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The Shelter Cluster Needs Assessment Report for the Areas of Displacement &

Returns in KP & FATA

Shelter Cluster Assessment Report for the Areas of

Displacement and Returns (FATA & KP)



Contents Introduction and Background Information: ............................................................................................ 3

Objective of the assessment: .................................................................................................................. 4

Process & Methodology: ......................................................................................................................... 5

Sample Size: ............................................................................................................................................ 6

Findings of assessment at the place of displacement ............................................................................. 6

Family Size: .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Vulnerability: ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Trends of settlements in Displacement .............................................................................................. 7

Number of persons per room: ............................................................................................................ 8

Top concerns and needs: .................................................................................................................... 8

NFIs Received: ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Findings of the assessment at the place of return: ............................................................................... 10

House Typology: ................................................................................................................................ 10

Damage to the Houses: ..................................................................................................................... 11

Living Conditions: .............................................................................................................................. 11

Vulnerability: ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Recommendation on humanitarian priorities: ..................................................................................... 12



Introduction and Background Information:

Pakistan is prone to natural and man mad disasters due to its geographic location, political and

law and order situation. Pakistan has faced many disasters over the past years and recently is

going through turmoil of militancy which forced military operation in various parts of FATA.

The military offensive to combat the militancy and to establish the writ of the government

resulted in huge displacement from various FATA agencies at different points of time in the

past.

The current statistics show that about 161072 families are living in the state of displacement as

a result of military operation or due to sectarian violence, at various locations at KP.

According to the statistics 5% of the total displaced families are living inside the camps while

the remaining 95% are living within the host community at various locations. These statistics

are only for the NADRA verified registered IDP families and there are hundreds of families

who could not get registered due to various reasons which are not included in the statistics.

The families which had some resources or had extended family members in other areas opted

to stay out of the camp due the relatively difficult living conditions in the camps. The families

which opted to stay inside the camp are really vulnerable families who could not live in the

Off-Camp Population

District

Origin Agency Total F.R. Tank

Kurram Agency

Orakzai Agency

S. W. Agency

Khyber Agency

Families Families Families Families Families Families Ind

D.I Khan 376 0 0 24,955 0 25,331 121,220

Hangu 0 74 991 0 140 1,205 5,072

Khyber Agency

0 0 0 0 2,082 2,082 11,630

Kohat 0 3,489 17,615 35 531 21,670 105,018

Kurram Agency

0 8,260 0 0 1,510 9,770 41,902

Peshawar 0 15,150 1,079 93 55,146 71,468 324,752

Tank 0 0 0 11,684 0 11,684 54,002

Nowshera 0 1 0 0 9,053 9,054 39,802

Total 376 26,974 19,685 36,767 68,462 152,264 703,398



host community due to low financial means and the resources and non-existent social

networking outside their area of origin.

The agencies (areas under conflict) suffered heavy losses in terms of infrastructure and housing

due to the year’s long conflict. Now after the stabilization of the situation the families are

returning or have returned to their places of origin. The first problem they face at their places

of origin is their destroyed houses. Most of the families left empty handed at the time of conflict

having minimum or no resources. Now after the returns they find their property lost and houses

destroyed and all they see is the ruins of their homes.

Shelter is a basic human need and nobody can live without shelter especially in the context of

FATA where harsh weather conditions and culture make it impossible for the families to cop

up with the situation. In winter the average temperature is in the range of 0 to -4 degrees and

in such temperature the families having little children and women and the elderly population

who cannot sustain such harsh weather conditions.

Shelter cluster had been actively involved in humanitarian coordination for the relief and

assistance activities targeting the displaced population at the areas of displacement as well as

the returns through coordinated efforts to facilitate these families. The cluster had been actively

involved in providing strategic guidance through formulation of strategies, mapping of the

activities and formulation of response plans with active participation of the member agencies

of the cluster. In order to improve the services provision and effective response, shelter cluster

initiated a campaign to assess the needs of the families living in displacement along with the

families who has returned to their places of origin. The major objective of the assessment was

to assess the current status of the families’ and to identify the gaps that need attention on

immediate basis.

Objective of the assessment: The main objective of the assessment was to identify the gaps in the current services delivery

and to identify any pressing needs that need to be incorporated in the shelter strategy for the

families living in displacement and those who have returned to their places of the origin. The

assessment was carried out through the involvement of all the relevant cluster members which

are currently actively involved in the cluster and who have willingly volunteered for the

activity.

