ICG Report - "Pakistan: No End to Humanitarian Crises"
The report "Pakistan: No end to humanitarian crises" by the International Crisis Group (ICG) offers a sobering report with a clear message: "With three years of devastating floods putting the lives and livelihoods of at least four million citizens at risk and military operations against militants displacing thousands more in the conflict zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan's humanitarian crises need urgent domestic and international attention."
The report highlights, "Since the democratic transition began in 2008, some progress has been made, but much more is needed to build the federal and provincial governments' disaster and early recovery response. Efforts to enhance civilian ownership and control have also had mixed results, particularly in the conflict zones, where the military remains the dominant actor. To effectively confront the challenges, the most urgent tasks remain to strengthen the civilian government's capacity to plan for and cope with humanitarian crises and to prioritise social sector and public infrastructure development. It is equally important that all assistance and support be non-discriminatory and accompanied by credible mechanisms for citizens to hold public officials accountable."
A number of recommendations to the Federal and Provincial Governments of Pakistan and the International Community are made in the report, of which (for this blog) I would particularly highlight: the need to ensure inclusive humanitarian assistance by "delinking government assistance to reconstruct houses and restart livelihoods in the flood-affected agricultural sector from proof of landownership or tenure and instead developing trust-based alternatives for proof of landownership or tenure where natural disasters have destroyed documentation."
Without having an in-depth knowledge on Pakistan, the main things that stand out (and quoting extensively from the report):
"Although building state capacity remains Pakistan's most urgent task, tackling the causes and consequences of conflict related displacement and natural disasters goes far beyond humanitarian action. These crises have revealed not just the capacity limitations of the national and provincial governments, but also the extreme economic disparities in many parts of the country, the dependence of people on increasingly erratic sources of income, and the political marginalisation of many communities, not just in FATA and KPK, but also in Sindh, where rising crime levels could soon have serious security implications." (p.1)
With reference to the over 700,000 registered IPS in KPK and FATA in mid-September: "Few have chose to live in IDP camps. The overwhelming majority, as many as 90 per cent, have opted instead to stay with relatives or in rented accommodations, largely because tents provide limited protection from the inclement weather. Large families are often cramped in a single room with insufficient or non-existent sanitation or electricity and predictably adverse health consequences, particularly for women, who, in this tribal society, are confined to the home. (...) With international funding drying up, very little assistance is provided to IDPs living with host communities. Aid agencies are further stretched with the continued demand for humanitarian assistance in areas of return." (p.3)
"Countrywide, government assistance to reconstruct homes and restart livelihoods in the flood-affected agricultural sector has been linked to proof of landownership or of tenure and has thus often missed the most vulnerable segments. Lacking or losing property deeds and other relevant documentation, many victims of floods and/or conflict risk losing out on state assistance. Efforts should be made to develop trust-based alternatives for proof of landownership or tenure where natural disasters have destroyed documentation, such as validation of residence by the local community. While many returning widows and women-headed households have had difficulties in reclaiming the land they owned or lived on, because they did not have such documentation, landlords renting out accommodation and agricultural land have claimed the aid their tenants were entitled to." (p.11)
"The Humanitarian Coordinator (HC), who leads the Humanitarian Country TEam (HCT) is also the Resident Coordinator (RC), heading the UN system in the country, roles that have proved difficult to reconcile. The HC/RC's mandate to ensure UN support to the state's development plans has often made the task of separating humanitarian assistance from a political/security agenda mprore difficult. The absence of a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Pakistan has further weakened humanitarian actors' ability to defend humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and operational independence." (p.19)