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Rebuilding Lives Towards a Safer Pakistan

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Page 1: Rebuilding Lives UNDP Pakistan

Rebuilding LivesTowards a Safer Pakistan

Page 2: Rebuilding Lives UNDP Pakistan

Front coverA girl is standing next to her pre-fabricated school. To immediately restart functions after the earthquake, UNDP provided pre-fabricated offices to various government departments including schools in earthquake affected areas.

AuthorsMariyam NawazRabia KhattakAsad MalikNimrah ZubairRehan Rafay Jamil

Edited by:Mehreen SaeedStragetic Management UnitUNDP Pakistan.

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting coun-tries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national de-velopment challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.

Farmers working in the fields of Pakistan Adminsitered Kashmir after UNDP supported farmers through Community based Livelihoods Recovery Programme.

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

UNDP’s Crisis Prevention and Recovery Programme

UNDP’s Early Recovery Initiatives

Section I: Disaster Risk Reduction

Preparing Communities, Reducing Risks

Melting glaciers- A Lurking Danger

Section II: Disaster Response

A story of hope and despair

A beautifully functional space – Prefabricated Offices

TAMEER – Build Back Better

Community Based Livelihoods Recovery Programme - Rebuilding lives after the Earthquake

Innovative solutions to Nature’s challenges – Environmental Recovery Programme

Support to Volunteerism Initiatives in Pakistan

Section III: Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas

Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas

Section IV: Post Conflict Initiatives

Sustainable Development through Peace building, Governance and Economic Recovery in NWFP

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

UNDP’s Crisis Prevention and Recovery Programme

UNDP’s Early Recovery Initiatives

Section I: Disaster Risk Reduction

Preparing Communities, Reducing Risks

Melting glaciers- A Lurking Danger

Section II: Disaster Response

A story of hope and despair

A beautifully functional space – Prefabricated Offices

TAMEER – Build Back Better

Community Based Livelihoods Recovery Programme - Rebuilding lives after the Earthquake

Innovative solutions to Nature’s challenges – Environmental Recovery Programme

Support to Volunteerism Initiatives in Pakistan

Section III: Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas

Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas

Section IV: Post Conflict Initiatives

Sustainable Development through Peace building, Governance and Economic Recovery in NWFP

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Acronyms

BCPR Bureau for Crisis Prevention and RecoveryBEGIN-ER Building Enabling Governance and Institutions for Earthquake

Response CBDP Community Based Disaster Preparedness CCAR Chief Commissionerate of Afghan RefugeesCMH Combined Military HospitalCOs Community OrganizationsCPRU Crisis Prevention and Recovery UnitCRRT Community Rapid Response Teams DRR Disaster Risk ReductionDRM Disaster Risk ManagementER Early RecoveryERP Environmental Recovery ProgrammeERRA Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation AuthorityFAO Food and Agriculture OrganizationFATA Federally Administered Tribal AreasFRC Federal Relief Commission GLOF Glacial Lake Outburst FloodsGoP Government of PakistanIDPs Internally Displaced PersonsILO International Labor OrganizationJP Joint Programme KKH Karakoram HighwayLGIs Local Government InstitutionsNARC National Agricultural Research CenterNDMA National Disaster Management AuthorityNGOs Non-Governmental OrganizationsNVM National Volunteer MovementNWFP North West Frontier ProvincePAK Pakistan Administered KashmirPaRRSA Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority PKR Pakistan RupeeRAHA Refugee Affected and Hosting AreasTAMEER Technical Assistance for Management of Earthquake Early Recovery TBA Traditional Birth AttendantTMA Tehsil Municipal AdministratorUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUND UN FoundationUNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesUNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster ReductionUNOPS United Nations Office for Project ServicesUNV United Nations VolunteersWFP World Food ProgrammeWRRI Water Resource Research Institute

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This publication is dedicated to

Mr. Mohammad Zafar IqbalAssistant Resident Representative

Crises Prevention and Recovery Unit, UNDP

for his dedicated services and outstanding leadership of 28 yearsfrom 1981 to 2009

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Foreword

The scale and intensity of natural and human induced disasters can be mitigated or exacerbated by

the relative effectiveness of humanitar-ian and recovery responses. Through coordinated and comprehensive hu-manitarian efforts, lives can be saved, infrastructure rebuilt, livelihoods re-stored and a sense of normalcy returned to the disaster-affected communities. Hence, it is critical to establish pre-crisis disaster risk management systems not only to mitigate the impact of disasters but also to help prevent future shocks from transforming into catastrophes.

Like many countries, Pakistan is prone to natural disasters from floods to droughts to earthquakes and land-slides. The fragile infrastructure and burgeoning economy of the country have been tested time and again by natural and human induced calamities which threaten hard-fought develop-ment gains. More importantly, those who are amongst the most vulnerable to disasters are often those also deal-ing with poverty and marginalization.

In 2000, UNDP Pakistan formed a dedi-cated Unit for humanitarian crises and natural disasters. Over the past decade, the Unit has monitored emergency sit-uations and implemented projects and programmes to rehabilitate communi-ties affected by earthquakes, droughts, floods and, more recently, internal conflict. It has supported the Govern-ment of Pakistan to build its disaster risk management capacity at all levels, thereby strengthening the quality of protection afforded by the state to its potentially most vulnerable communi-ties.

Through this booklet, UNDP illustrates the many facets of its work in an en-gaging and humane way. The stories reflect some of the challenges faced in a post crisis environment and describes the mitigation measures to overcome them. It is my hope that these stories will give voice to Pakistan’s men, wom-en and children who are on the front line of managing disaster risks, vulner-abilities and consequences. Through their perspectives, we are reminded again of the imperative to work on disaster risk reduction and response in times of both stability and turmoil.

Maxx DilleyDirector,Bureau for Crisis Prevention & Recovery (BCPR/DRT), UNDP

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Acknowledgments

UNDP Pakistan is grateful for the efforts of all those who have been substantively involved in this publication. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Zafar Iqbal, Assistant Resident Representative, Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit (CPRU), UNDP Country Office, Islamabad for his guidance and support. Without his leadership all the work that has been highlighted in this publication may not have been possible.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Ms. Shaista Hussain, at CPRU for taking the lead and providing us valuable feedback whenever it was required. The publication would not have been initiated and carried out in its fullest without her support and input.

We appreciate the contribution of every member from CPRU for making this publication a reality especially Mr. Hidayat Ullah Khan, Mr. Shiraz Ali Shah and Mr. Saqib Aziz who liaised with the project and field staff to help us collect primary information.

We are also thankful to Mr. Zubair Murshed, Mr. Shahid Aziz, Mr. Amir Rahat and Ms. Amber Masood for arranging the field visits and community meetings for projects in the Disaster Risk Reduction section.

For Disaster Response, the inputs from Mr. Tariq Bajwa, Dr. Ghulam Haider Kazmi and Ms. Shireen Gul proved very helpful.

This publication owes almost everything to the outstanding work of our field staff whose dedicated efforts made it possible to carry out projects

for the benefit of communities and the people of Pakistan.

Last but not the least, the booklet would not have been completed without the tireless efforts of the Strategic Management Unit team, Ms. Rabia Khattak, Ms. Nimrah Zubair and Mr. Asad Malik were responsible for consolidating project information, contributing articles for the booklet and designing its layout.

Mariyam Nawaz

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UNDP’s Crisis Prevention & Recovery ProgrammeAn Overview

Strategically located at the cross roads of South Asia, Pakistan is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the West, India in the East, China in the North-East and the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the South. Due to its diverse range of terrain, the country is prone to a number of natural disasters. Whatever the nature of the disaster, these hazards adversely affect the population in various aspects-be it social, economic or environmental.

Even though Pakistan has been identified as a disaster prone region, there was an absence of a comprehensive, integrated disaster management policy at the national level. A reactive, emergency response approach was the predominant way of dealing with disasters. The concept of disaster management was considered synonymous with relief and early recovery, rather than management in all phases of a disaster situation or long-term management of disaster risk. However, after the destructive October-2005 earthquake in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK), the need for policies specifically focusing on long term disaster mitigation became apparent. Thus the National Disaster Management Ordinance was promulgated in 2006. Under this Ordinance, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) established the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in order to effectively coordinate and monitor implementation of national policies and strategies on disaster management in Pakistan.

