USAID FATA Development Program
January - March 2008
BACKGROUND
Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) consists of approximately 3,000 rural villages with a population of approximately 3.5 million people located on the country's northwestern border with Afghanistan. It is the most underdeveloped and poorest region in the Pakistan.
In March 2006, President Bush committed the Unites States to supporting development in Pakistan's Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA). In response, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has designed a comprehensive program to support the short-, medium- and long-term objectives of the Government of Pakistan's FATA Sustainable Development Plan. USAID's FATA Development Program (FDP) works in all seven FATA agencies and the six frontier regions located adjacent to them. FDP is aligned with the GOP's recently approved FATA Sustainable Development Plan (FSDP) 2006-2015.
USAID's objectives include enhancing the legitimacy and writ of the Government of Pakistan in FATA; improving economic and social conditions for local communities; and supporting sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, USAID has expanded existing programs and initiated new activities that build the capacity of FATA Institutions to deliver services to citizens; improve livelihoods; strengthen health and education services; and develop FATA's transport infrastructure. USAID has partnered with the FATA Secretariat and the FATA Development Authority to implement these programs.
CAPACITY BUILDING
FATA's long history of autonomy has meant an estranged relationship between it and the Pakistani government. As a result, the residents of FATA have little faith in the government to deliver essential services that improve their lives. USAID is working with the FATA Secretariat to improve the Secretariat's ability to meet its constituents' needs.
FATA Capacity Building Program ($43 million)
USAID's FATA Capacity Building program will strengthen the capacity of FATA institutions to plan, implement and monitor programs at the regional, agency and community level; improve coordination between security and development organizations; improve communications; and increase the ability of FATA-based civil society organizations to contribute to development.
Implementing Partner: Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI)
Beginning Date: December 2007; End Date: December 2009
OTI Capacity Building Support ($45 million)
Meanwhile, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives will use an additional $30 million to build confidence and trust between the GOP and FATA tribal communities through a consultative approach that identifies and implements small community improvement projects. The program includes media and communication outreach activities.
Implementing Partners: Various
Beginning Date: September 2007; End Date: September 2009
LIVELIHOODS ($300 million)
The FATA is one of the poorest parts of Pakistan. Economic opportunities are limited and productivity is low. Furthermore, youth in FATA face the challenge of access to affordable education as well as very limited technical and vocational training opportunities, particularly for girls. As a result, most young people in FATA do not possess livelihood skills to be economically engaged or make a contribution to the development of their communities.
Improving the variety and productivity of livelihoods will increase incomes and decrease poverty levels. To achieve this, USAID Livelihoods Development Program (LDP) will provide FATA residents with the means of earning a decent living so they can meet their families' needs and lead productive lives. LDP focuses on employment generation programs. This includes: cash-for-work activities; skills development and vocational training; agriculture-, livestock- and trade-enhancing programs; value chain improvement initiatives for small and medium enterprises; and community-level infrastructure development. Programs will focus on people between the ages of 14 and 30.
LDP also undertakes quick-impact and medium-term programs to revitalize urban and rural communities, provide skills development and resources for sustainable employment and business development, and assist in the provision of critical health and education services.
Implementing Partner: TBD
Beginning Date: 2008; End Date: 2012
EDUCATION
Only three percent of females and less than 30 percent of males are literate in FATA. Less than 40 percent of children are enrolled in school from the primary to higher-secondary level of which girls constitute only 21 percent. Most public middle and secondary schools in FATA lack basic facilities.
USAID assistance will improve service delivery for basic education and adult literacy. Basic education assistance will train teachers, upgrade teacher training institutions, and provide essential equipment and supplies -- improving overall access to and quality of education. USAID will assist with school improvement plans and the formation of community-level school management committees. The program also will support adult literacy centers and will help dropouts to complete primary and secondary education.
ED-LINKS ($68.5 million)
USAID's ED-LINKS program improves the quality and sustainability of teacher education and student performance in the targeted geographical areas of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), particularly at the agency levels.
The ED-LINKS program has three basic components:
Teacher Education and Professional Development;
Student Learning and Achievement; and
Governance of Teaching and Learning: Institutional Context.
The program supports these core areas through education systems strengthening, institutional and management training and through the linking of teaching and learning support functions. ED-LINKS will be introduced not only at the policy level but also at the school level so that improved educational development of children is achieved.
