After Zarb-e-Azb: WB to lend $75m for returning refugees

Money to support 120,000 households, less than a third of total affected by operation

ISLAMABAD:

The World Bank has approved a $75 million loan for Pakistan to help the government provide financial support to people temporarily displaced by the military’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb against the Taliban.

As many as 120,000 households, or over one-third of the total affected by the ongoing military offensive in the tribal areas, will receive a Rs49,000 cash grant in two phases.

The Washington-based lender has provided the concessionary loan for a period of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years. More than 87% of the money will go directly to the affected families.

The loan is meant to finance the FATA Temporarily Displaced Persons Emergency Recovery Project. Households from five tribal agencies – North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber – will receive financial assistance from the government.

In a press release issued on Thursday, the World Bank said that the aim of the project is to support the early recovery of approximately 120,000 displaced families from FATA through two cash grants. A one-time early recovery grant of Rs35,000 per family and a livelihood support grant of Rs16,000 per family in four monthly installments of Rs4,000 will be disbursed among families belonging to these five agencies. These two cash grants provide complementary interventions to help the displaced families bear initial expenses needed to restart their lives and livelihood. As many as 336,762 families were affected due to Operation Zarb-e-Azb and over 240,000 were from these five agencies.

The government has estimated the total cost of rehabilitation and reconstruction at Rs75 billion or $750 million. Of this, the rehabilitation cost is estimated at $112 million. Of the $75 million loan, $62 million will be given in cash grant and another sum of $3 million is allocated for providing child-health facilities.

However, a major chunk, $10 million that is 13.3% of the approved loan, will be spent on stakeholder consultation, social mobilisation and management.

The World Bank’s estimates show that out of 336,762 displaced families only two-thirds will be accessing the cash support programme. However, due to budgetary constraints, the World Bank will fund only 120,000 families. The project will continue its support to beneficiaries for a period of three years based on the return schedule laid out by the government of Pakistan.

The military had launched the offensive in June last year and its revised plans show that the final batch of internal refugees will be returning homes by the end of next year, according to Finance Ministry officials.

If the beneficiary family has children under two years of age, the family will then be qualified for additional payments of Rs7,500 or $75, provided in three equal installments to promote positive health seeking behavior of families for their children. The tribal areas severely lag behind the rest of Pakistan in terms of child health indicators. In the aftermath of the militancy crisis and with the return of displaced families, the already inadequate child health outcomes are expected to deteriorate further.

“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.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2015.