Following the creation of the Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) in 2001 and realizing the significance of disaster management as an integral step towards achievement of development goals, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan established its Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit (CPRU) in 2000. To date, UNDP has been involved in innumerable initiatives in collaboration with GoP in order to play its part in enhancing the government’s technical capacities to manage natural disasters, crisis and post-conflict situations. UNDP’s initiatives to rejuvenate lives and infrastructure in the conflict/disaster affected area have been significant. Other than providing early recovery support to the affectees, UNDP has strengthened the technical capacity of the government for planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of disaster risk reduction, management and recovery activities at all levels. Apart from building capacity of state owned bodies, UNDP also helped create available alternative means of livelihoods for the vulnerable population.

As part of the response to October 2005 earthquake, long term projects focused on rehabilitation of target communities after their immediate needs were fulfilled. These included provision of physical, technical support to the government-run Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and its provincial and district/state counterparts. A large number of volunteers were mobilized

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to support ongoing early recovery projects. Support was provided to local government departments at the district, tehsil and union council level for improved service delivery and training on disaster risk reduction capacity at the local level, as well as community-based livelihood interventions.

In addition to providing immediate relief as well as long term rehabilitative measures, UNDP launched the One UN Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Joint Programme (JP) in partnership with GoP. The key interventions in this programme include, assisting the government in policy making, training and advice on DRM coordination and support to the government to map hazards and put in place an early warning system for natural disasters. Additionally the DRM JP will also work on education, training and public awareness on disasters and involving and training community members at the local level in managing disasters in 20 high-risk districts.

Another important component of the DRM JP is the programme for Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA). This initiative is a joint project of the GoP and UNDP/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supported by the UN Country Team. The refugee affected areas refers to rehabilitating areas where refugees have lived for a long time. A key area is enhancing social cohesion and local economies through community development and expanding livelihood opportunities. This is done by developing vocational technical skills and expertise of both Pakistani and Afghan communities. The programme will also improve access to social services through rehabilitation of physical infrastructure, improved services and social protection of the co-existing communities through advocacy, linkages, promotion of human rights,

advice and legal aid services, referral and improved governance of service delivery. Restoration and improvement of the environment is also a key focus area.

In the coming years, UNDP will work on peace building, governance and eco-nomic recovery for the conflict-affected areas of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) focusing on Malakand Region.

The three-year programme will help the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) reconstruct their lives as they return home. It will support early recovery ac-tivities to bridge the gap between re-lief and long-term rehabilitation. This will include restoring livelihoods and also strengthen mechanisms for a co-ordinated response to the needs of the returnees at district level as well.

At a more strategic level, UNDP will also work towards diffusing and preventing local conflicts and gaining a better un-derstating of its structural causes. The programme will be implemented in cooperation with the Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Author-ity (PaRRSA), NGOs and other relevant stakeholders.

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UNDP’s Early Recovery Initiatives

Early Recovery (ER) is a multidimen-sional process that begins in a humani-tarian setting. It is guided by develop-ment principles that seek to build on humanitarian programmes and catalyze sustainable development opportuni-ties. It aims to generate self sustaining, nationally owned, resilient processes for post crisis recovery. It encompasses the restoration of basic services, liveli-hoods, shelter, governance, security and rule of law, environment and social dimensions, including the reintegra-tion of displaced populations.

People affected by conflict and natural disasters require life-saving support because their communities, institu-tions and livelihoods may be weakened or destroyed. Once they return back to their homes their survival depends upon how well and how quickly they resurrect their lives and everything associated with it. Recovery program-ming throughout the transition works to restore basic social services, infra-structure, livelihood opportunities and governance capacity. To achieve this, the foundation of recovery must be ini-tiated in the humanitarian or emergen-cy phase. Most initial attention will be given to life-saving interventions, but the sooner work on recovery begins, the sooner the affected areas are stabi-lized, and the shorter and more effec-

tive the recovery process is likely to be. As effective early recovery allows local institutions to progress with providing basic services and assume governance functions such as security, local admin-istration and justice.

UNDP is the global cluster lead for ER working around the world to restore the quality of life for men women and children who have been affected by natural disaster or conflict. Carving sta-bility out of chaos, UNDP continues to seek new ways of preventing conflicts and of sustaining life in crisis situa-tions.

UNDP supports national counterparts to develop both a disaster risk perspec-tive and the human, financial, technical and legislative capacity; civil society preparedness; and coordination sys-tems to manage the response.

UNDP identifies the needs of men, women and children in crisis and strives to meet those needs - wheth-er they be as basic as a skills training to help a tsunami victim restart his trade, or as complex as a recovery plan to ease Pakistan’s IDPs from re-lief to reconstruction, training courses to empower women to start up their own businesses, or disarmament pro-grammes turning former warlords into legitimate merchants.

Rebuilding Lives5(Guidance Note on Early Recovery, April 2008 Forced Migration Review)

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Section I: Disaster Risk Reduction

‘We cannot stop natural

calamities, but we can

and must better equip

individuals and com-

munities to withstand

them.’ Kofi Annan, UN

Secretary-General,

October 2005

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Project Title: One UN DRM Joint Programme Component

Duration: 2007 - 2011Project Budget: USD 22 millionDonors: UNDP, BCPR, UNISDR Government of Japan Partners: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Federal Line Minis-tries, Provincial/Regional Disaster Manage-ment Authorities, District Disaster Manage-ment Authorities, Departments, Training and Educational Institutions, UN agencies and NGOs.

Targeted Areas: Countrywide

Background:The Government of Pakistan has National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) which developed a National Disaster Risk Management Framework (NDRMF) defin-ing strategies and priorities of the Govern-ment of Pakistan in the area of disaster risk management for the next five years. UNDP is providing assistance to the Government of Pakistan in building capacities at the national and regional levels through support in policy making, human resource develop-ment, implementation of pilot mitigation programmes, DRM planning, resource mobi-lization and response capacity development.

Objective: The project intends to enhance capability of the Government of Pakistan at the federal, provincial and local levels in dealing with disaster risks/vulnerabilities in a systematic manner by establishing structures and sys-tems and developing capacities in line with global good practices in order to achieve sustainable social, economic and environ-mental development through avoiding shocks from disasters.

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Preparing Communities, Reducing Risks

On June 26th, 2007 Pakistan’s southern coastal areas in Balochistan were hit by Cyclone Yemyin. This was followed by heavy rains which caused an overflow of Mirani Dam and resulted in torren-tial flood. A few hundred people died and 2.15 million people were rendered homeless. Acres of crops and date palms were destroyed.

Union Council Koshkalat, situated some 7 kilometers from Turbat on the bank of Ketch River was among the worst hit.

“We didn’t know that the storm would trigger a flood . . . my hut was com-pletely destroyed . . . I wish I could have saved something for my children” said Gulab Ahmed, a resident of Koshkalat. “My pumpkin crop was also destroyed. For us this means we have lost subsist-ence for the next season. It was a diffi-cult time for our village”

Realizing the need to enhance the level of preparedness and develop an

integrated response system at the lo-cal level, UNDP initiated a flood and cyclones mitigation and preparedness programme in the coastal areas of Paki-stan. Communities of villages situated on the banks of Ketch, Sami, Nehang and Dasht Rivers were trained on evac-uation, rescue and relief. Early Warning Systems for floods were installed on each river and Community Rapid Re-sponse Teams (CRRT) were established, trained and equipped. A communica-tion mechanism was also developed.

Gulab Ahmed is a member of CRRT Koshkalat. He appreciates the value of this training “I am now prepared in every way to face any challenge of na-ture, I know how to warn my commu-nity when a flood is expected, how to evacuate efficiently and how to rescue those who are caught”

Natural calamities are a world wide phenomenon. From 1995 to 2004 the number of natural disasters worldwide increased by 70% while the number of causalities caused by these disasters almost doubled. Climate-change has resulted in an increase in natural ca-lamities causing huge economic and human losses. The developing world suffers the most due to population den-sity and lack of disaster preparedness and mitigation mechanisms. When a disaster strikes, it is the poor and vul-nerable who are the most affected.

