ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will spend $1.05 million to improve the living conditions and livelihoods of 200,000 internally displaced peoples (IDPs) from Fata and the IDP-hosting communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In this regard, Matthias Weingart, the SDC director of cooperation in Pakistan, and Marc-André Franche, UNDP Pakistan country director, signed the agreement here on Thursday.

The partnership between the SDC and UNDP will build resilience through both community and institutional level interventions in support of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It will improve the living conditions and livelihood of the crisesaffected populations in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The measures will benefi t the vulnerable groups, both among the displaced persons and in the host communities, to improve access to basic services and livelihood opportunities.

The acquired skills will make the displaced persons more self-reliant during the displacement period and give them the means to sustain those gains during the rehabilitation phase.

After signing the agreement, Matthias Weingart said that in complex emergency situations like Pakistan, experience had shown that one of the most effective ways to provide sustainable support to crisis-affected countries was to prepare population for eventual return while they were still in displacement.

This enables them to restart a better life when they return, said the SDC offi cial.

Published in Dawn December 6th , 2014