Sustainable Initiative for Resilience and Transformation (sirat)



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Executive Summary


Pakistan is a disaster prone country frequently affected by drought, earthquakes and floods. It was hit by a devastating shallow earthquake in 2005 and the worst flooding in 80 years in July 2010. Apart from the destruction to property, livelihoods and infrastructure, malnutrition also took root. IRP responded speedily to the earthquake victims, internally displaced people in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KPK) and the 2010 floods which wreaked havoc on an unprecedented scale. The amount of 14,545,809 GBP was raised by Islamic Relief Worldwide during the floods.
It is against this backdrop, IRP focuses on multi-sectoral interventions. In sustainable development, it interjects in health, nutrition and eye care; rehabilitation of educational facilities and skill enhancement through vocational training, access to drinking water and adequate sanitation, natural resource management, livestock, introduction of new methodologies and practices in agriculture and vegetation and micro enterprise development. The humanitarian programme deals with relief, recovery, rehabilitation and seasonal programmes. Reducing the risk factor to a minimum is the key objective in all humanitarian interventions. The child welfare programme supports an orphan’s family to manage their living and raise awareness among the sponsored families about their rights.
IRP is planning to implement this project in two areas of Pakistan; namely Balochistan and Sindh. Both are the most deprived and calamity hit provinces. Balochistan is facing severe droughts since 2002 while poor human development indicators, a deteriorating security situation and devastating floods for two consecutive years leaves Sindh vulnerable. Its highly unemployed population still suffers from the effects of the disaster and poverty. This region is still dependent on external support to cover its basic needs as evident from the DfID-LWHT project where IRP has only been able to map half of the population with livelihood interventions.
The current project is proposed in light of the needs identified by the communities along with field assessment and impact analysis. The project is a continuation of the ongoing efforts of Islamic Relief Pakistan to improve the lives of disaster affected people. This project will provide the leverage to scale- up existing programmes in both regions. Due to minimal income generation and unavailability of employment, population is still suffering from the affects of drought and floods. The population is dependent on outside support to cover their basic needs.
Islamic Relief Pakistan has been working in district Chagai since 2001 and has carried out a number of relief, rehabilitation and development projects. IRP has also mobilized a number of community organizations with the objective of linking development with government line departments to obtain humanitarian and developmental services. Similarly in Sindh, IRP implemented the DfID funded livelihood recovery, clean water and hygiene improvement project which had covered half the population. However, irrigation channels and farming lands are still damaged. Tube wells are blocked and non functional. Causal labour is hard to find as the poverty level in villages are on a similar par for each household. Retail shops are partially stocked as shopkeepers do not have financial resources to enhance their business. Female community members are working besides males, but do not have sufficient awareness and knowledge of the market and its functions.
The project is heavily focused on sustainable development initiatives to rehabilitate the lives of affected population and make them secure from any future disasters. The project aims to achieve this by providing assistance in three main sectors i.e. sustainable livelihoods, provision of safe drinking water and advocacy initiatives on DRR and climate change adaptation.
The project interventions will directly benefit a total of 183,827 individuals (26,261 HH) out of the total population of 221,574 individuals (30,161 HH) in Sind and Balochistan. In Sindh, approximately 110,292 individuals (15,756 households) out of the total population of 137,590 (18,679 HH) of the four union councils i.e. Jati, Koti, Kenjre and Gul Muhammad Bran of district Thatta will benefit. While in Balochistan, the most severely affected segments of society are the women and children who succumb to various diseases and dehydration. Furthermore, the physical exertion and time consumption for women to fetch water from distant locations will be minimized through the interventions of this project. The project will directly benefit a total of 10,505 households i.e. 73,535 individuals out of the total population of 83,984 (11,482 HH) in six union councils i.e. Chalghazi, Julli, Chagai, Dalbandin Sadar and Padag and Amori district Chagai, Balochistan.

Implementing Agency Background


Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) is an international relief and development charity founded in the UK in 1984. It works in 36 countries and includes more than 1,400 staff members’ worldwide working together to deliver relief and development.
Exemplifying Islamic values, IRW responds to disasters and emergencies linking them to sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities. It mobilizes resources, builds partnerships and develops local capacity as it works to enable communities to mitigate the effect of disasters, prepare for their occurrence and respond by providing relief, protection and recovery.
Since 2001, Islamic Relief is working in Pakistan to promote sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and diseases. Islamic Relief Pakistan is present in Azad Jammu Kashmir and Balochistan since 2001. In AJK, IRP has two field offices in districts (i) Bagh with two fields units in Dheer Kot and Forward Kahoota and (ii) Neelum. These offices are support by the area office located in Muzaffarabad. In Balochistan, IRP has a field office in Noshki which is supported by the Quetta office and one field office in Dera Allah Yar Khan which is dealing with operations in Naseerabad and Jafarabad. Operations in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa are dealt by the field office in Mardan. The Sindh field office is based in Thatta to deal with relief and recovery operations. The country office is located in Islamabad and provides administrative, logistic and technical support to all field offices and leads on the coordination with institutional donors, NGOs, networks and line departments.