As a developing country, Pakistan faces a high risk of physical damage, envi-ronmental degradation, and social and economic disruption in the event of a disaster. This is evident from Pakistan’s experience of the October-2005 earth-quake in which tens of thousands of

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people died for lack of basic building standards. It is very important to miti-gate and prepare for the risk to save lives and protect livelihoods.

Invest little, save much

By investing a little in disaster prepar-edness and mitigation, we can save much. Based on this paradigm, UNDP Pakistan has adopted a three-pronged approach towards disaster risk reduc-tion encompassing mitigation, prepar-edness and advocacy in every initiative with communities and government in-stitutions. Ranging from mainstream-ing of disaster risk management plans into planning process of line ministries to retrofitting disaster-hit buildings at minimal costs, UNDP has been actively advocating for disaster risk reduction.

Communities participate in the prepar-edness trainings and exercises to miti-gate prevailing risk of natural disasters including Glacial Lake Outburst Floods

(GLOFs), floods, cyclones, tsunami and earthquakes. Communities have been trained on how to build safer houses and how to withstand, respond to and recover from hazards.

Apart from the capacity building and the development of community re-sponse teams, UNDP has taken other measures such as mangrove plantation in Thatta and Badin districts. These ar-eas are prone to cyclones and floods and mangroves act as barriers. Specifi-cally, 1,200,000 mangroves have been planted on 200 hectares of the coastal belt of UC Kothi, Tehsil Jati of District Thatta. This has motivated local com-munities to adopt the disaster prepar-edness practices.

Building check dams-An effort to re-duce the losses

Apart from preparing communities for potential hazards, UNDP is also sup-porting them in mitigating and low-

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ering the scale of damages. Building check dams to barricade land slides in earthquake hit areas is one such exam-ple.

This has impacted the lives of many. Shahbaz 28, a father of two is one such example. He lives in a small house in a shanty town near Gulshan Nullah in Gulshan Colony, Muzaffarabad. His house was destroyed by the earthquake so he had to rent alternate accom-modation. In his new home he faced another threat; flooding by monsoon. The earthquake had removed grass and trees from the nearby mountains. No longer protected by the plantation, rainwater flooded the houses bring-ing along debris from the mountains. Like Shahbaz, most of the neighbors had wooden or partially cemented houses which were badly damaged by rainwater and rubble with every rain. “They (government) tried to help us by removing debris from our steep street after the rain but it would rain the next day and we would be back to where we started. . . sometimes we would spend the whole day removing debris from our house and stopping rainwater from entering our houses. Our children could not go to school” Shahbaz said. This debris raised the street level even-tually creating easy flow of rain water to the houses. “I felt as if there would be no end to our misery, this is what

we are destined to do; removing debris from our streets and cleaning rainwa-ter from our houses” Sahabaz added.

After a complete vulnerability assess-ment survey, UNDP plans to implement an environmental recovery project for prevention of debsis and mud flow and construction of check dams on steep slopes of the nearby mountains. This prevented the debris from flowing in and helped reduce the flow of rainwa-ter.

Retrofitting is another innovative ap-proach. Damaged buildings are repaired and made functional. The Jinnah Dental Hospital, Muzaffara-bad is a case in point. Built on 10,000 square feet, equipped with latest equipment, this state-of-art hospital was to be inaugurated in 2005 when earth-quake struck. The hospital building was badly damaged and later marked by the

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structural engineers as ‘not fit’ for use. The Government planned to demolish the building and rebuild the hospital on a new site which was to cost more than PKR 25 million. UNDP in collabo-ration with Engineering University, Pe-shawar arranged for retrofitting of the damaged building of Jinnah Hospital. This retrofitting cost less than 8% of construction cost and saved consider-able resources for other development initiatives in the area.

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management

Incorporating disaster risk management practices in government planning and policies is essential for a comprehen-sive DRM approach. This is why UNDP is actively supporting line ministries to incorporate DRM practices in develop-ment plans for the future. District and provincial level DRM plans and maps

of vulnerable places have been devel-oped to support this process. Building structure standards have been devised and civil engineers of municipals have been trained in safer and earthquake-resistant construction.

Through it’s development efforts, UNDP has gained the goodwill of many communities. Syed Shakil Gil-lani, Secretary, Municipal Corporation, Muzaffarabad appreciates this work, “The efforts of UNDP experts to sup-port disaster preparedness will always be remembered”

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‘Our vulnerability to disasters has never been so high. We have no choice … we need to move the dis-aster risk reduction agenda forward if we want to save lives.’

John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary General For Humanitarian Affairs

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Title: Regional Climate Risk Reduction Project in the Himalayas

Duration: July 2009 – December 2010Donors: European Commission

Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) and Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR)

Target Areas: Districts in Pakistan: Gilgit

Background

The northern mountainous areas of Pakistan encompass the Hindu-Kush and Himalaya mountain ranges. The global warming in the Himalayas is higher than the global average which is causing the retreat of glaciers to an average rate of 30 to 60 meters per decade. This results in rapid accumulation of water lakes situated on top of the mountain. As glaciers retreat, glacial lakes form behind moraine or ice ‘dams’. These can breach anytime leading to floods known as Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). In a GLOF, millions of cubic meters of water and debris is discharged in a few hours flooding up to hundreds of kilometers downstream. GLOFs destroy property, farms, socio-economic infrastructure and irrigation channels and undermine the already meager sources of livelihood of mountain people and down-stream communities. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) has initiated a project in four countries in the Hindu-Kush-Himalayas including Gilgit Balttistan region of Pakistan to mitigate the risk of climate-induced disasters such as GLOFs.

Objective

The project aims to address the risks posed by GLOFs in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region through strengthening non-structural and community-based approaches.

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Melting glaciers- A Lurking Danger

January 6, 2008: Sudden outburst in Passu glacier has caused release of huge volume of water from the nearby lake. The flood water has damaged glacier Burj Hotel and many houses in the vicin-ity. Karakoram Highway (KKH) remained blocked for all types of traffic. A Bridge on KKH is also under threat of being swept away. In order to avoid further dam-ages, houses near the glacier have been evacuated and people have been shifted to safe places. After this event, volunteers and Scouts from surrounding villages gathered in Passu to deal with any emer-gency situation. (Pamir Times)

May 25, 2008: Another flood from the Ghulkin Glacier hit the Karakoram High-way and the Chutghust settlement of Ghulkin village. The volume of water was very high as compared to the flood on May 21. It caused huge losses to the potato and wheat fields, orchards and forest areas. KKH also remained closed for 6 hours. The local volunteers have

evacuated the local houses in fear of more floods. . . . . . . Morever, seepage of water from the glacier just above the Ghulkin village has created fear among the local community. According to local people, unlike the past, excessive water flow from the glacier is observed even during December, when the temperature remains below zero.(Pamir Times)

Why flood in the mountains?

The Himalayan region contains the largest areas covered by glaciers and permafrost outside the polar region.

Being the cradle of nine of the largest riv-ers in Asia whose ba-sins are home to over 1.3 billion people, the region is susceptible to a whole range of hydrological, tectonic and climate induced disasters.

The global warming in the Himalayas is higher than the glo-bal average which is causing the retreat of

glaciers to an average rate of 30 to 60 meters per decade. This results in rapid accumulation of water lakes situated on top of the mountain. As glaciers retreat, glacial lakes form behind mo-raine or ice ‘dams’. These can breach an-ytime leading to floods known as Gla-cial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF). In a

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GLOF, millions of cubic meters of water and debris is discharged in a few hours flooding up to hundreds of kilometres downstream. GLOFs destroy property, farms, socio-economic infrastructure and irrigation channels and undermine the already meagre sources of liveli-hood of mountain people and down-stream communities.