The program will contribute to better quality education in all seven agencies and the frontier regions. The program will work with 694 middle and high schools affecting 179,984 students and 8,470 teachers. A significant increase in student achievement is expected in targeted schools, as well as higher enrollment and improved capacity of administrators, education managers and planners to provide better academic supervision and improved administration.
Implementing Partner: American Institutes of Research
Beginning Date: October 2007; End Date: September 2012
School Rehabilitation and Construction Program ($10.5 million)
USAID is working with the FATA Directorate of Education to increase school enrollment by constructing and furnishing 60 primary, middle and high schools and two Government Colleges of Education for Elementary Teachers (GCETs) in FATA. The support of this program is provided to the following agencies: Bajaur, Kurram, Khyber, Mohmand, Orakzai, Frontier Region Peshawar, Frontier Region Bannu and Frontier Region Kohat. Currently 46 schools have been completed and the remaining 14 schools and two GCETs will be completed by June 30, 2008. It is expected that FATA's school enrollment rate will increase by 30 percent and about 18,000 students will benefit from the program.
Implementing Partner: Associates in Development (AID)
Beginning Date: May 18, 2004; End Date: June 30, 2008
Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) ($400,000)
USAID is providing better sanitation facilities and clean, safe drinking water to 190 government girls' primary schools in 90 villages - benefiting approximately 420,000 girls. The project sponsors hygiene and sanitation campaigns with the participation of community members and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) to improve school management. Local religious scholars (ulema), elected representatives, and community members are receiving training in sanitation and are helping to raise awareness. To date:
176 schools and 89 communities have been provided with safe drinking water and sanitation facilities;
360 female teachers have been trained in child to child approach to hygiene education;
600 persons, including local representatives, community activists, technical staff of local government and rural development departments, masons etc. have been trained in hygiene education;
360 female teachers have been trained in good hygiene;
520 Parent Teacher Association and community activists have been trained in water and sanitation;
55 community organizations have been formed in nine villages for hygiene promotion and provision of drinking water supply; and
Three villages have been declared free of open defecation.
Implementing Partner: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Beginning Date: October 2005; End Date: March 2008
HEALTH
Access to health services is severely limited in FATA. FATA has one doctor for every 7,670 persons, compared to 4,916 persons per doctor in the NWFP and 1,226 persons for every doctor in Pakistan. Infant mortality is estimated at 87 deaths per 1,000 live births, and maternal mortality is greater than 600 deaths per 100,000 live births.
USAID assistance will improve service delivery for primary health care in FATA. Primary health care will improve mother and child health, support water and sanitation programs, and help control infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and polio.
Maternal Health ($4 million)
USAID is extending the existing Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (PAIMAN) into Khyber and Kurram Agencies and Frontier Regions of Peshawar and Kohat. PAIMAN will bring improved services for maternal health to FATA women by renovating and equipping labor and delivery wards in two Agency Headquarter Hospitals and one civil hospital. The project will update the skills of existing staff who provide services to pregnant women. Where obstetric posts are vacant, the project will recruit and hire staff to provide services. To provide a more lasting solution to some of the human resource gaps, the project will enroll 20 young women in an 18-month community midwifery course in an upgraded midwifery school with freshly trained midwifery tutors in Peshawar.
Implementing Partner: John Snow Incorporated
Beginning Date: October 2004; End Date: September 2009
Child Health ($14.7 million)
USAID's three-year program Improved Child Health in the FATA is delivering a health package for FATA children under the age of five covering immunization and treatment for respiratory infection, diarrhea, newborn care and nutrition. The program is strengthening Agency Headquarter Hospitals and Health Management Teams; training healthcare providers; and helping improve access to quality health services in all seven agencies of the FATA, while reaching more than 1.5 million adults and more than 246,000 children under the age of five.
The project is moving prevention and care services for children out to the community through Child Health Days - events designed to build long-term links between community members and their local health facilities. Through the 290 Child Health Days conducted so far, the project has provided 35,415 children with medical care and vaccinations and 2,769 women with tetanus toxoid immunization and counseling on essential newborn care and breast feeding. Additionally, 405 health providers are now better prepared to deliver high quality health services after training in newborn and child health care. At six Agency Headquarters Hospitals, the project has established staff learning centers and improved medical stores. Children and infant ward improvements are underway in six agencies.
