Researching the education and livelihood needs of youth in North Western Pakistan

Kashif belongs to Pakistan’s conflict-affected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has recently also been troubled by disastrous floods. He is pursuing a PhD in Development studies from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His research interests include human security and livelihoods with reference to communities affected by natural calamities and conflicts.

My PhD research focuses on the links between development policies and human security (HS) discourses and on their impacts on the livelihoods of communities affected by the conflict in North Western Pakistan. The promises of development as an instrument for turning people away from the path of extremism has been propounded in the last eight years; both the governments of Pakistan and the United States have advocated development as an essential feature in their policy for pacifying the disgruntled inhabitants of this region. The responsibility of protecting people from conflicts needs to be complemented by rebuilding war torn areas – which requires comprehensive and integrated strategies that link the political, military, humanitarian and development aspects.

The state authorities in North Western Pakistan claim to pursue a strategy based on development, dialogue and deterrence in relation to the regional conflict. However, the practical implementation of this in terms of activities on the ground – and the impact on human security – has yet to be understood. This research will therefore closely examine the development policies and programmes promoted in the conflict-ridden areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In so doing, it will explore the ways in which livelihood strategies are played out in practice, and how this has, in turn, influenced human development and security.

It will also focus on the role of youth as an active party to the current conflict, which has aggravated in the last few years. The needs of youth have been neglected over time, and unless their rights are duly protected and safeguarded, the conflict will not stabilize since the lack of education and livelihood opportunities are seen by some as the biggest factors causing radicalization of youth in this context.

The major objective of this study is to understand the nexus between development and security in North Western Pakistan, and how this influences people’s livelihoods. Specifically, the objective is to explore the merger of security and development in terms of the HS and State Security discourses and the kind of policies framed as part of the North Western Pakistan conflict.

This study seeks to employ a case study approach, which is deemed to be more useful in gauging the opinions and perceptions in terms of household livelihood recoveries. Discourse analysis is being employed for understanding the development and security discourses in this setting. In this research, North Western Pakistan is the major case and is considered for the phenomenon of development and security and their interdependence.

A stratified random sample is the sampling procedure adopted in case of livelihood revival patterns of IDP returnee communities. A comparison of livelihood strategies adopted by households during the pre- and post-conflict and post-flood periods is being undertaken. Data collection is carried out from different household types amongst groups of IDP returnees.