Like other parts of the Himalayas, the climate-induced changes are quite ap-parent in Hunza river basin as well. Pas-su and Ghulkin glaciers in Hunza are also melting fast. The rapid melting of glacial ice mass is resulting into expan-sion of existing lakes and formation of new ones.

Splendour turning into menace

The towering glaciers of Ghulkin and Passu are cradled in the serene val-ley of Gojal in Hunza river basin. The valley borders China through the famous Khunjrab, Kilik and Mintika passes and the Afghan Wakhan through Irshod Pass. Go-jal spreads over an area of about 8,500 square kilometers. The beauty of its lakes and the pot-pourri of surrounding villages make it a heaven

for the tourists.

However the formation of glacial lakes poses a great threat to neighbouring communities because a sudden dis-charge of huge volume of water and debris from the lake can flood neigh-bouring villages of Hussaini, Passu and Ghulkin in Gojal. This can potentially harm livelihoods of many households in these villages.

In Gojal, five GLOFs occurred in the first six months of 2008 .

Socio-economic impact of GLOFs

Livelihoods of people of Ghulkin, Passu and Hussaini villages depend on small plots of cultivable land, fruit farms and livestock which are now endangered due to GLOFs caused by melting of Pas-su and Ghulkin glaciers. Losing cattle or a fruit farm in a craggy area like Gojal means losing the food supplies for the whole family.

“Five GLOF events have already oc-curred in Gojal area of the Hunza river basin in the first half of 2008. GLOF events at Ghulkin and Passu caused substantial damage to infrastructure and arable land, however no lives were lost. As a result of the GLOFs seventy-

“Glofs are potentially dangerous because melt water gets blocked inside a glacier. It can burst anytime. We cannot see it coming and that is what makes them a bigger problem than the larger glacial surface lakes,” Shaun Richardson, Geologist, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University.

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two canals of land were affected, out of which twenty-nine were cropland. 460 fruit trees amounting to a cost of PKR 161,000 were destroyed. Seven houses and four cattle sheds were de-molished killing 15 cattle. Nine hun-dred Sq feet of terrace wall was dam-aged and a 2,500 feet long public link road and two electricity poles were de-stroyed. Three water channels/cools, 25 pipes and two water storage tanks were damaged. In total twenty one people were affected by the floods”.

The latest and most recent event oc-curred in May 2009 causing damage to infrastructure and property. During all flood events, local volunteers and scouts assisted the villagers in evacua-tion and any other type of support.

The looming risk calls for attention

In the past, the risk posed by GLOFs received little or no attention amongst governments, communities and de-

velopment actors in Pakistan. Conse-quently, despite the repeated events of glacial lake floods, people of Gojal did not know how to deal with the situa-tion in the event of a disaster. When a flood occurred in the area, the recovery efforts were limited and impromptu.

Preparing Communities – Reducing Risks

In order to meet the threat posed by formation of glacial lakes, UNDP BCPR in collaboration with NDMA, initiated to the Regional GLOF Risk Reduction Initiative in the Gilgit Baltistan of Paki-stan. UNDP worked on raising aware-ness of the local communities and building their capacities in terms of Community Based Disaster Prepared-ness (CBDP) approaches. Under the GLOF Risk Reduction initiative pilot activities in Gojal (Ghulkin, Passu and Hussaini villages), were implemented in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature– Pakistan.

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A Baseline assessment study on the im-pact of GLOFs in Hunza River Basin em-phasized the need of focused efforts to equip local communities with skills to deal with such eventualities. The base-line assessment study was conducted in the field with the support of Water Re-source Research Institute (WRRI) of the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) as an external consultant.

Research indicates that people need to learn about hazards in order to pre-pare and plan in advance. In addition to community based disaster prepared-ness the structural mitigation approach should be explored. Unfortunately there has been no land use planning and zoning in these areas. Nonetheless, people are more aware and some are even considering moving their settle-ments to safer areas but have not been able to do so due to limited resources.

A system needs to be developed with ownership of the local administration. GLOF risk reduction needs to be fac-tored in development planning process in the mountain areas. Rural communi-ties need strong government support because they are bound by limited re-sources and poverty.

Gearing up for preparedness

UNDP piloted a training programme in three villages of Gojal to raise aware-ness in the communities on the dan-ger and causes of GLOFs. 60 men and women of Voluntary Emergency Re-sponse Teams and some students from the three villages have been trained in first aid and search and rescue. Exten-sive field drills of first aid and Search and Rescue (SAR)have also been con-ducted.

Along with the training, UNDP has also

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provided the required SAR and first aid equipment to the communities.

The people of Ghulkin, Hussaini and Passu villages are now happy because they know how to reduce the risk of and respond to a flood.

“This learning is an asset for me. Now I know how to deliver first aid and con-duct search and rescue. . We have the equipment now so we will teach these skills to our fellow villagers in next sea-sonal festival” said Shahana, a village member of Ghulkin.

Communities are also supported in building dams against moraine and draining of hazardous lakes to reduce the risk of outbursts.

Water towers of Asia producing hazardous lakes

The river basins in Hundu Kush and Him-alyas in Pakistan are home to 39.36 mil-lion people . These basins include Swat, Chitral, Gilgit, Hunza, Shigar, Shyok, In-dus, Shingo, Astor, and Jhelum . Out of 2,420 glacial lakes covering an area of 126 square kilometres, 52 are identified

as potentially dangerous for surround-ing communities in these basins.

Number of potentially hazardous lakes in ten river basins in Pakistan

River Basin Number of lakes

Swat 2

Chitral 1

Gilgit 8

Hunza 1

Shigar 0

Shyok 6

Indus 15

Shingo 5

Astor 9

Jhelum 5

Total 52

Appropriate and timely measures are needed to reduce the risk of GLOF in these river basins. UNDP, via its GLOF Risk Reduction project will replicate its pilot in the other basins as well and mainstream GLOF risk reduction meas-ures into community and administrative socio-economic planning. Thus saving many lives from impending disaster.

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Section II: Disaster Reponse

“UNDP’s early and

proactive role paved

the way for the UN Sys-

tem”.General Nadeem Ahmed, Ex-Deputy Chairman, ERRA

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A story of hope and despair

The eighteen storey building shivered like a decrepit old structure as the earth shook on 8th October 2005. In a matter of minutes the mighty structure was reduced to a maze of twisted iron and cracked concrete. From Islamabad to Mansehra, Rawalakot and Batta-gram, the destruction was widespread. As expected the amount of rubble that this created was immense. As did the entire UN system, UNDP also respond-ed promptly and undertook a much-needed rubble removal project.

The rubble removal project showcased UNDP’s commitment to help people earn a living by incorporating the cash-for work approach. The vast quantities of rubble and debris generated by the earthquake had to be removed before reconstruction could commence. At the same time, the destruction of offices, businesses and agriculture meant that thousands of families lost their liveli-hoods. UNDP addressed both these issues through hiring local people for the purpose of clearing the rubble

and recovering reusable construction materials from the wreckage. 554,030 cubic meters of rubble cleared from 1,448 sites. This meant that 178,758 la-bor days were generated which were equivalent to one month’s work for 7,150 men.

Over 500, 000 cubic meters of rubble was cleared from 1, 448 sites, mostly from essential public facilities such as schools and health clinics. Prioritizing these projects facilitated restoration of basic services and also helped in psy-chological recovery as a grim reminder of the tragedy was removed.

In addition to this, UNDP also initiated a Heating and Cooking Energy Project as these needs had to be met on an urgent basis. A total of 78, 000 cook-ing and heating stoves along with LPG gas cylinders were distributed with each kit worth PKR. 6, 000. Before the earthquake, the local population re-lied primarily on wood for cooking and heating thus using the forests in

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an unsustainable manner. By allowing access of green fuel to these families, an estimated 50, 000 trees were saved. The support extended to critical insti-tutions as well, 100 basic health units, 80 UNICEF child protections centers received heating equipment and fuel. 50 kerosene heaters and fuel supplies were provided to medical camps in Rawalakot, 100 patio heaters given to emergency communal hospitals and 9,500 cylinders and stoves were distrib-uted to teachers.