Implementing Partner: Save The Children, U.S.
Beginning Date: October 2006; End Date: September 2009
Clean Drinking Water Initiative ($1.8 million)
USAID is partnering with the Government of Pakistan (GoP) to implement GoP's Clean Drinking Water Initiative in the six agencies (Bajaur, Mohmand, Orakzai, Khyber, North Waziristan and Kurram) and six frontier regions. The GoP is responsible for construction of water filtration plants. USAID is supporting these efforts through capacity-building and training in operations and management of the plants, water resources management, cost-recovery schemes, water-quality-testing technologies, and the promotion of good-hygiene behavior and safe-sanitation practices.
Implementing Partner: Abt Associates
Beginning Date: October 2006; End Date: September 2009
Infectious Disease Control and Prevention ($2.37 million)
As part of Pakistan's national polio eradication program, USAID supports both UNICEF and WHO to implement their polio immunization campaigns and surveillance throughout the FATA. Since multiple doses of polio vaccine are required to achieve full immunity, all children under five should be reached in each campaign. The number of children vaccinated decreased in 2006, but increased slightly in 2007: 978,802 (2004); 1,007,373 (2005); and 886,229 (2006); 920,855 (2007). Because of insufficient immunization coverage, polio infection continues to afflict children in this conflict- ridden region. Of the 32 polio cases reported in Pakistan in 2007, two were in FATA. Polio experts are working with FATA religious leaders to try to increase community participation in National Immunization Days (NIDs).
Implementing Partners: UNICEF and WHO
Beginning Date: September 2004; End Date: September 2008
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care ($600,000)
USAID' HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care project promotes awareness about HIV-transmission modes, encourages the ABC (abstinence, be faithful, and use of condoms) approach, and provides voluntary counseling and testing for HIV.
Implementing Partner: Research Triangle Institute
Beginning Date: September 2007; End Date: September 2008
ECONOMIC GROWTH
USAID projects assist sustainable, long-term economic growth in the FATA. By helping economic sectors (particularly gems and jewelry and marble and granite) with strong potential to create high value-added products, the programs increase the sectors' competitiveness inside and outside of Pakistan. USAID will work with businesses and employees operating in Reconstruction Opportunity Zones, which have duty-free export status to the United States. Activities will facilitate legal cross-border and transit trade with Afghanistan and other regional partners. USAID activities also will work with the government and local organizations to improve the regulatory and business environment -- specifically in contract law and urban land titling in Peshawar.
Micro-Credit ($4 million)
USAID is providing operational costs for Khushhali Bank's (KB) expansion in five agencies of the FATA--Khyber, Kurram, Baijur, Mohmand, and Orakzai--through a five-year, $4 million program to provide microfinance. KB is providing 50,000 loans averaging around $250 each under this project using loan capital supplied by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). USAID funds are also enabling KB to provide 80 small community infrastructure schemes valued at approximately $2,500 each and 40 scholarships for Bachelor's and Master's degrees in business and/or management to promote higher education opportunities in the region. To date, the new branches have provided 1,483 loans, and the program has awarded 52 scholarships.
Implementing Partner: Khushhali Bank.
Beginning Date: September 30, 2005; End Date: September 30, 2010
Competitiveness Support ($2 million)
USAID is providing technical support to private sector-led working groups in the marble and granite, gems and jewelry, and furniture sectors to improve production and increase profits. The program also helps the industry identify and implement workforce development initiatives through Common Training Facility Centers. Khyber and Mohmand Agencies are benefiting from the project.
Implementing Partner: J E Austin & Nathan Associates
Beginning Date: February 2006; End Date: May 2008
Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs)
An assessment to help inform decision-makers on the possible scope and feasibility for future ROZ opportunities in the FATA has been completed. ROZs are proposed to bring investment, employment and economically viable livelihoods to Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas (FATA, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Balochistan, and North-West Frontier Province). ROZs may also provide an incentive for Pakistan to contribute to regional stability while providing a unique opportunity for the two governments to work collaboratively on economic investment.
Implementing Partner: TBD
Beginning Date: 2008; End Date: 2012
Transport Infrastructure ($10 million)
USAID will partner with the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) of the United States Embassy in Pakistan to support the Construction Unit of the FATA Secretariat. Together they will help the Construction Unit plan, implement and monitor new and rehabilitative infrastructure projects.
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