UN role in rehabilitation, reconstruction of quake-stricken people highlighted
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—The United Nations has extended every kind of financial and technical assistance for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake affected people in NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
“Two years down the road, the successful collaboration of the government, UN and civil society organizations in the reconstruction effort speaks for itself,” says a UN news released issue here on Friday, three days ahead of the anniversary of the October 8 devastative earthquake, which consumed the lives of over 72,000 people and rendered hundreds of thousands of others homless.
“As the lead UN agency for early recovery and reconstruction in Pakistan, UNDP has been instrumental in the efforts of to ‘build back better’ with interventions that range from restoring livelihoods, rebuilding governance structures and improving capacity in disaster risk reduction,” the statement said.
UNDP’s response is a combination of hardware support and capacity development. Infrastructure restoration is coupled with community mobilization and much needed training to build back holistically.
“Local government capacities have been restored through the provision of 524 prefabricated and fully functional government offices. Land Revenue Departments and other government offices have been provided with 160 containers for storage of revenue records and 400 Patwaris (Land Record Officials) have been trained in restoration and improvement of land records. Coupled with this critical hardware support, is the capacity development of 360 government personnel in Disaster Risk Reduction including the staff of ERRA, PERRA, SERRA and DRUs. These efforts have addressed the need for disaster preparedness across all development sectors including, rural and urban livelihoods, education, environment, health services and local governance.”
The news release said: “UNDP provided technical assistance and infrastructural support to ERRA. A total of 51 staff members have been recruited at the national, provincial and district level in the fields of planning, social protection, environmental management and capacity building. Through the provision of IT equipment, vehicles and furniture, the offices of ERRA and its state and provincial counterparts have been made fully operational.”
The earthquake played havoc with the production bases of the local population, destroying livelihoods in both rural and urban areas.
To address this critical need, UNDP launched a comprehensive livelihoods programme aimed at reversing the decline in the standard of living and reducing dependency on relief aid. In collaboration with UN partners, UNDP revitalized and strengthened 969 community organizations and mobilized 3000 activists to participate in livelihood activities. A total of 2000 community organization members were trained in leadership and management and an additional 1426 in different trades.
“To enable line departments to be active partners in local development, 116 government functionaries were trained. The provision of quality wheat and maize seed and fertilizers enhanced the income generation potential of 6000 households. Through a consultative process involving communities, 40 micro infrastructure schemes were completed and an additional100 identified.”