Needs Assessment for Refugee Affected Areas-Phase II d Final Report April 2008 1 Table of Contents Part - I I.1 Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………..……….……3 I.2 Executive Summary…………………………………………………………….……………4 PART II II.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………..…………7 II.2 The Study……………………………………………………………….………..…..............9 II.3 Sectoral Scope………………………………………………….…………........…………….9 II.4 Geographic Scoping……………………………………...…………………….…………...10 II.5 Methodology……………………………………...………………………........…………...12 II.6 Assessment Constraints……………………....……………………………..........…. .........15 PART III – Current Situation III.1 NWFP……………………………………………………………………......…..................17 III.2 Balochistan………………………….…………………………………..........…..................18 PART IV – Overall Findings…………...………………………………………....………............19 PART V District Need Assessment……………...………………………………...……………...29 PART VI - ASSESSMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITIES……………….…………..103 PART VII - Way Forward………………………………………………….………..……….134 Annexes............................................................................................................................................142 Annex I District Classification by level of Affectation …………………….…….……….142 Annex II Pakistani and Afghan Populations in the districts pre-identified as ‘Very high’ and ‘High’ Affected Districts…..………………..…….….…..........143 Annex III List of Villages per district……………………………………………..…...........144 Annex IV Meetings with Government officials……………………………………………..145 Annex V Prioritization Criteria ……………………………………………….…..……..148 Annex VI Assessment Study Work Plan……………………………………….……………149 Annex VII Population Density Analysis……………………………………………...............150 Annex VIII Camp Wise Estimation of Area………………………………………...………...151 Annex IX Estimation of Forest Damages………………………………………..……..........153 Annex X Complete List of Basic Infrastructure Schemes……………………...…….…….155 2 PART I I.1 Acknowledgement The second phase of need assessment of refugee affected areas was conducted from August- December, 2007. The Refugee Affected Area (RAA) initiative is a joint project of the Government of Pakistan (SAFRON/CCAR) and UNDP/UNHCR supported by the UN Country Team. In the field support was given by respective P&D Departments and logistics was arranged by Provincial CCAR Offices. The initiative was launched following the conclusions and recommendations derived from the Brussels Consultation held in February 2005. The refugee affected areas refers to rehabilitating areas where refugees had lived for a long time. The goal of the study was therefore to bring out the extent of impact on various services around the camp areas on local population. This in a way will contribute to a transition from purely humanitarian to more development oriented interventions in selected areas and communities. The team comprising of six consultants conducted this study. They traveled from one end of NWFP to Chaman the other end of Balochistan. This report would not have been possible without their patience, unending demand for quality by the representatives of UNDP, government and UNHCR. I am very grateful to them for meeting deadlines and accepting sometime odd comments for improving quality. While Mr. Zafar Iqbal, ARR from UNDP always provided support and pushed for meeting deadlines, Mr. Michael Zwack from UNHCR and Ms. Mikiko Tanaka from UNDP provided candid support as they keenly went through various presentations, draft reports and gave positive comments to improve the report. This was very helpful and I highly acknowledge with many thanks. I also thank the Commissioner Afghan Refugees Offices in NWFP and Balochistan respectively who were kind enough to provide logistic support and arrange several meetings in the field. I must mention the name of Mr. Ahmed Hanif Orakzai, DG, SDU who always kept his office open for the team members. He particularly helped me to understand provincial context and the role of P&D in implementation of various programmes under Special Development Unit. His support along with other colleagues of his office is highly appreciated. In Balochistan, Mr. Mohiyuddin Mari, Chief Economist provided useful scenario covering background and future prospects of development in the area. Mr. Zulfiqar Durrani, Chief (Foreign Aid), helped the team members to accommodate all their requests mostly at odd times. Many Provincial Secretaries, Additional Secretaries, DGs, DCOs, EDOs helped the team at various occasions to achieve their goal. Insights, valuable suggestions and candid opinions shared by the development partners are highly appreciated and acknowledged. Finally this report may not have been possible without the involvement of the communities from RAAs and elected