The FATA region, crippled by instability and environmental degradation over the years, is facing numerous challenges. There was an urgent need for the establishment of an Environment Cell within the FATA Secretariat, in order to include environmental concerns into development planning. The life-saving humanitarian, recovery and development efforts of the federal and provincial governments, the military, humanitarian agencies, donors and international financial institutions were successfully launched; however, the essential ecological focus was missing. The environmental impact assessments are now being built into their planning, which is required to preclude any development that degrades the environment.
IUCN assisted the FATA Secretariat in preparing a pragmatic five-year sectoral plan. Keeping in view the diverse requirements and priorities of each tribal agency, IUCN extended its expertise to develop Agency level plans that include drinking water, irrigation and fisheries. IUCN also established linkages with all the major stakeholders involved in FATA and developed partnerships for implementation of the preparatory phase of the project.
IUCN’s early work in Pakistan was focused on the FATA region, for which IUCN had developed a sustainable development plan . This work established the foundation for further work on environment-related strategies that IUCN crafted later for the government.
With the commencement of the establishment of an Environment Cell within the FATA Secretariat, IUCN has once again established its presence in the region. This happened mainly because of the realization that there was a dire need to address environmental degradation in the region, which had been further aggravated by flooding and other impacts.
Under this initiative, a two-year project on Improving Water Governance in FATA has been launched, which may pave the way for further necessary work in FATA in the coming years.
Following the launch of the project, a joint meeting of senior officials from various line departments, under the patronage of Chief Economist–FATA Secretariat pledged their support and assistance to the FATA Environment Cell Project. The Chief Economist, FATA Secretariat, Mr. Wasif Saeed Khan advised the officials for close coordination with IUCN Pakistan and extending full cooperation to it. He highlighted that the FATA Cell project is an excellent opportunity for the line departments to enhance and strengthen their technical capacities. Mr. Faiz Kakar, Team Leader–FATA Environment Cell Project, IUCN Pakistan briefed the participants about the project interventions and assured IUCN Pakistan’s full support to them.
Participants of the meeting appreciated the initiative and provided substantial propositions over various technical matters.
In-depths assessments and studies will be carried out under the project in the next two years. The capacity building plans will be developed and implemented to enhance the capacity of the staff of relevant line departments of FATA Secretariat right from Secretariat level to the grass root agency level. Furthermore, awareness raising will be done for four important stakeholders; community, media, academia and politicians to sensitize them about the environmental and water sector related issues.
The project is being implemented by IUCN Pakistan with the assistance of FATA Secretariat and is funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in the socially most affected area of Pakistan – the FATA region. The project will augment one of the important component of FATA Environment Cell: Water Governance. The successful implementation of this project may pave way for an intended larger development program by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
