Pakistan - IDPs’ funding crunch

WITH national attention mostly preoccupied by security matters and political theatre, the plight of Fata’s internally displaced persons is easily forgotten.

Yet the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict in the tribal areas remain unable to return home, while there are indications that their ordeal may get tougher still.

As reported in this paper on Wednesday, UN agencies are likely to wind down relief activities for IDPs mainly due to a funding shortfall, along with restrictions on access to displaced persons placed on humanitarian workers — both local and foreign.

Attracting funds from the global community in these times of financial uncertainty is indeed tough, along with the fact that more ‘high-profile’ conflicts, such as Syria, are currently attracting the attention of the donor community.

In the Fata IDPs’ case, while $433m is required to fund relief programmes, the UN says only $197m has been received. The fact that the state has restricted access — reportedly due to security concerns — to aid workers has also hampered efforts, as organisations are not able to independently verify the conditions.

In the meantime, only 4,000 out of over 100,000 displaced families, whose details have been verified, have been able to return to North Waziristan.

The government hopes to send all IDPs home by the end of 2016. That is a long way away and the state must explain how it expects to sustain these people until then, especially if funds are short.

If donors have tightened their purse strings, then the state must do some creative maths and come up with the funds for the IDPs’ upkeep and rehabilitation as these are Pakistani citizens and it is primarily the government’s responsibility to care for them.

Secondly, the government must reconsider its policy of not giving access to IDPs to humanitarian workers. If it is unable to help IDPs, it must not create obstacles in the way of those who are in a position to provide help.

The displaced persons’ food, shelter, health and education needs must be catered to until they are able to return to their native areas, while the conflict zones must be rebuilt to allow these people to start their lives anew.

The military may have done its job in largely clearing the tribal areas of militants. Now it is the state’s job to ensure that the civilians displaced by the military operation are not left in the lurch.