ObjectivesFund scope
Since July 2008, Pakistan’s north-western areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) experienced large scale population displacements due to security concerns and military operations against non-state armed groups. Patterns of displacement and return movement remained dynamic, and while some population groups returned home following the restoration of law and order, there was a massive exodus from North Waziristan Agency and Bara Tehsil in 2014. This displacement brought the total number of Internally Displaced People (IDP) to 300,000 families (1.6 million people), of which around 70% were women and children.
According to humanitarian assessments, displaced families are faced with multiple challenges in meeting their basic needs and are frequently forced to resort to negative coping mechanisms for survival. In response to these challenges and to restore public services, the FATA Secretariat developed Sustainable Returns and Rehabilitation Strategy (SRRS) to support the voluntary return of IDPs to FATA.While this SRRS covers the immediate rehabilitation needs of the federation, returning IDPs face security and development challenges like high poverty, food insecurity, low levels of human development and high levels of unemployment. The Community Resilience and Recovery Support to FATA Joint Programme complemented government recovery efforts and was designed line with FATA requests to build the resilience of returning IDPs.
Strategic framework
Established in 2015, the Joint Programme ensured that displaced people returning to FATA could rebuild their lives in an environment with rehabilitated infrastructure, good governance and law and order. To achieve this, the programme provided targeted support to returning IDPs to improve their access to basic services, local infrastructure, and overall social cohesion. It also enabled the FATA Secretariat to strengthen its governance, law and order, service delivery and citizen engagement with a focus on the human recovery needs of returning IDPs.
This initiative was designed around three key outcomes:
- Outcome 1: Improved food security, livelihoods and jobs.
- Outcome 2: Restoration of basic services and infrastructure.
- Outcome 3: Governance and social cohesion.
Additional cross-cutting themes such as gender, community resilience, capacity development, disaster risk reduction, vulnerability and persons with special needs, were mainstreamed throughout programme outcomes.