Current Situation


In Balochistan and Sindh, the majority of the population lives in rural areas and is mostly dependent upon agriculture, livestock and causal labour for their livelihoods. Both areas are disaster affected and extremely prone to future calamities. They have also been impacted immensely by political instability and a very high poverty index.
Most of the targeted area in Balochistan is drought affected whereas in Sindh, it is impacted by floods which create a huge challenge for rehabilitation. The population does not have a proper means of income and is also unaware of modern growing techniques and practices. The majority of the population depends on limited livestock and land resources to fulfil their basic needs, but at the same time it does not have enough knowledge to increase the production by utilizing proper techniques/expertise. The population of Balochistan and Sindh have similar kinds of livelihoods i.e. agriculture farming and livestock and forestry particularly among rural households. A small part of the population is also engaged in small scale business activities i.e. shops and other general business. The proposed areas have no industrial units which can provide employment or business opportunities to the local inhabitants. The main roads are comparatively better, but other link roads are not properly paved and the infrastructure is poor.

Based on the assessments, below are the key vulnerabilities identified in the target areas;



Food Security and Livelihoods

Around 25% agricultural land was damaged by the flood in Thatta. Of all the locations visited by the team, nearly 13% are still covered with silt after floods. Cases were also observed where communicable diseases are wide-spread in almost 35% livestock. Average milk production decreased by 65% because of hunger, thirst and difficult conditions. Casual labour is hard to find as agriculture land is not being utilized due to a lack of financial recourses. In Chagai the drought has affected the livestock and cultivatable land. Secondary sources have confirmed that the livestock percentage has been decreasing every year and the cultivatable land is eroding.


Water and Sanitation

Water availability is the main issue faced by the communities in both areas even before the floods and droughts. Underground water in both locations is brackish. Water table is quite shallow in Thatta compared to Chagai where it is very deep. Normally the depth of existing hand pumps is 80 to 120 feet in Thatta and 400 to 600 feet in Chagai. Almost 80% of the population is dependent on surface water (canals, river and rain) and the rest of the population is using underground water by means of hand-pumps. Open defecation is very common in these areas as apart from the semi-urban settlements there are no latrines. Hygienic conditions of the people are very poor especially of women and children.


Keeping in view the above facts, the people have limited their attention on growing crops in their agriculture land and also by doing labour work in respective areas. However, due to technical inability and lack of awareness, the productivity of the crops is very low. The livestock sector is contributing to nutrition of the people in the economic prosperity of the area on a small scale, but the production is below par. District Chaghi and Thatta witnessed many natural and man-made disasters, thus there is a requirement to introduce activities which will make their livelihoods sustainable. In addition, as the results of such disasters, community physical infrastructures (CPIs) are badly affected at all levels.

Identification Methodology


IRP has existing operations in both areas (Balochistan 2002 and Sindh 2001) and the needs have been continually assessed through proper assessments, surveys and regular community interaction. Problems of the areas were discussed through active community participation. This primary information gathering and observations informed the initial UKAM application in 2012. A further four day rapid needs assessment of Thatta and Chagai was carried out on 2nd November 2012. This Initial assessment focused on the current situation of both districts regarding humanitarian needs related to drought and floods. The assessment targeted four most vulnerable UCs of District Thatta and six UCs of District Chagai in which general analyses were carried out in specific sectors like WASH, livelihoods, Health and DRR.
The objectives of the assessment were;

  1. To identify the appropriate mix of assistance needed to meet the diverse needs of disaster affected population

  2. To source real time recommendations on the problems of the affected vulnerable communities and suggest practical measures

  3. To coordinate with various actors/stakeholders within the area in order to facilitate action and avoid duplication

  4. To assess present security situation and feasibility for interventions

Solution of the problems and need prioritization were exercised further. Different tools of Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) were used to identify the needs of the communities. These include:




  • Transact walk

  • Semi structured interviews with the communities

  • Observations

  • Social mapping

  • Problem analysis, stakeholder analysis and prioritization by the communities

  • Focused group discussion with all stake holders

  • Secondary data collected from government departments/NGOs working in the area

The needs identified by communities through Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) tools are the most urgent and genuine. The coordination between local communities and line departments does not exist which is resulting in inefficient use of resources. As per community needs assessment, the poor economic condition, unemployment, low casual labour, poor agricultural practices, lack of proper skills and knowhow and no coordination with relevant livestock and agricultural departments are the indicators of the people’s poor and uncertain livelihood. If the solution is not proposed the mentioned problems will further intensify which will affect the social life and increase their vulnerability.



