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Pakistan NWFP and Tribal Areas
£3,900 – Approved March 2008
£5,000 – Approved March 2009

IPF Local Partner: Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO)
IPF Project: 2008 - Peace Building through Youth Engagement
IPF Project: 2009 - Capacity Building and Promoting Tolerance and Non-Violence in NWFP and FATA of Pakistan
Delivery Dates: December 2008 – January 2009 and April - September 2009

Location: NWF Province and Tribal Areas of Pakistan
Peacemakers: Raza Shah Khan

1. Country Background: Pakistan - North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

These regions of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, have since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 been the most economically disadvantaged and violent areas of the country. Following the Soviet invasion, around five million refugees moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan - most of them to the NWFP and FATA. During the 1980s these areas became highly militarised, as they were the bases for supplying the Mujahedeen, who were fighting the Soviet occupation. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in 1989 and the escalating civil war in Afghanistan, the NWFP and FATA provided a safe and fertile area for the development of the Taliban who had established large numbers of madrassas. The madrassas have provided many thousands of students for military service with the Taliban through the late1990s, and into this decade.

Since March 2004, Pakistan armed forces have been regularly in conflict with Taliban fighters in FATA and NWFP. In May 2009 the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that the recent upsurge in conflict had created two and a half million internally displaced people, and one of the worst humanitarian crises that Pakistan has experienced in recent times.

2. Local partner: SPADO

Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) is a member of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). They are actively involved in promoting peace and active non-violence in the country. SPADO is a grassroots organizations working through the active participation of local communities. The organization has more than 60 member NGOs and Community Based Organizations in NWFP and FATA. They all support SPADO to achieve its just cause of peace and non-violence. Additionally, SPADO has involved religious scholars and Imams from local mosques in the region, who are working with SPADO. Moreover, the organization has established a network of youth called “Youth for Peace”, with thousands of youth members in Pakistan. This network works closely with SPADO, and will be actively utilized in the IPF project. SPADO has maintained good working relationship with the government and media in NWFP and FATA, and these will also be considered as partners in the achieving the objectives of the project.

3. Project details: 2008/9 Peace-building Through Youth Engagement.
The involvement of youth and religious scholars in the context of promoting peace and non-violence under Islamic teachings has been a success in meeting the objectives of this project. The activities resulted in developing a first ever Peace Manual under Islamic teachings in Pakistan and through two training workshops educated 118 youth from NWFP and FATA on peace, tolerance, mutual co-existence and non-violence. The past project has provided the basis for future interventions and built the capacity of SPADO to work more effectively in future.

Project details: 2009 Capacity Building and Promoting Tolerance and Non-Violence in NWFP and FATA of Pakistan
The proposed project aims at utilizing the Islamic Peace Manual developed in collaboration with FOR England for promoting peace and non-violence in NWFP and FATA. It is planned that the manual will be translated into local language (Urdu) and then published. SPADO has targeted selected teachers, Imams of mosques and madrassas and youth leaders to be trained on the peace manual and then encouraged to utilize it in their teachings and spheres. The major objectives of the project are:

• To train and educate 50 selected Imams of the mosques and madrassas on the Islamic Peace Manual and then encourage them to promote non-violence in their Friday sermons and teachings
• To train 50 selected teachers of schools and colleges on the Islamic Manual and then encourage them to promote peace and non-violence in their teachings
• To actively involve the 10 youth resource persons who were trained in the previous project in the training sessions so that they could act as trainers in future for the youth
• To translate the peace manual into local language so that the maximum number of people can understand and benefit from it
• To arrange an essay contest on peace and non-violence among the schools in NWFP and FATA in order divert the attention and interest of children and youth from conflict and violence which they have seen towards non-violence and peaceful resolution of conflicts.
• To compile the outcomes and recommendations of the project into a report and then disseminate it to the government, policy makers, religious scholars and international organizations in order to provide a productive input at policy level

The project should result in trained and involved Imams, teachers and youth which in turn will contribute in educating and promoting tolerance and non-violence to hundreds of local communities. The project will highlight the significance of religion a mean for peace not violence among the local and international communities and hopefully reduce radicalization and violence in this fragile region. Last but not the least the project will provide guidelines and recommendations to the government and others interested in non-violent resolutions of conflicts both within and among the societies.

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