ISLAMABAD - The World Bank has approved a credit of US$ 75 million to support the families affected by militancy, promote child health, and strengthen emergency response safety net delivery systems in the affected areas of Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
"The safety net delivery systems built through this project will enhance the capacity of the government to respond in a better way to future crises, by strengthening the emergency response safety net delivery systems in Fata in a sustainable manner," says Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
Beneficiaries of the 'Fata Temporarily Displaced Persons Emergency Recovery Project' are the families from five Fata agencies, namely North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber. The aim of the project is to support the early recovery of approximately 120,000 displaced families from Fata through two cash grants including one-time early recovery grant of Rs 35,000 per family and a livelihood support grant of Rs 16,000 per family in four monthly installments of Rs 4,000. These two cash grants provide complementary interventions to help the displaced families from the five targeted agencies and cover the initial expenses needed to restart their lives and livelihood.
The government of Pakistan is committed to supporting the early recovery and sustainable rehabilitation of all 340,000 displaced families from Fata-affected areas.
Fata is lagging behind in terms of child health indicators compared to rest of the country. In the aftermath of the militancy crisis and with the return of displaced families, the already inadequate child healthcare facilities are expected to deteriorate further. The project will also ensure the provision of a basic health services package to 64,000 families with children aged zero to 24 months in up to four tehsils of the targeted areas.
"Given the specific circumstances of Fata, the reconstruction phase will be initiated in parallel to the early recovery and rehabilitation phases, and will continue for the coming years," says Amjad Zafar Khan, Task Team Leader of the project.
"We would provide technical assistance through this project to enhance programme management, transparency and accountability at the federal, Fata Secretariat and local level administration through capacity building, stakeholder consultation, social mobilization and awareness, strategic communication and monitoring."
“The project design has taken into account the lessons learnt from past and international experience with cash transfers in emergency response operations of similar nature. Lessons on critical elements of design and implementation of cash transfers such as cash grant amount, payment modalities, delivery of child health services, and third party monitoring are being applied to this project.”
The credit is financed from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group's grant and low-interest arm. It will be on standard IDA terms, with a maturity of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years.