ISLAMABAD, 29 November (IRIN) - The Pakistani government, together with United Nations agencies and a core of
NGOs, has completed the first assessment under an initiative to rehabilitate and develop areas where Afghan refugees have lived over a long period. "The development of [Afghan] refugee-affected
areas refers to repairing the adverse impact on areas where refugees have lived for long periods. It also refers to creating and supporting basic services to improve living conditions for all
populations living in the target area," said Jairo Morales-Nieto, senior reintegration and development expert with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad. Pakistan has hosted one of the world's largest Afghan refugee communities fleeing conflict in Afghanistan for over a quarter of a century. In some ways, the refugee population
has had a negative impact on the poverty stricken country's resources and environment. Currently, the South Asian nation hosts some 2.6 million Afghans, according to UNHCR, including some 1.3
million in the agency's administered camps. The rest of the Afghan population in Pakistan is scattered in urban and rural settlements across the country. Conceived in February 2005, the Refugee
Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) initiative is part of an overall strategy under way to address the issues relating to Afghans living in Pakistan. "Afghans' voluntary repatriation and their
registration inside Pakistan are the two other programmes," the UNHCR official said. Led by UNHCR, the first phase of the RAHA assessment looked into the three key sectors of health, education
and water and sanitation across 38 host districts in Pakistan. These include 16 districts in Balochistan province and 22 in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Most communities that host Afghan
refugees are located in some of the poorest districts of the country as measured by a set of critical indicators of social exclusion. "Watsan [water and sanitation], health and education coverage in
refugee-affected districts of Balochistan and NWFP are well below the national average in Pakistan," the first phase of the RAHA assessment noted. The second phase of the assessment, led by the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), would look into other sectors including natural resources, environment, livelihood, employment, basic infrastructure and local governance."UNDP would
also propose potential responses to the identified needs and outline their estimated costs," said Haoliang Xu, UNDP Country Director in Islamabad. Islamabad is planning to present the results of
these assessments and future plans for the development of areas formerly settled by refugees at a donor conference to be held in the second quarter of 2007. ts/sc/jl