Proper orientation was planned and executed prior to the start of the assessment where the

methodology and time frame and resources needed for the assessment were finalized along

with the Questionnaires for the assessment. The teams were deployed on ground in accordance

with the work plan at all the locations specified for assessment at both the areas of returns as

well as the areas of displacement. The following table reflects the resource allocation for each

District/Agency for conducting the survey;

S. No Location

Organizations Enumerators Logistics Lead

Organization

1 Peshawar NRC/Acted/FRD/EHSAR 2/2/2/2 1/1 FRD

2 D.I Khan BEST/SRSP 1/05 02 SRSP



3 Kohat Acted/FRD/SHED/JEN 2/02/02/01 1/1 FRD

4 Tank SRSP 06 02 SRSP

5 Nowshera Acted/FRD/SRSP 2/02/02 1/01 Acted

6 Hangu HRDS/SHED/Islamic Help/EHSAR/BEST 2/02/01/1 1 EHSAR

7 Kurram Agency NRC/BEST/SRSP/EHSAR/UN-Habitat 2/2/04/2/2 1/1/1/1 NRC

8 Khyber Agency Acted/PRDS 2/4 1/2 PRDS

9 SWA NRC/BEST/SRSP 2/01/3 2 SRSP

10 Orakzai SRSP 04 01 SRSP

11 Bajaur NRC/FRD 4/01 2 NRC

12 Mohmand HRDS/FRD 02/02 2 HRDS

Total 12 Organizations 76 25

Process & Methodology: Prior to the assessment the member organizations were informed about the proposed activity

and were asked for the resource allocation for the activity on volunteer basis. In response to

the request by the shelter cluster organizations expressed their willingness and devoted

resources which included the human and logistic support for the assessment. After the

resources allocation the areas were divided and assigned to organization which expressed

willingness to work in the areas and had presence in the locality. The assessment was based on

acquisition of primary data for the accuracy and was carried out with the two way approach of

individual assessment at the house hold level along with the focused group discussion in order

to get the most appropriate and authentic data . Since the population of the assessment was

homogeneous in nature therefore the selection of the respondents was carried out on random

sampling technique. Individual data was collected through the structured questionnaire keeping

in view the need at both the areas of returns as well as the displacement and therefore separate

questionnaire was developed for both the population. Focus Group Discussions were carried

out at village level.

The questionnaire was designed in such way that it should cover all the possible aspects of the

assessment. The questioner was divided into a number of sections; the respondents were mostly

the head of house hold while in some cases in the absence of the head of the house hold other

family members’ responses were recorded.

Numerators were deployed in accordance with the sample size and the geographic spread of

the area.

The unit of analysis for the assessment was house hold while the data was analysed after

cleaning which was performed through manual observation and review of the questions .the

data from questionnaires was converted to a database which was further analysed by applying

different variables.



Sample Size: The sample size was determined on the basis of the number of families in displacement or

which have returned to different agencies. Therefore the sample size is different for different

locations. Following table shows the details of population and the sample size for each location

both for the area of return and displacement. The sample size was calculated on the basis of

10% interval with 95% confidence level.

S. No Location IDPs (families) Returnees

(families) IDPs

(sample size) Returnees

(sample size)

1 Peshawar 71,468 382

2 D.I Khan 25,331 378

3 Kohat 21,670 377

4 Tank 11,684 372

5 Nowshera 9,054 369

6 Hangu 1,205 291

7 Kurram Agency 9,770 18,493 370 376

8 Khyber Agency 2,082 6,187 324 362

9 SWA 11,899 372

10 Orakzai 8,660 368

11 Bajaur 72,895 382

12 Mohmand 36,759 380

Total 152,264

154,893 2,863 2,240

The focus of assistance was on the existing status of the families’ living conditions with

attention to the existing facilities in terms of quality and quantity of the dwelling and thus

addressing both the qualitative and quantitative aspects through the questionnaire supported by

the focused group discussions.

Findings of assessment at the place of displacement The areas of assessment where data collection was carried out included 6 districts of the

province. The districts were selected on the basis of the case load of the IDP families in these

districts. Following are the main features of findings of the assessment:



Family Size: The analysis of the average

family in each Distract of

displacement is shown in the

bar graph. The analysis of the

average family size for all the

six districts for the IDP

families is between 5-10

members which is almost 58

% of the total number of

families assessed and about 33

% of the families have the

family size of less than 5 while 6% families have a family size of 11-15 members.

