ISLAMABAD - The United States Agency for International Development is spending $ 232 million on providing grants to communities in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA to help recover them from natural disasters and conflicts.
According to available data, the USAID will be spending $207,076,547 on Pakistan Transition Initiative for projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA from November 2007 to December 2015 to help communities. The Pakistan Transition Initiative seeks to build confidence and encourage trust between the Pakistan government and local communities in conflict-prone areas of the FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah. The project seeks to reinforce stability, counter extremism and extend the government writ in these areas by supporting good governance, encouraging broad-based community participation in decision-making, and increasing public access to information about the government’s social, economic, and political programs and policies.
The objective of the Pakistan Transition Initiative is to support conditions for stability and development in conflict-prone areas of FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah. The Pakistan Transition Initiative helps install new village water systems in FATA and supports community-level projects that respond to locally identified needs.
The initiative is meant to increase awareness of government activities, strengthen ability of institutions to support professional media coverage of public policy issues and enhance the capacity of journalists from FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah to report professionally on issues of public interest. The project will improve the ability of government broadcasters in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah to engage effectively with the public.
Under the programme, so far 1,679 projects are supported that respond to community-identified needs besides 17,628 interactions between communities and the government, creation of 2.3 million short-term employment days.
Four university journalism departments in KP have received technical assistance and support, 13 press clubs and the Tribal Union of Journalists have been renovated or received equipment and training, 1,692 journalists from FATA and KP have received training on various media-related topics and 5 GoP-owned radio stations in FATA and KP have received technical assistance and capacity building support.
The USAID will also be spending $25,000,000 on the Multi-Donor Trust Fund from July 2010 to December 2015 in areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA. The Multi-Donor Trust Fund is providing grants to help communities in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA recover from armed conflict and the floods of 2010 and restore peace to these areas.
Funding activities included restoration of damaged infrastructure and disrupted services, improvement of government service delivery and maintenance of local livelihoods.
Ten donors have committed a total of about $140 million to the World Bank, which is administering the fund. The USAID Trust Fund is awarding grants for road construction, restoration of services and infrastructure, augmentation of livelihoods, and improved reconstruction coordination in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA.
As many as $8 million grant has been awarded to the KP for Emergency Roads Recovery, while $6 million grant for the Governance Support Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwah and FATA and $16 million grant for revitalising health services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwah is pending.