Internews/Islamabad

The World Bank (WB) yesterday approved $75mn credit line for Pakistan that would be mainly utilised for providing cash grants to Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) to return to their homes in the Federally  Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) after the completion of the military offensive Zarb-e-Azb to flush out the militants.
 “The WB approved a credit of $75mn to support the early recovery of families affected by the militancy crisis, promote child health, and strengthen emergency response safety net delivery systems in the affected areas of Fata,” a statement issued by the WB says here yesterday.
 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: (i) a one-time Early Recovery Grant of Rs35,000 per family; and (ii) a Livelihood Support Grant of Rs16,000 per family in four monthly instalments of Rs4,000.
These two cash grants provide complementary interventions to help the displaced families from the five targeted Agencies 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 the 340,000 displaced families from the affected areas of Fata.
 “The safety net delivery systems built through this project will enhance the capacity of the government to better respond 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.
 Fata is lagging behind in terms of child health indicators compared to the rest of Pakistan.
In the aftermath of the militancy crisis and with the return of displaced families, the already inadequate child health outcomes are expected to deteriorate.
 The project will also pilot the provision of a basic health services package to 64,000 families with children aged 0 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 will 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 mobilisation and awareness, strategic communication, and monitoring.”
 The project design has taken into account the lessons learnt previously in the country 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.