Solution


Based on the assessment and surveys, the following key recommendations were highlighted;
WASH

  • Provision of drinking and irrigation water is a main issue that affects people in both areas as existing water sources pose serious threats to the health of people due to their contamination with different pollutants such as micro organism and hazardous chemicals

  • Communities need to be sensitized through effective advocacy campaign against open defecation and they should be familiarized with models of good latrines that can ensure their safe health and improved hygiene

  • There is a great need to change the behaviour and attitude of people towards hand washing and overall health and hygiene. In this regard, children attending schools can be an affective agent of change if they are imparted with awareness in a child friendly manner


Livelihood

  • Economy of the area needs to be diversified by training people especially women in different vocations

  • There is a need to boost entrepreneurial activities in pursue of the local economy

  • Farmers should be familiarized with best farming techniques practiced in arid and semi-arid zones

  • Need to rehabilitate cultivable land through provision of agricultural inputs and irrigation support


Climatic/Ecological Change and DRR

  • Early warning system for flash floods need to be established at local level and communication systems to effectively reach out to people should be improved or put in place

  • Communities should be prepared in community based disaster risk management to take mitigation measures in the construction of houses, sanitation facilities and installation of safe drinking water supply schemes

The beneficiaries (community members) proposed the following solutions directly along with support of IRP assessment team and senior management as well as key stakeholders which included the following;



  • Government line departments

  • Trade union representatives

  • Representatives from other NGOs/INGOs

  • Representatives of religious groups

All the stakeholders were given an equal chance to express their views and they were sensitized to think on the communal level and recommend initiatives in accordance with the culture of the area and dire need of the communities. This project is expected to bring sustainable attitudinal change among communities. It will ensue a positive (both in soft and hard) impact on the socio-economic situation of the target population. Their existing means of livelihood will be strengthened through material assistance as well as capacity building. The village and UC level community organizations will be strengthened, capacitated and ultimately they will have a collective voice at any forum. Community led water supply scheme will be initiated for both drinking and irrigation purposes. The process of agriculture will be more modernized and time saving. The local resource mobilization and utilization will result in prosperity in the area and safety nets would be established for socio-economic well-being. The civic sense of empowerment and confidence will lead people to stand on their feet. The attitude, behavioural and practices of the people will be changed with a sense of collective responsibility.



Implementation Methodology


The project will be directly implemented by Islamic Relief Pakistan. Implementation will primarily be based on social mobilization. The community organizations/community based forums will be the main stakeholders in this process. As the project is designed through participation of the community members, it will be implemented with the same methodology. Islamic Relief Pakistan has already developed a network of Community Organizations (COs) in the proposed programme area.
Participatory development and social mobilization forms the backbone of this project and largely consists of sensitizing community members to form broad based participatory decision making forums at the village level with representation of at least 70% of the village households. This provides opportunity to the local communities to critically think and determine their priorities for social change and development, ensuring ownership of the projects in the long run. The communities thus formed will be gender balanced as each village will have two separate COs i.e. one for male and one for female. The process of CO formation generally takes time to sensitize and convince people to sit and discuss their issues together. However, in the context of Thatta and Chagai, it is expected that this would not take much time as Islamic Relief Pakistan has already assisted in formation of several community organizations where they regularly meet to discuss and solve problems of their villages. Before an actual CO is formed, a number of pre-steps are involved ranging from at least three initial contacts and two programme introductions. The programme introduction consists of a brief introduction of Islamic Relief Pakistan followed by an in-depth discussion of the purpose and objectives of IRP’s programmes i.e. strengthening local capacity for development of their areas.
Similarly the formation of any new CO will involve the following broad steps:

  1. Defining membership: All the households will be eligible to become members in male and female CO’s. It will be ensured that no one is denied membership on the basis of linguistic or ethnic identity, socio-economic status or any other discrimination criterion

  2. Developing CO (Code of Conduct): Communities will themselves determine their statement and code of conducting business including reasons for establishment of a formal CO. In addition, responsibilities of the CO and IRP will also be established by joint discussion with the communities

  3. Roles and responsibilities of office bearers: Each CO will elect at least four principle office bearers designated as President, Manager, General Secretary and a Treasurer. Role and responsibilities of each will be decided by the CO, facilitated by IRP

  4. Record keeping: The CO will maintain records of meeting, resolutions, activities and saving on prescribed registers

  5. Opening of joint bank/post office account: After first CO meeting, the collected amount from the saving of the CO members will be deposited in a joint bank/post office account of the CO. Each CO i.e. male and female will have a separate bank account

