October 21, 2010

DARA´s Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) team visited Pakistan from March 3-12 and collected information on overall donor response to the displacement crisis. It is the second time that DARA sends a team in Pakistan. While in 2007 the organization analyzed donor response to the 2006 earthquake, this year DARA has gathered information on the massive crisis of displacement brought about by fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban.

The team led by Matthew Kahane, former UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal, interviewed 28 international and local NGOs, including national authorities and Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement societies, 6 government donors and 11 UN agencies. To validate findings, at the end of the mission the team debriefed the Humanitarian Country Team about initial response trends and challenges.

The crisis

Over 2.5 million Pakistanis fled their homes over a period of few weeks in 2009 due to continuing militant offensives between the Pakistani military and the Taliban in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The conflict began in late 2008 and intensified alarmingly in May 2009, as waves of displacement and return spread from north to south following security forces’ policy of notifying residents of upcoming operations. Despite the significant number of returnees (1.6 million) after their places of origin were declared safe, thousands of families remain to this day unable or unwilling to return. It is estimated that the waves of displacement and returns will continue as the government continues to pursue security operations. An estimated 1.3 million Pakistanis remain displaced within their own borders, mostly living with host families. There are 11 camps where 110,359 IDPs reside. Additionally, Pakistan is home to around two million Afghan refugees who need long-term assistance.

Response

The initial phase of the crisis triggered a Flash Appeal that was revised from $55 million in September 2008 to $174 million in January 2009. The Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP) 2009 was 71.3% funded by 31 December 2009, making it the fourth-best funded appeal globally. However, many respondents noted that much of this funding was received by implementing agencies only late in the year. Outside the PHRP, the Financial Tracking System recorded a total of $665.5 million in funding. A gap in the response was that the “early recovery” clusters were very poorly funded, with agriculture at 16% and community restoration at 4%. On a more positive note, the early response in setting up and managing camps meant there were practically no deaths and no epidemics. Flexibility of major donors once the situation was better understood led to them carrying out more realistic needs assessments and adapting their programmes to the context. As the displacement continues, the government of Pakistan and the international humanitarian community has prepared a PHRP 2010, which was launched on 9 February 2010. This calls for a total amount of $538 million for the first 6 months of the year. A review in June 2010 will examine the evolving situation and needs, and whether the Plan needs revising.

The humanitarian response: initial findings and challenges

The magnitude of the crisis was unprecedented and drastically underestimated by the government of Pakistan.

The government´s failure to recognize the scale of needs caused by the clashes, as well as the limited access that an armed conflict entails, meant that humanitarian organizations were caught off guard. While the government envisaged brief periods of displacement these turned out to be much longer and affected a large part of the population of NWFP and FATA.

Humanitarian space has been strictly limited by the military authorities, jeopardizing the safety and security of aid workers in their attempt to travel to the affected areas, carry out needs assessments and assist the vulnerable.

With a large part of the displaced living with host families and only a small minority living in camps, it was very difficult to determine how many people needed assistance, of what kind and where.

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) set up a system where only the IDPs registered under them were entitled to assistance. However, there is a widespread view that not all displaced people have been registered and that this assistance should also cover host families and communities, and returnees.