Shelters of hope

The transitional shelters provided by UNDP were designed for easy construc-tion, using available materials, and to withstand aftershocks.

Each shelter took three people a time period of three days to put up. The walls comprised of 300 sturdy plastic bags stuffed with soil for the bottom layers. This provided insulation and stability, enabling the structure to withstand aftershocks. Wooden beams salvaged from the rubble were used to support

the pitched corrugated iron roof. At the rear was a stall for livestock. Tools to build the shelters were available local-ly. Materials provided for each shelter included a tool kit and a fuel-efficient heating and cooking stove.

At a cost of only $ 250, each shelter could house a family of six. In addition to the support provided directly for shelter construction by UNDP, the locals could easily replicate the simple model and put up shelters for themselves. UNDP assisted in the construction of over 53, 252 transitional/semi-perma-nent shelters with the help of 221 local engineers, 185 local contractors, 168 community masons, 997 trainers that were especially trained for this pur-pose. With thousands benefitting from these shelters a feared winter disaster was averted but an important lesson was also learned, the poor construc-tion and deforestation compounded the damage caused by the earthquake. A risk management approach thus be-came the only way forward for a disas-ter-prone country like Pakistan.

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Project Title: Building Enabling Governance and Institutions for Earthquake Response (BEGIN-ER)

Duration: July 2006-March 2009

Project Budget: USD 10.362 million

Donors: UNDP, DFID, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)

Partners: Economic Affairs Division, Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority, Planning and Development Department, Local Government Department Provincial ERRA NWFP and SERRA

Targeted Areas: Abbottabad, Mansehra, Batagarm, Shangla and Kohistan (N.W.F.P), Muzaffarabad, Neelum, Poonch and Bagh (PAK)

Background: The 8th October 2005 earthquake devastated five districts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and four districts of Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK). Thousands of local government personnel at the district and tehsil levels perished and large number of office buildings, equipment, records and facilities were destroyed.

The need to restore government capacity at local levels for planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring was immediate. UNDP responded to this need and committed to restoring local government institutions in the affected areas and improving their capacity to handle any future disasters more effectively. BEGIN-ER was thus launched to enable local government institutions to start working again quickly and to develop their technical capacities to plan and implement disaster risk reduction and recovery activities.

Objective: To enable Local Government Institutions (LGIs) to function again quickly and have technical capacities to plan and implement disaster response activities through a transparent, equitable and participatory process.

Capacity development of local government officials, elected representatives and NGOs to play an effective role in coordination, planning and monitoring disaster response

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A beautifully functional space– Prefabricated Offices

Muzaffarabad, the city of green hills

Muzzafarabad district, the land of green hills, is situated on the banks of Jehlum and Neelum rivers. The district is situat-ed in PAK in northern part of Pakistan. The state borders with Punjab province in the south and NWFP in the west.

The district population of almost 800,000 people is served by land revenue, plan-ning and development, local govern-ment and rural development and other key government departments.

After the October-2005 earthquake, a large number of buildings in the district either collapsed or suffered irreparable damage. The Land Revenue Depart-ment was one of the many buildings that collapsed. Though the relief efforts started immediately after the earth-quake, planning for recovery and re-construction also commenced in paral-lel. It was a critical time and most offices had no infrastructure to work with.

Nowhere to start

In the wake of the earthquake, the task of land ownership verification for recovery and recon-struction planning was handed over to the Land Revenue Depart-ment. This institution primarily dealt in land revenue, agriculture in-come tax, land surveys and record of rights. Al-though some files were recovered from the de-bris, the Department urgently required an office space. Ini-tially they began work in the damaged building of the Deputy Commissioner’s

Office but a safe place was required to store the valuable land records as the files were piled in tents, susceptible to damage by rain. Hundreds of cases were being lodged every day and veri-fication of land ownership was para-mount.

A respectful workplace; easy access for the common man

UNDP provided pre-fabricated offices to all key local government depart-ments and upon recognition of the Land Revenue Department’s integral work they were amongst the first few to receive such a facility. Raja Farooq, Senior Member Board of Revenue, PAK appreciated the effort, “We did not have any office set-up or infrastructure to process the cases. . . until we got 4 prefabs from the BEGIN-ER project. . . whoever thought about it (pre-fabs) was very astute. . . We were able to par-ticipate in the reconstruction work . . moreover it was an honorable place to sit for women and officers . I must say, every penny spent on these prefabs was worth it”

The new offices set-up in pre-fabs were functional, however record keeping

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was still an issue. Responding to this need, UNDP gave 40 containers to store the files. These containers were used for transporting pre-fabs and were then put up for auction. “It has become much easier for us now to maintain data and to help people manage their lands and livelihoods and to support them in resorting their ordinary pursuit of life” Raja Farooq added.

Patwaris, the mobile land recorders…now accessible by the people

A Patwari is an employee of the land revenue department responsible for maintaining record of land at village level and is the primary and critical source of land verification. Patwaris are infamous for being inaccessible as they do not have permanent offices and move around with their ledgers. After the Land Revenue Department received the containers, they convert-ed some of them into Patwar offices in order to facilitate the masses. “. .We thought it a good idea to sit the Pat-waris in one work space and thus make them available to people who waned their council . . now a Patwari happily sits in a container turned into his new office space twice a week…feeling more important than ever!” comment-ed one anonymous observer.

To further facilitate the citizens, the UNDP provided 32 pre-fabs for the pur-pose of Patwar offices.

Capacitating local government departments to deliver

Infrastructure support was critical at the time and UNDP recognized the need for this support along with the training. The scale of work that was expected of it was far beyond its tra-ditional capacity. UNDP trained 360 land record officials and Patwaris in record management to address this critical gap.

Other than the land revenue de-partment, government officials

from other departments, elected rep-resentatives and members of NGOs were also trained in various skills in-cluding disaster risk reduction and in-formation technology. Kaneez Sughra was the first Woman Master Trainer on DRR from Mansehra, NWFP reiterates the value of this training. “I realized the importance of having disaster man-agement skills after the earthquake but I still did not know how to deal with emergencies until I got training on dis-aster risk reduction by UNDP. . . .now I know what role a government servant can play when a disaster happens”

Magnifying the support scale

UNDP considered the recovery efforts as a window of opportunity to equip departments and organizations with disaster management skills and thus provided infrastructure and capac-ity building support to several gov-ernment departments and public in-stitutions for enhanced performance and improved service delivery. This in-cluded State Disaster Management Au-

….this had not only resulted in en-hancing the capacity of the recipient offices to face the challenges of re-construction but had also improved their service delivery. . . . .

Daily Times, Wednesday July 30, 2008

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thority, President and Prime Minister Secretariats, Combined Military Hospi-tal (CMH) and District Judiciary as the prominent few among many in Muzaf-farabad and other districts covered by the project.

Subsequent to its support to govern-ment departments, UNDP focused on the restoration of public entities in-cluding police stations, schools and hospitals by providing them with infra-structure and equipment support. At present, many schools, hospitals and police stations are functional in pre-fabs. Said Tehseen Ahmed, officer, Local Government Department, PAK recom-mends pre-fabs as a solid and viable option “Even when we construct our own building, we would continue using pre-fabs because they are as practical as a well constructed building”

Pre-fabs- A respectable work-place

“As the Head of this administrative unit, I manage the Tehsil Municipal Admin-istration (TMA) of Tehsil Balakot. Peo-ple come to the TMA office for issues related to lands, estates, properties, sewerage, drainage, sanitation, roads, land use control, and coordination of development plans and projects. After the earthquake every structure in Bala-kot Tehsil was reduced to rubble. We had to sit in shabby gazebos on dirty grounds. People coming to us had to stand and wait because we had no place to make them sit. We were des-perate to help our people but we were based in a cluster of tents in village of Shohal Najaf some 8 kilometers from Balakot city. People were looking up to us as their elected representatives but I myself had a tent as an office where there was hardly any furniture. . . . . I felt very helpless. The traumatized people started losing faith in their mu-nicipal administration’s capacity to deliver.