representatives at community, Tehsil and District level. Many District Nazims, Naib Nazims, Union Nazims gave valuable suggestions and time and took team members in the field to show the sites for various interventions. Mr. Tauqir Mirza steered the whole process silently sitting behind the desk patiently providing all type of support to the team members. He also helped to format final report with great skills. I have tried to include all the people who supported us. If I have missed anyone, this is unintentional and I thank them all. Fida Hussain Shah Team Leader RAA Phase II 3 I.2 Executive Summary This report addresses the issue of vulnerability among Pakistani populations living around camps of Afghan refugees where camps have either been closed or most of the camp population has been repatriated or dispersed inside Pakistan. Pakistan has been affected by the Afghans influx for the last three decades spread over 34 districts through out Pakistan. However, 16 districts (7 in NWFP and 9 in Balochistan1) have visible direct effects by the presence of large numbers of Afghan Refugees. Study of all the districts and all refugee affected areas is unfeasible due to paucity of time and resources. Considering these factors and also taking into consideration ground realities the team thus received agreement with Federal coordinating ministry and Provincial P&D Departments to cover 9 districts (4 in NWFP and 5 in Balochistan). The study covered 16 Camp areas located in 23 Union Councils. The team members visited 44 villages out of 108 villages of these UCs covering about half million population. The study also did a small ample survey particularly for Livelihoods and interviewed 590 households (346 in NWFP and 244 in Balochistan). The report examines the impact of refugees on natural resources/environment, livelihood/employment, basic infrastructure/capacities and the cross cutting area of gender. This impact study does not compare what happened to various services over a period of time as no baseline was available. This is an attempt to provide a snapshot of people’s lives at the present moment in rural areas. Government of Pakistan policy not to contain the Afghan refugees in the camps provided Afghans an opportunity to have free access to business and employment and explore the livelihoods in the country. Pre-existing social networks and shared culture with Pakistani Pashtun, in most of the areas where refugees arrived, provided information on possible destinations, protection and some economic support upon arrival further strengthening their ability to enter in the local markets even if they were residing in the camps. Due to their long stay in the RAAs, the Afghan Refugees have contributed towards economic uplift and had been transferring knowledge of traditional and new techniques (cropping, and irrigation) and many skills to local communities. Afghan style carpet weaving, cultivation of cash crops, and multi crop harvesting skills, bee keeping are the few among many to quote. The economy in some areas could flourish well in presence of low wage Afghan laborers. In NWFP and Balochistan specifically some economic activities are an outcome of Afghan labors (Brick Kilns etc). However, most of this was in urban areas which helped urban rich people to benefit out of cheap labour, trade activities and other services. Most of the refugees lived in and around big urban centers such as Peshawar and Quetta. They put a lot of pressure on services in these areas. Government of NWFP and Balochistan respectively felt that a separate need assessment should be done to cover special needs of these areas. The team members also felt the need for it and strongly recommend to conduct a need assessment for urban areas at an appropriate time. Rich farmers in rural areas benefited from refuges by employing refugee labourers as share-cropper or as casual labour. However, the people living in RAA had to suffer as they were competing with refugees on all fronts including scarce food and daily wage jobs. The refugees living in camps had an edge as most of the time they were getting subsidies in the form of food rations (until 1995) and were using outside camp activities to take care of future shocks and vulnerabilities. Insofar as refugees living within the camps are concerned whereas, in most instances they are adequately catered for in terms of amenities like primary healthcare, education and water and sanitation infrastructure within the camps, they burden the local facilities and resources in many other ways. For instance, by cutting of trees for fuel-wood they have been depleting local forests; 1 Refer to Table (a) District classification by level of affectation [Annex-1] for a complete list of Very Highly Affected and Highly Affected Districts in NWFP and Balochistan 4