ISLAMABAD, April 11: Germany will provide ten million euros to the UNHCR for the execution of projects under the Refugee Affected and Hosting Area (RAHA) initiative in six districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
A German development bank, KFW, on behalf of the German government and the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, signed the financing and project agreement here in a signing ceremony on Thursday.
The German bank had already provided 10 million euros under the first phase of RAHA, which ended in December 2012. During this time, 76 major projects in 690 areas of districts Peshawar and Malakand division were completed and handed over to the local communities.
Launched in 2009, the RAHA initiative aims to help communities in Pakistan that have hosted a large number of Afghan refugees for more than three decades. It provides livelihood, access to social services such as health, education, water and sanitation, and rehabilitation in rural districts and urban areas across the country.
By the end of 2012, a total 1,080 RAHA projects had been implemented, benefiting 3.9 million people throughout Pakistan.
The projects under the second phase of RAHA will benefit the districts of Peshawar, Haripur, Nowshera, Mansehra, Swabi and Lower Dir. RAHA is also a major component of the regional Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR) agreed between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, and given international support at a conference held in May 2012 in Geneva.
“The German contribution is a welcome step forward,” said Neill Wright, UNHCR Representative in Pakistan. “Given Pakistan’s long hospitality to Afghan refugees, it remains essential that the international community demonstrates its burden-sharing commitment by supporting this critical initiative,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Imran Zeb, a senior official of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), said the Afghan refugees in Pakistan had a negative impact on the socio-economic infrastructure, and the RAHA initiative was an important contribution to rehabilitate and develop this infrastructure.