At that time UNDP team was adminis-tering relief efforts for the earthquake affectees in the area and we were coordinating their response. During their work in the area, they realized the tough conditions in which we were working. When the BEGIN-ER gave pre-fabs to local government institu-tions, we got 4 for us.

… I call this the actual capacity build-ing because now TMA workers have a respectable and secure place to sit in and serve a population of 300,000 people. . . . people coming to our office in pre-fabs have a belief that they will receive service. . . . the scenario would have been completely different with-out pre-fabs”

Junaid Qasim, Tehsil Nazim, Tehsil Balakot, NWFP

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Project Title: Technical Assistance for Management of Earthquake Early Recovery

Duration: Dec 2005- Dec 2009Project Budget: USD 6.29 millionDonors: DFID, UNISDR, UNF Government of GermanyPartners: ERRA, PERRA, SERRA, DRU, Targeted Areas: Earthquake affected areas PAK and NWFP

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 depart-ments 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 provin-cial 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 priori-tized response towards the restoration of governance capacity as part of the early re-covery phasing into long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction.Upon launch of TAMEER project in December 2005, ERRA was provided technical assistance on strategic planning, institutional develop-ment, programme and donor coordination, human settlements and resource and recon-struction database management. ERRA was also supported through office equipment, transpor-tation, and internet facility.Support was also offered towards forming the organizational structure of ERRA, which includ-ed ToRs and a remuneration system for staff and Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) including management of budget and procurement.

Objective: To facilitate the government in the timely, equitable and sustained implementation of National Plan of Action for earthquake rehabilitation and reconstructionTo prepare for future disasters

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TAMEER – Building Back Better

Very few communities in the world would have known the real meaning of building back better as Kashmiris have known it. Looking down at the valley of Muzaffarabad from the hills of Upper Chattar one can hardly believe that the city went through a huge dis-aster four years ago. The city presents a pristine view with rivers Neelum and Jehlum greeting each other. The huge red brick buildings of district complex resemble model blocks being dis-played at the centre of a model city. This serene landscape was the scene of the 2005 earthquake disaster and only after much struggle and hardship has the tranquility been reclaimed.

Given the amount of devastation that the earthquake caused, the task of re-covery was enormous and the existing capacity of the institutions mandated to plan and execute the reconstruction work was in dire need of support and revision.

Establishment of ERRA

The Government formed the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) for coordi-nating the response to the disaster. This was mandated to undertake large scale relief operations in search and rescue, health, water, food and shelter. By March 2006, the relief phase had moved into the reconstruction and re-habilitation phase. But the government institutions were severely damaged the capacities of line departments in both NWFP and PAK were extremely limited to undertake the onerous task of rehabilitation. Responding to this lack of capacity and as an addition to the FRC, the Government established ERRA at the federal level while Provin-cial Earthquake Reconstruction and

Rehabilitation Authority (PERRA) and State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (SERRA) as the provincial and state counterparts.

UNDP provided physical, technical and intellectual support to ERRA and its provincial and state counterparts at the request of GoP. This support re-flected UNDP’s prioritized response towards the restoration of governance capacity as part of early recovery phas-ing into long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The technical support provided to ERRA included resource and recon-struction database management, stra-tegic planning, programme and donor coordination, institutional develop-ment as well as human settlements. Since it was a new institution, office equipment, transportation and inter-net facilities were also provided. UNDP also assisted in forming ERRA’s organi-zational structure, through job descrip-tions, remuneration systems and man-agement processes for budget and procurement.

Supporting the Early Recovery

Human resources and technical capaci-ties of ERRA and its provincial and dis-trict counterparts were strengthened in management, environment, social protection, gender, governance and disaster risk reduction through 85 UN-DP-supported experts. This dedicated team of professionals was an important asset to the organization as it worked to expedite recovery and restore nor-malcy to the lives of the affectees.

While planning experts assisted SERRA and PERRA in formulating programmes;

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catering to almost 8,000 facilities, the environmental experts ensured that projects on forest, fisheries and de-bris removal followed their guidelines. Significantly, a manual on Integrated Slope Stabilization Techniques was de-veloped illustrating ways of avoiding flash floods induced by torrential rain. Today, 30 slopes have been stabilized in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra guard-ing a large segment of the population from land slides.

The Social Welfare Complexes at Muzaf-farabad, Neelum, Rawalakot and Bagh were supported. UNDP also ensured that the inclusion of the most vulner-able affectees into ERRA’s initiatives for housing reconstruction, livelihood rehabilitation, child and legal sup-port and the Rural Landless Program of ERRA.

Israr Mughal, Deputy Director, Depart-ment of Social Welfare appreciates UNDP’s role “The development of the Women Development Complex in Mu-zaffarabad has been made possible only with the unprecedented support of UNDP staff. From planning and ap-proval to construction and operation, they have been with us every step of the way”

More than 4000 people benefitted from this identification exercise. Tan-veer 6 and Rashid 7, two minor broth-ers from village Utrery in Muzaffara-bad who were orphaned in the earthquake were among them. Their house was com-pletely destroyed and they had no place to live. They were shifted from the camps to an orphanage where they resided for two years. They were categorized as ex-tremely vulnerable through a UNDP-supported survey and given under guardianship to their Uncle, Muhammad Ba-

shir through UNDP’s help.

In order to ensure that they had a se-cure future, a PKR 75,000 grant was a disbursed to Bashir through which he bought a small plot next to his house. Additional support of PKR 275,000 ena-bled them to build a two-room house on the acquired land. Tanveer and Rashid have since been living here.

A majority of water supply schemes were damaged or destroyed after the earthquake which needed to be re-stored for normal life to resume. UNDP helped in building 2754 water supply and sanitation schemes. These are now being managed by the Water Quality & Hygiene Promotion project through out the earthquake affected areas al-lowing access of this precious resource to the affected population.

Building the future

Muhammad Maqbool Abbasi, Director, Planning and Development Depart-ment, PAK highlights another aspect of UNDP support, “After the earthquake, 3000 schools and colleges were de-stroyed in PAK. SERRA was to rebuild these. The UNDP team supported the whole activity. We cooperated very well. They helped us in developing the projects for the funding from various donors such as USAID and govern-ments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. They have done a really good job.”

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More than 1000 schools were rebuilt. Zeenat Azam, Principal, Government Post Graduate College, RawlaKot re-iterates, “Our College was completely destroyed during earthquake. With the

dedicated support of UNDP staff, the plan for reconstruction was approved and the college has been completely rebuilt”

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Project Title: Community Based Livelihoods Recovery Programme

Duration: April 2006- April 2009Project Budget: USD 13.8 million Donors: European UnionPartners: Governments of NWFP and

PAKTargeted Areas: Earthquake-affected areas

of PAK and NWFP (Balakot and Muzaffarabad Tehsils)

Background:The 8 October 2005 earthquake played havoc with the production bases of the local population, destroying the wage based as well as natural resource based livelihoods in both rural and urban areas of the affected region. The project aims to support immediate and mid-term livelihoods recovery of the vulnerable population in the earthquake-affected areas of NWFP and PAK.

Objectives: To revitalize and strengthen Community Organizations (COs) to ensure participation of affected people in planning, execution and monitoring of livelihoods recovery activities;To restore and strengthen the capacity of line departments and civil society organizations to enable them to be active partners in local development;

To restore income generation activities of affected population especially the vulnerable groups through skills enhancement;

To revive agriculture sector, provide food security and mitigate environmental effects of the earthquake; and

To support construction or rehabilitation of community infrastructure related to livelihoods recovery and economic development.

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Community Based Livelihoods Recovery Programme - Rebuilding lives after the Earthquake

Relief and Early Recovery

Responding to the enormous chal-lenge of rehabilitating livelihoods in the aftermath of the earthquake, UNDP began its relief and early recovery op-erations soon after. As the immediate life-saving needs were met in the relief phase, UNDP laid down the founda-tions for a self-sustaining, nationally-owned and resilient process for post crisis recovery.

