Pakistan

Background

The October 2005 earthquake caused widespread devastation in nine districts in NWFP and PAK. The Government formed the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) to coordinate the response to this disaster. Its primary task was to undertake the large scale relief operation in the areas of search and rescue, health, water, food and shelter. By March 2006, the relief phase moved into the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase. Since the damage to government institutions had been immense, the capacities of line departments in both NWFP and PAK were severely limited. Responding to this lack of capacity and in addition to the FRC, the Government established ERRA at the federal level. PERRA and SERRA were established at the provincial and state level respectively. The TAMEER project was initiated to provide physical, technical and intellectual support to ERRA and its provincial and state counterparts.

The TAMEER project reflects UNDP’s prioritized response towards the restoration of governance capacity as part of the early recovery phasing into long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Upon launch of TAMEER project in December 2005, ERRA was provided technical assistance on strategic planning, institutional development, programme and donor coordination, human settlements and resource and reconstruction database management. ERRA was also supported through office equipment, transportation, and internet facility.

Support was also offered towards forming the organizational structure of ERRA, which included ToRs and a remuneration system for staff and Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) including management of budget and procurement.

Objectives

To facilitate the government in the timely, equitable and sustained implementation of National Plan of Action for earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction

To prepare for future disasters

Key Achievements

Strengthened capacity of ERRA and its provincial and district counterparts in the
thematic areas of management, environment, social protection, gender mainstreaming,
governance and disaster risk reduction

Human Resource
With UNDP support, 64 professionals and 23 support staff were recruited to date while recruitment of 11 professionals is under process. The professional staff include national, provincial and district-level professionals for planning, social protection, environmental management and capacity building. This timely support helped ERRA fill a critical human resource gap, which was impeding its operationalisation. The experts hired under TAMEER helped ERRA in formulating and implementation of its Social Protection Strategy, Environmental Strategy, Livelihood Strategy and Disaster Risk Reduction Programme.

Provision of Equipment
Provision of equipment for operationalization of beneficiary institutions including 79 computers, 4 printers, 2 photocopiers, 22 telephone sets, 13 flash drives, an external hard disk, 16 vehicles, sets of furniture, 11 VSATs, 5 Cogims, 4 Digital Cameras, 2 Video Cams and furniture. The provision of these supplies enabled ERRA and its regional and district counterparts to initiate an early launching of activities, especially at the district and regional levels where the entire infrastructure had been devastated by the earthquake.

Trainings / Workshops/Seminars
The staff of ERRA, PERRA, SERRA and DRUs trained to incorporate disaster risk reduction strategies into the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation and as well as other developmental activities

International Conference on Earthquake Risk Management (ICERM) held to share progress over the past year and maintain donors and sponsors’ interest. Outcomes include, increased understanding of disaster risks, conceptualization and consensusbuilding on key elements for formulating Pakistan’s Program for Disaster Risk Management; and commitments of stakeholders to work towards Disaster Risk Management.

Environment Assessment (EA) Workshop held in Mansehra and Muzaffarabad for staff of SERRA, DRUs, Health, Forest and Education Departments, project planners, designers and appraisers. These were also designed to equip public organizations, NGOs sector with the EA tools and techniques.

• Environment Survey of 2411 households of 25 Union Councils conducted.
• Gender Training Workshop held for Social Protection Coordinators (SPC) for gender awareness and training to serve as interim Gender Focal Points.
• A DRR workshop held at Abbottabad to sensitize staff at District level in Disaster Risk Reduction
• Provision of support in formulation, implementation and review of ERRA’s
thematic strategies

Strategic support to ERRA:
• Disbursement protocols, standard operating and procurement procedures developed also to enable ERRA to benefit from funds allocated by the World Bank.
• Capacity of PERRA/SERRA/DRUs enhanced to effectively formulate and implement strategies.
• Comprehensive capacity assessment of PERRA and DRUs in NWFP(on-going in PAK) conducted highlighting infrastructure and human resource gaps at various levels.

Technical support:

Livelihoods:
Cash Grant: Rs. 4,110.546 million (Rs. 4.11 billion) disbursed to 229,053 eligible families.
Rehabilitation Strategy: Standardization of animal health facilities in the affected areas with FAO support and PC-1s prepared for the reconstruction of 30% of the total destroyed animal health facilities in PAK. ERRA has been working to promote fruits, nuts and medicinal plants, in order to fully exploit the economic opportunity of these areas.
Social Protection:
Social Protection Framework: Social Protection coordination and implementation framework for PERRA, SERRA and DRU to effectively implement the Social Protection Strategy.
Rehabilitation of Disabled / Paraplegics: A Project for the medical rehabilitation of the disabled in the earthquake-affected areas’ amounting to Rs. 742 million approved.
Development of Landless Policy: A comprehensive strategy for disbursement of Rs. 75,000 to each verified landless household devised. This helped ERRA in resolving one of the most sensitive humanitarian challenges in reconstruction. The first batch of 225
out of 1800 identified landless people identified through Landless Policy has just been compensated and the rest are also being facilitated in phases.
Social Impact Assessment: A Social Impact Assessment of the interventions conducted with support from TAMEER project to operationalise World Bank assistance in housing reconstruction and livelihoods cash grants.

Environment Sector:
Rubble Removal / Recycling: Approximately 358,600 cft of the rubble removed from the residential areas with an initial release of Rs.10.00 million (GoP Funding). A project for rubble removal (Rs. 409.26 million) initiated in 2007. Site for installation of
Rubble Recycling Plant (0.5 million Euro grant from Belgium) is underway.
Forest Buildings Construction: PC-I`s for forest buildings construction in PAK and NWFP reviewed.
Environment Projects by NGO/INGO: A project by Save the Children-USA (US$ 1.09 million) through Sungi Development Foundation for forest rehabilitation started in Allai, District Battagram leading to the rehabilitation of key watershed areas.