PESHAWAR: Lack of coordination among government departments and other relevant quarters is resulting in duplication of activities and wastage of resources by the non-governmental organisations involved in provision of healthcare facilities to the internally displaced persons from North Waziristan Agency, according to sources.

Army has allowed about 12 NGOs to provide healthcare facilities to the IDPs presently residing in Bannu after requests by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Relevant officials in Bannu said that lack of coordination could result in duplication of activities and wastage of funds provided to the NGOs by WHO, UNFPA and Unicef etc.

Sources say activities of NGOs, providing healthcare facilities to IDPs in Bannu, are duplicated

The NGOs got funds from donors for a certain activity in a specific area but some of them spent the amount on other activities and in other areas which was creating problems, they said. The donor agencies want coordinated intervention to benefit maximum IDPs.

According to them, army has taken extra care in permitting NGOs keeping in view the past experiences when international organisations violated Pakistani laws by indulging in unlawful activities, especially in Abbottabad. The health department had also requested army to allow NGOs to work there after thorough scrutiny because as it didn’t want to scandalise their efforts, the officials said.

They said that UN agencies wanted the NGOs to work in the areas where their services were most required. “For instance, we don’t want two NGOs to provide primary healthcare to the population of the same area. The UN in its health cluster meetings allots areas to the NGOs on the basis of recommendations from the local health facilities,” they said.

Imran Khan Foundation came first to the area and now its runs the women and children hospital and a rural health centre where it provides maternal and child health services not only to the displaced people but also to the local population.

“The number of diseases, such as acute watery diarrhoea and scabies, has dropped down contrary to our fears that outbreaks can happen in the view of the hot season and bad conditions in which displaced people live. Situation is under control in Bannu, which hosts 80 per cent of displaced families,” the officials said.

They said that 20 women nutritional assistants were deployed in the local health facilities to evaluate status of the children and give them supplements accordingly. They added that local health facilities were meant to provide healthcare to the local population because Fata was separate entity run by the federal government.

However, the province allocated enough resources to provide treatment facilities to IDPs to a desired level, they said. The province has already been hosting 2.1 million displaced people from Fata and most of them reside in Peshawar where they receive treatment facilities like the local population, according to officials.

Dr Ali Ahmed, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa focal person for IDP-hosting districts, told Dawn they were in full control of the situation. “Initially, we received a number of patients. However, waterborne ailments have decreased following chlorinating the contaminated water sources,” he said.

He said that they were trying to avoid duplication of activities in coordination with the army as they wanted to provide health facilities to the displaced people.

“We have been able to administer oral polio vaccine to 200,000 children five times since their displacement. They were not been immunised in their areas owing to Taliban’s ban on vaccination in June 2012,” Dr Ali said.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014