Working jointly with several UN agen-cies, including United Nations Industri-al Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Office for Project Serv-ices (UNOPS), Food and Agriculture Or-ganization (FAO) and International La-bor Organization (ILO), the programme was able to adopt a holistic approach to livelihood restoration. The main ar-eas of focus included en-hancing the capacities of community organizations, line departments and civil society organizations and the revival of the agricul-tural sector. Community infrastructure was restored through the participation of the locals and their skills developed to enable them to earn a living.

As in other programmes across the UN, a special effort was made to address gender, and environmental concerns and the inclusion of disabled persons in the rebuilding process.

Learning in the field

As many as 2.8 million inhabitants resid-ing in the Northern regions of Pakistan were displaced after the earthquake. Afzal Khan was one such affectee. Leav-ing his 20 kanals of land unattended, the 45-year old left home soon after the earthquake to work as a labourer in Muzaffarabad. Like in most earth-quake affected areas, agriculture had collapsed in his village; Thotha Dhiri, some 18 kilometres from Muzaffara-bad in the valley of the Jehlam river. As a result, farmers were turning to other options or simply waiting for hand-outs from relief agencies. Afzal Khan recounts “Agricultural activity came to a standstill after the earthquake but I decided to return when I heard that UNDP was organizing communities to restart agriculture.” Alongside pro-

viding fertilizers and quality seeds for wheat, maize, vegetables and fodder, UNDP supported farmers in improving their agriculture techniques by form-ing Farmer Field Schools .

Rebuilding Lives 30(The stories in this article are contributed by Zaigham Bajwa)

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Almost 1,400 farmers were trained through these schools, of these almost 40% were females. In Tanveer’s village, 25 farmers organized themselves into a group and started experimenting with new crops and technologies, sharing their learning at a weekly meeting in-cluding modern and indigenous farm-ing methods. Rather than remaining confined to a single crop of maize, as they did before the earthquake, the farmers experimented with growing wheat and a number of vegetables. “What was most important was that there was an emphasis on avoiding indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers,” reflects Moham-mad Tanveer Khan, facilitator of the group. “Farmers, in fact, developed ex-pertise in organic farming.”

In the past year, Afzal Khan has suc-cessfully grown and sold seedlings of onions, different vegetables, maize and wheat. “I don’t have to worry about the food for my family any longer and I make good money by marketing vegetables and rice,” he says proudly. Today, there is almost no house in the village with-out a kitchen garden as hundred percent agricul-tural land has been cul-tivated. “Farms have not only become green, they have become much more productive,” according to Tanveer Khan.

After the successful venture of Farmer Field Schools in Muzaffarabad, the sup-port extended to other areas as well, mainly executed through implement-ing partners.

Irshad Bibi, 30, was part of a group of six women who joined Farmer Field School at Dhani Shahdara, Jigal, Hatti-an Bala. While she used to grow wheat

and vegetables for the family’s subsist-ence on her four-kanal-land, now she is also producing vegetables for selling in the market. “I grow spinach, corian-der, garlic, tomato and chili,” she says proudly. “I earned 7,000 rupees by sell-ing spinach alone and I hope to make a good income by selling other veg-etables also,” she says. Other women in her group are not far behind. “A healthy competition has emerged among all the farmers in our village and in other villages too, to get the best out of our small farms,” she adds.

Rebuilding community organizations

After the earthquake, many COs in Mu-zaffarabad ceased to function but com-munities recognized that reconstruc-tion would only be possible through a collective effort, this concept is known as participatory development. Once formed in a transparent and demo-cratic way, COs set their own priorities

for development and carry out their activities with or without external sup-port. Participatory development par-ticularly benefits the poor and margin-alized sections of society by involving them in the process of reconstructing a group identity, raising awareness and acquiring new skills and knowledge. This process bestows on the poor a new power over the economic and social

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forces that fashion their daily lives. It is through this power that the poor shift out of the perception of being passive victims of the circumstances that per-petuate their poverty. They start taking action to improve their economic and social conditions, and finally succeed in overcoming poverty.

UNDP decided to help these commu-nities revitalize dormant COs and form new ones. The project also encouraged existing COs to enhance female partici-pation in rehabilitation efforts. Conse-quently, women were not only appoint-ed as members and office bearers of COs, but separate COs for women were also formed. In Muzaffarabad alone, almost 250 women COs were formed, in other COs, women got healthy rep-resentation. As a result, men started to realize the decision making and leader-ship potential of women.

So far 1116 COs have assembled in the form of 37 clusters. These clusters are emerging as effective platforms of

people’s organizations. The project has also made an effort to support the COs and clusters in establishing strong link-ages with government departments and donors.

Today, most of these organizations are effective forums with many already working with government and inter-national organizations. To state a few examples, Area Development Organi-zation, a cluster of 63 COs in Muzafara-bad Tehsil is running 40 schools with support from the National Education Foundation. Its member COs have ac-cumulated savings ranging from Rs. 60,000 to 100,000 and have received matching grants from Community Development Project of the PAK Gov-ernment. The cluster is also running a micro-finance initiative that boasts of a hundred percent recovery rate. “UNDP and its partners have played a signifi-cant role in the development of COs in this part of the country,” states Syed As-ghar Hussain Bukhari, President of the cluster.

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Saving mothers and babies

The programme has enabled many to learn new skills and strengthen exist-ing ones. Through Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) 80 women are now trained to assist in child birth. Maimoo-na Akhter is one of them. At 60, she is regarded as a wise old woman in the small village of Karian. Women consult her on all health issues but her advice is valued most during child birth. “As it takes many hours to reach the near-est health care facility, women have to rely on their seniors for help and guid-ance,” she elaborates. “I was doing this work anyway. I thought why not try and learn it properly.” Mai-moona spent three months getting hands on training at the Rural Health Centre in Pattika and received a medical kit at the end.

“This training has been very beneficial to me, but I think it has also helped a large number of women who turn to me for help and ad-vice,” says Maimoona. “Now

I can warn an expectant mother if her delivery is potentially risky and she can be transferred to a hospital well in time. Because of the training, now we try to send women who are pregnant for the first time to a hospital and all TBAs take cleanliness very, very seriously,” she elaborates. Due to the training, Maimoona’s income has also increased substantially and now she charges PKR. 500 to 1,000 for a case.”

Skill training for livelihood

Rana Iqbal’s story is another heart-ening one. Many guests who stop at Darwesh Hotel and Restaurant, near

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Garhi Dupatta for a cup of hot tea or a plate of chicken biryani, don’t know how he picked the pieces of his life af-ter the earthquake. “I almost lost my mind after my house was destroyed in the earthquake, my little daughter was killed and my wife was crippled due to a spinal chord injury,” he re-calls. His CO, encouraged him to join a training course for cooking arranged by the programme. “This training has changed my life entirely. I used to be a daily wager before the training, but here I am, a small time restaurateur, working for myself” he says.

Based on market demand, the pro-gramme encouraged a wide range of trainings. While some enhanced their existing skills, others ventured in new means of livelihood. These include re-construction work, cell phone repairs, tourism, marble cutting and polishing, driving and computer literacy. Women benefitted equally through training in

tailoring, embroidery, paper machie, candle-making, soap and detergent making, and tie and-dye.

Four years down the road, the earth-quake affected region barely reflects any evidence of devastation or turmoil. Newly constructed schools, buildings and infrastructure in the area represent the beginning of a new and improved life for its inhabitants. Creation of nu-merous job opportunities that did not exist prior to the earthquake, various skills trainings for locals and improve-ment in the agricultural sector has helped improve the quality of life in the area to a large extent. People have emerged from the disaster and have worked towards rebuilding their liveli-hoods being at all times at the centre of this effort.

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Project Title: Environmental Recovery Programme for Earthquake-affected Areas

Duration: May 2007- April 2010Project Budget: USD 12.8 millionDonors: ERRAPartners: ERRA, Ministry of

Environment, Geological Survey of Pakistan

Targeted Areas: Mansehra (NWFP), Muzaffarabad and Bagh (PAK)

Background:The October-2005 earthquake caused seri-ous concern over its environmental impact. Landslides claimed many lives and continue to pose a major threat to life, livelihood, vegetation and infrastructure. This Program is designed to work through a partnership that has been developed in Pakistan be-tween the Ministry of Environment, UNDP, UNEP, the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA), other agencies, local and international NGOs to address the environmental issues triggered by the earthquake. The Program’s develop-ment has been guided by needs identified in the joint UNEP/OCHA South Asia Earthquake Disaster Preliminary Environmental Assess-ment completed in early December 2005. The Assessment also informed the drafting of the United Nations System’s Pakistan 2005 Earthquake Early Recovery Framework.