Vulnerability:

The survey result shows that 526 individuals

were found vulnerable out of the total 15,267

individuals. The total percentage of the

vulnerable population is 3.4 percent. The

number shows that out of 526 vulnerable, 404

individuals are chronically ill which is 77%

while 68 persons are reported elderly and make

about 13% of the vulnerable population. The

needs of these vulnerable persons are of utmost

important and to bring about an improvement in

their lives. In terms of cost while catering to the shelter needs for these persons will increase

the cost by 15-30% as compared to the conventional shelter needs.

Trends of settlements in Displacement

The current settlement trends of the displaced population in KP shows that the families are

mostly living in rented houses. This

means that most of the available

houses have been rented out by the

host community. The data also reflects

that rented spaces especially in Tank,

DI Khan, Nowshera and Peshawar

have been exhausted. Hangu which is

a small town and prior to the

displacement of IDP’s to KP there was

very little or no trend of renting out

houses among the house owners. The

large influx to these areas and the

protracted stay of the displaced

families have either compelled or presented an opportunity to the house owners to ask for rental

money. This has further added to the sufferings of the IDP’s who already have very low income



and they have less opportunities of employment, as the local market is already saturated. The

areas which are nearer to the places of

displacement the ratio of families living

within the host community with their

extended family members or relatives is

slightly higher while for the places which

are at distance or in the cities most of the

families are living in rented houses.

The living pattern in displacement is

segregated as, 83 per cent of the families

are living within the host community in

rented houses followed by 8 per cent of the

families which are living with their relatives. One of the very alarming finding of the

assessment is that about 7 % of the families are living in tents and specifically in the district of

Hangu where about 146 families are living in tents.

Number of persons per room: As per the statistics of the assessment 64% of

the families have less than 3 persons per room

while about 34 % of the families have 5 or more

persons per room. The average family size falls

between 6 and 7 which reflects that the finding

of the survey is correct and in accordance with

the similar surveys conducted among the IDP’s

at different times for different reasons. The

survey also reflects that space available is per

persons is less and overcrowding has been

reported as a predominant issue. Although the family size is not that large but the places in

which these families are living are small and because of this a number of other issues arise as

well.

Top concerns and needs:

According to the data gathered from all the respondents, overcrowding and congestion in the

houses turned out to be the major concern

for the families followed by harsh weather

conditions and water and sanitation needs.

The data analysis showed that 32% of the

families reported overcrowding as the most

prominent issue. Harsh weather was

reported by 22% of the respondent, 18%

reported lack of water and sanitation

facilities, 10% reported privacy while 7%

cited security as their major concern. In

total 71% of the respondent showed



concerns about overcrowding, security, privacy and harsh weather conditions. This shows that

in most of the buildings where the IDP’s are living are not adequate and needs intervention to

protect them against inclement weather, ensure their privacy, security and assist them in

decongestion of their dwelling places.

NFIs Received: The following table shows the NFI assistance received by the displaced people.

Districts Winterized Standard NFI Kits

Summer NFI Kits any other NFI

DIK 322 248

Hangu 384 384 70

Kohat 380 325 382

Nowshera 375 312 6

Peshawar 478 79 291

Tank 2494 1447

Grand Total 4433 2795 749

Although it was observed during the assessment that for most of the families it was difficult

to differentiate between types of NFIs and needed descriptive probing from the respondents.

Most of the families received some sort of assistance in terms of NFIs during their stay in the

areas of displacement.



Findings of the assessment at the place of return: In order to identify gaps in the services provision and to identify the needs of the families which

remained in displacement and returned to their areas of origin after the De notification of the

areas inside FATA, the assessment was carried out concomitantly with the assessment at place

of displacement.

Following is the summery of the findings which focused on the needs of the families in the

areas of returns. Since the families returned to the areas which faced conflict and the

infrastructure and the housing suffered damages either directly as an effect of the conflict or

due to lack of maintenance as the families remained in displacement for the long duration

therefore the questionnaire was designed to cover all the relevant needs and the current status

of these families.

According to the UNHCR statistics the total number of returnee families stands at 154,893.

S.No FATA (Agencies) Returnee population (Families )

1 Kurram Agency (Central) 18,493

2 Khyber Agency (Bara) 6,187

3 South Waziristan 11,899

4 Mohmand 36,759

5 Bajaur 72,895

6 Orakzai 8,660

Total 154,893

House Typology: Almost 80 % of the respondent families are living in the Kacha houses while 18 % in semi

Kacha houses. Only 1.5 % of the

families are living in pakka Houses.