  6. Regular meetings: Each CO will hold regular bi-monthly meetings to discuss their day to day issues and to strategize long term development plans for their village. Every decision regarding the village and its development will come through a resolution jointly signed by at least 75% of the members of the CO. All the meetings will be documented and a proper record will be kept

The capacity of the each CO will be enhanced in organization and management to allow the COs to mature from a grass root organization into an effective mechanism through which needs of the community’s can be identified and addressed systematically. Within the structure of the COs, the Presidents and the Managers will be given Community Management Skills Trainings (CMST). The training will be delivered by IRP to build the capacity of these individuals to effectively manage and govern their democratic institutions. The training will include components such as sessions on conflict resolution, recognition of gender dimensions, community organisation, investment planning, effective decision making, communication skills and disaster preparedness and mitigation. Moreover, the General Secretaries and Treasures will be trained in proper record keeping and documentation. The community organization will also include the disaster risk management network (DRM) as the subcommittee of the CO which will be responsible to assist the village level community organizations in the planning and implementation of disaster risk reduction activities. This DRM network will also provide a platform to raise the disaster risk management issues towards community and their link up with the local authorities. Through sensitization, they will be empowered to use participatory approaches to ensure that vulnerable groups are not only represented during implementation of the project, but also benefit from different project activities.



Beneficiary Analysis


Identification

The general beneficiaries of the overall project are the people living in the targeted areas. Islamic Relief Pakistan staff, through the established community organisations/community based forums, will conduct a detailed survey to identify the status of people of the area and vulnerable households who live under dire circumstances. After thorough sensitization and mobilization of the communities, in order to improve their understanding of and realisation of the needs of the vulnerable individuals, the COs will be involved in identifying the extremely vulnerable individuals and families in the villages. The process of identification will be participatory by using different techniques of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Participatory Vulnerability Assessment (PVA) Pair-wise Ranking and Wellbeing Ranking as appropriate. Prior to that, criteria will be developed in consultation with the COs and relevant stakeholders to identify the extremely vulnerable individuals and families. The criteria, among other things, will include gender sensitive indicators, focusing on women headed households, physically challenged, unaccompanied elders, unaccompanied minors and extremely poor and landless.


As gender is a crossing cutting theme in the project, special consideration will be made in each activity to involve every age group. The target of the project will be women, men, youth and children who are the community members and through consensus agreed that they require support to restoring and improving their livelihoods assets and skill enhancement. Depending on the nature of the activity, all categories of the people in the community will be benefited directly or indirectly through participatory approaches.
Role

All the activities planned in the project will be implemented through community organizations/cluster community organizations. Communities will identify vulnerable households, provide community share in the shape of unskilled labour, local resources and monitoring of infrastructure development work. Beneficiaries will contribute in the form of unskilled physical work, time and knowledge of the area. In the pre- situation analysis of targeted area, beneficiaries will be contributing effectively.


Number

Where the direct interventions (hard components) in livelihood, WASH and DRR will directly benefit individuals, it is estimated that the effects of the direct interventions as well as the advocacy and awareness raising activities (soft components) will indirectly benefit the respective households and the general population of the targeted areas. Below is the estimated breakdown of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of this project;


Direct: 183,827 individuals (including children, elderly and physically challenged)

26,261 households

101,105 men

82,722 women





Sector

Individual

Men

Women

Total

%age

Livelihood

34,317

36,058

70,375

38%

WASH

51,988

35,368

87,357

48%

DRR/advocacy

11,563

8,605

20,168

11%

Social mobilization

3,236

2,691

5,927

3%

GRAND TOTAL

101,105

82,722

183,827



Indirect: 221,574 individuals (including children, elderly and physically challenged)

30,161 households

121,866 men

99,708 women
Project Locations

Project will be implemented in two provinces of Pakistan. The selection of areas for action is based on the following criteria;




  • Areas severely affected by floods and drought with adequate number of unreached communities in need of urgent humanitarian support

  • Areas that have potential high level vulnerability to future disasters

The detail of locations is given below:


Location 1: Province: Sindh District: Thatta Tehsils: Sujawal and Jati


S. No.

Union Councils

Villages

House Holds

Beneficiaries

1

Gul Muhammad Bran

94

4,902

37,470

2

Kenjre

30

1,830

13,800

3

Jati

122

8,787

58,425

4

Koti

176

3,160

27,895

Total

422

18,679

137,590





Location 2: Province: Balochistan District: Chagai Tehsil: Chagai, Dalbandin and Nokundi


S. No.

Union Councils

Villages

House Holds

Beneficiaries

1

Julli

37

797

6,013

2

Amori

112

2,511

17,577

3

Chalgazi

100

2,083

15,624

4

Padag

85

1,886

14,335

5

Chagai

80

2,420

18,297

6

Sadar Dalbandin

23

1,785

12,138

Total

437

11,482

83,984







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