas has resulted in the largest displacement in the history of Pakistan with peak of 2.6 million individuals, registered and verified by authorities, In the period between April and June 2009. To facilitate the return, started in July 09 and estimated in 1,65 million Individuals, normal life has to begin in these areas. This means that the civil administration has to restart and markets to re-open. During the military operations and due to neglect, basic infrastructure has gone into disrepair and is not functioning. People need basic facilities like water, access roads, schools and community infrastructures to restart their lives. While these basic facilities are necessary, they also need employment opportunities to restart their lives. Therefore, investment on rehabilitation of community infrastructure and facilities can achieve the twin goals of assisting people to have access to basic facilities and have access to employment opportunities.
Korea International Cooperation Agency, the development assistance agency of the Republic of Korea in collaboration with UN-Habitat facilitated the return of IDP's through the rehabilitation of infrastructures and communities. The project aimed at helping IDPs in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in partnership with the Government of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, FATA Secretariat, PaRRSA, local governments and CBOs. The most affected areas included Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar, Bajaur Agency and Swat. The project addressed basic needs of the affectees such as water, access roads and community infrastructure.
As part of their community infrastructure activity in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, UN-Habitat with the help of Government agencies reconstructed a girls’ primary school which was completely damaged in the floods in the district of Swat, with funding from the Organization of Islamic Conference.
This projects was designed with a view to introduce a process of safe return of IDP’s originating from Malakand Division. The projects was aimed towards assisting affected communities (returnees and stayees along with host communities) and local governments to identify and begin the repair or rebuilding of damaged community and public infrastructure and install a system of addressing grievances related to factors that impede early recovery. The implementation strategy was developed to promote community decision-making and to strengthen the capacity of the local governments.
While the objectives of the projects were longer-term and comprehensive, early recovery inputs and activities were aimed at helping the affected communities to regain their ability to engage in economic and social activities that were life sustaining and would help them in sustaining a better livelihood. At the same time given the scale of damages, it was important to ensure that investment in infrastructure matched institutional development at local and provincial levels.
The project tried to maximize its impact on local employment by adopting suitable implementation procedures. In addition, all projects activities were implemented in partnership with appropriate government agencies and local/regional NGO’s. By building a continuous monitoring system and establishing a useful MIS system, the projects achieved a high degree of transparency in fund management, reporting and dealing with complaints.
UN-Habitat as also produced a manual on community infrastructure “Guidelines for Community Infrastructure” for post return affectees. It gives technical guidelines on community infrastructure projects. This manual will guide engineering on better construction on techniques.
Community-led Infrastructures Projects, Swat, FATA and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa
