I. Overview/ Background:
The Pakistan Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was established in August 2010 with a total fund of US$68 million received and a total of 306 funded projects that respond to humanitarian situations due to natural disasters and complex emergencies across the country. In line with the roll-out of the 2015 OCHA Operational Handbook for Country-based Pooled Funds, OCHA Pakistan accordingly made changes on the way the Fund is managed. Based on consultation with the Fund’s main stakeholders, OCHA published Pakistan Humanitarian Pooled Fund (PHPF) Operational Manual in August and changed the Fund name accordingly to PHPF.
In 2015, PHPF made two allocations. The first allocation was made with the generous support from Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) whereas the second allocation was funded by Department for International Development (DFID) and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). A total of 20 projects were funded from the first allocation and 15 in the second allocation.
Following the recent de-notification of some of the return areas in FATA, an inter-cluster assessment mission was conducted to Orakzai and Kurram agencies from 8 to 13 April 2016 to assess the situation in a sample of the denotified villages. An estimated 30,000 IDP families from Aka Khel, Mulla Khel, Chapri Feroz Khel, Mishti Hindara and Mishti Gawak tribes in Orakzai and Alisherzai, Zemusht and Masozai tribes from Central Kurram are expected to return to these areas from 20 April.
Following these assessment missions, the Humanitarian Coordinator along with OCHA Head of Office, visited return areas of central Kurram from 14 to 16 April. To gain a better understanding of the immediate humanitarian needs of returned IDPs, the team visited villages where returns took place two years ago.
The mission noted a massive destruction of infrastructure in the area and the findings confirmed the need of immediate humanitarian assistance especially in the sectors of Shelter, Health, Nutrition, Education, WASH and Protection.
On the basis of these findings, HC called a meeting of Advisory Board (AB) of Pakistan Humanitarian Pooled Fund (PHPF) on 25 April. The meeting was briefed about the assessment and HC’s mission findings. OCHA provided a comprehensive analysis of the situation. AB approved the initiation of allocation process for the first standard and reserve allocation of 2016, for which US$7.34 million is available with the contributions from DFID and SIDA. The AB board agreed to allocate $6 million for the standard allocation and $1.34 million as a reserve allocation.