It is worth mentioning that

traditionally the construction

pattern of the families living at

FATA is predominantly katcha

houses with mud construction and

therefore the finding is uniform

with the trends, but on the other

hand these mud houses needs

regular maintenance and care which

in the case of absence of the

families due to conflict could not be performed. The non-maintenance of these houses has

resulted in degradation of these houses.



Damage to the Houses: As mentioned above the traditional houses in FATA are mostly Katcha houses. These houses

need regular and maintenance and because the people have to move out of their houses because

of militancy and subsequent military offensive. All these factors add to the damages incurred

on the shelters and as such a large

number of shelter are reported as

damaged. According to the data

52% of the families have

completely damages houses,

while 32% have partially

damaged houses only 16% of the

responders informed to have

negligible or no damage to their

houses.

Living Conditions: One of the main focus of the assessment was to determine the current living conditions of the

families which returned after the

conflict. The statistics show that

about 53 % of the families are still

living in completely damaged

houses. About 10 % of the families

are still living in tents while about

16 % of the families are still living

with the relatives or in rented

houses.

The people who are in need of shelters are those who are living a damaged house, a tent, with

relatives or on rent. If the percentage of this group is added up from the available data it reflects

that 79% of the returnees are in need of shelter assistance. The shelter assistance provided by

all the humanitarian agencies adds

up to 8% of the total need of shelters

in FATA. The gap is so huge and

needs to be filled so as to save lives

of those who are suffering because

of the inadequate shelters.

Government has announced a

compensatory allowance for those

whose houses are either fully or

partially damaged. The

compensatory allowance for a fully

damaged house is PKR 450,000 and

PKR 160,000 for partially damaged house. So far the survey has been conduct in Bajaur and



in Mohmand only and assistance has been provided to some of the families while others are

still to be assisted. The rest of the FATA has not been assessed and the concerned authorities

have not even started the official assessment of the damages to shelters.

Vulnerability: The survey statistics shows that among the returnees the disable, Female Headed Households

and old age (60+) are the most. The

most number of disable person (149)

was reported in Khyber Agency along

with 181 elderly persons. South

Waziristan agency is second on the

list with 99 disables and 212 elderly

persons. The vulnerability data

reveals that in the disability was

reported at 33%, Female HOH 14%

and elderly 53% of the total

vulnerable population.

Recommendation on humanitarian priorities:

Based on the findings of the assessment following are the recommendations for the cluster for

future strategies and planning.

Harsh weather conditions prevails in most part of the FATA, especially in winter sever

cold weather is observed in most of the agencies, it is therefore recommended that

there should be strategy focused on permanent shelter solutions for the families in

need to held them cop up with the extreme weather.

FATA has rigid culture and strong beliefs and thus privacy and Pardha is a very

sensitive issue. Non availability of shelter compromises the privacy of the families

and may result in loss of dignity and self-esteem while on the other may cause conflicts

within the society. Therefore secure permanent solutions to their shelter need will cater

the protection issue and help in restoration of the self-esteem.

Shelter is a basic human need and it not only provides physical protection but also

provide peace of mind and comfort. Families living without shelter need immediate

attention which will help Head of house hold to search for better livelihood means

which is not possible without the safety and security of the families within the confines

of shelter.

Since most of the families have returned to their areas of origin where basic

infrastructure is disrupted and livelihoods means vanished, it is therefore not possible

for the families to construct shelters as they don’t have any resources, it is therefore

recommended that the families be provided shelter assistance in the interim period

between the early recovery till sustainable solutions to their livelihood needs.



Although the assessment report indicates provision of NFIs to the families but at the

places of returns it is highly recommended to provide winterized NFIs to the families

to cop up with the cold weather.

Priority should be given to the vulnerable population in shelter assistance due to their

specific needs and vulnerability.

Any intervention strategy should be formulated in consistency with the local building

techniques to maximize acceptability and cost effectiveness. The designing should

take in to account the weather conditions and the DRR measures should be

incorporated for DRR resilient structures.

As most part of the Return areas is going through the interim period of recovery

therefore it is recommended to have some sort of cash for work assistance included in

the shelter strategy. Secondly the material used in the construction should be chosen

keeping in view the local market which will help in booting up the local economy and

will help in creating jobs within the community.

Shelter provides physical and mental sense of protection, protection from health

hazards, emotional and psychological satisfaction and peace and will help healing the

wounds of the community which faced many hardships in displacement and even after

the returns. Shelter intervention swill help in building their confidence on the

humanitarian community and will help in restoration of their dignity and pride.

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