Objective:

The Programme aims at providing safe, healthy, and viable environment for com-munities by strengthening institutional and community capacity to mitigate, rehabilitate and manage the environmental impacts of the earthquake, through waste and debris management, landslide/slope stabilization, and natural resource management.

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Innovative solutions to Nature’s challenges– Environmental Recovery Programme

Undoing the devastation caused by an earthquake

In an instant the powerful earthquake changed the lives of hundreds of thou-sands of people, living in some of Paki-stan’s most scenic and remote locations. Four years on, people in the region are still trying to rebuild their lives.

The October-2005 earthquake also cre-ated formidable environmental chal-lenges, with widespread debris and large areas denuded of vegetation. The Environmental Recovery Programme (ERP), a joint venture of ERRA and UNDP, was initiated to help local communities overcome the daunting environmental changes and facilitate sustainable de-velopment of the earthquake-affected areas. Conceived in 2007, and launched in August of that year, the ERP project has two main components: slope sta-bilization and integrated water-shed management.

Controlling landslides through innovative methods

One of the most pressing issues ERP addressed is that of landslides. In the aftermath of the October 2005 earth-quake, landslides became a major threat for the inhabitants and remain so four years on. In the districts of Bagh, and Muzafarabad in PAK, and Mansehra in NWFP alone, there were over 2,500 landslides after the earthquake. Many of those affected live in remote valleys and mountainous areas with a difficult terrain. In such areas, landslides block road, hampering communications and damaging infrastructure. This threat-

ens livelihoods of thousands of people living in the area.

Slope stabilization, can be a slow and extremely expensive process. The con-tinuous landslides exacerbated by long periods of rainfall, hampered efforts to-wards rehabilitation. However, ERP de-veloped an innovative and affordable solution to overcome the root causes of this natural phenomenon. They proposed an innovative bio-engineer-ing technique for slope stabilization, whereby the introduction of fast grow-ing plants on these hazardous slopes, provide a natural barrier against land-slides. The planting of bare rooted and tube plants were carried out on all the landslides treated for stabilization. This was further complimented by tuft plat-ing of grass in almost all the landslides. Not only is this technique a faster way of addressing the issue of landslides, it is also more cost-effective. The method has proved extremely successful in combating landslides and has been adopted by locals in the area. ERP has already successfully treated 19 land slides on the main Kohala-Muzaffara-bad road and 13 land slides on Manse-hra-Kaghan road.

Community mobilization and planning

The second project component of the ERP is integrated watershed manage-ment. This aspect of the project aimed to ensure the restoration of water and irrigation supplies of the earthquake af-fected areas in an environmentally sus-tainable manner. The sites are located in Karli in PAK and the Kaghan valley of

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NWFP. The protection and restoration of water-based supplies and resources was a critical component of the recon-struction effort, as water forms the basis for peoples livelihoods in these largely agricultural communities.

A key component of the watershed pro-gram is the ‘Village land use plan’. ERP mobilized local communities at a grass roots level to take ownership of the project and its long term sustainability. The watershed project was located in 24 villages in Karli district and 18 villag-es in Kashian district .The social mobi-lization process commenced with the two meetings, arranged at the water-shed level in both Karli and Kanshian. Representatives of all the 27 villages of Karli and 17 villages of Kanshian were invited to participate in these meetings and were briefed by ERP about water-shed management methods.

The village level organization process was followed by the valley level organi-zation. Thus in both Karli and Kanshian the village level have been networked in the form of a cluster organization. The objective is to ensure coordination among the member Village Organiza-tions, liaison with various partners and mobilization of resources for the Inte-grated Watershed Management and sustainable development of the area.

The first part of the project consisted of the assessment phase – to evaluate how to improve the socioeconomic lives of the people and enhance capac-ity building. ERP facilitated the com-munities in villages to come up with a comprehensive plan for reconstruc-tion. This ensured that the communi-ties took the lead in determining their priorities for the reconstruction effort. In Kanshian around 40% of the popula-tion including women is represented in the village organization through gen-eral membership of the general bodies of these organizations. In Karli around 20% of the population is represented in

the village organization through gen-eral membership of the general bodies of these organizations. Areas covered in this part of the project included wa-ter, irrigation, sanitation, rehabilitation, natural resources i.e.: forest, pastures, and landslides.

Restoring water supplies To communities

After the completion of the two track-approaches of community mobiliza-tion and land use planning the Inte-grated Watershed Management Plans was developed. The purpose of these plans is to provide a road map for the Integrated Watershed Management of these two valleys. In Kanshian approx-imately 120 acres (70 winter + 50 mon-soon) plantations, 6 large size gabion check dams , 22 small size check dams, 1 retaining wall, 1 loose stone diver-sion wall and 1 Km irrigation channel rehabilitation were constructed worth over 4 million Pakistani Rupees.

In Karli the Integrated Watershed Man-agement plan included the creation of loose stone 250 chekdams of 22,000 cft volume. 11.5 Km of roads were rehabil-itated, 10 ponds for water storage for livestock and house hold water were constructed in five villages, and a 1 ir-rigation channel was rehabilitated with the World Food Programme’s (WFP) as-sistance. 200 pipes were constructed for water supply in 5 villages through UNICEF assistance, worth 0.3 million Pakistani Rupees.

Coordinating A Holistic Response

For other aspects of the reconstruc-tion not covered by the ERP directly, it helped local communities liaise with other UN agencies and ERRA to ensure that they obtained the help they re-quired. In fact, playing a coordination role became a major function of ERP during the initial months following the October 2005 Earthquake and its work demonstrated how the various UN

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agencies can effectively work together in a crisis situation on a small scale. ERP focuses on community based Natural Resource Management, whereas for the social sector such as water supply, education, Health, etc. support is mo-bilized from other UN agencies such as UNICEF (for water Supply), ILO (employ-ment skills development), WFP (food for work), UNFPA (maternal Health). This coordinated approach ensured that the people in the area received the help the needed in a timely fashion.

By working with local communities and ensuring that their voices were heard, ERP helped communities face the im-mense challenges in rebuilding their lives. Although substantial work in the Slope Stabilization and Integrated Wa-tershed Management has done in Karli and Kanshian, this is just the first step and in order to have impact, replica-tion needs to be adopted across the earthquake-affected regions of North-ern Pakistan.

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Support to Volunteerism Initiatives in Pakistan

In the words of Aesop, “No act of kind-ness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

The true spirit of volunteerism entails contributing one’s time, energy and capacity towards a worthwhile cause in any sphere of life, without expec-tation of compensation or monetary benefit. Understanding the need to in-culcate this spirit at a global scale, the UN established a separate entity, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV). The programme contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide The designated Volunteers, both national and international, play their part in promoting national volun-

teerism to support humanitarian and development programmes while em-bracing the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the enormous task of relief and recovery required tremendous support from a large number of citizens. For this pur-pose, UNDP initiated the “Support to Volunteerism Initiatives in Pakistan” programme as UNV operates through the UNDP office. Launched shortly after the earthquake, the three year project mobilized a large number of volunteers by institutionalizing the National Volunteer Movement (NVM)

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in partnership with the Government. Even though this institution was estab-lished, it required capacity building to serve as a vibrant and fully functional forum. Subsequent change in its lead-ership also took away from the politi-cal ownership required to make it an effective entity. Nevertheless, it helped in mobilizing volunteers for the relief and recovery efforts. The UNVs not only work in collaboration with UN Agencies but also with local government depart-ments and the civil society.

Muhammad Ayaz Awan, from Batta-gram District in NWFP is a UNV and recalls “As a volunteer. I have so many memories. One such incident totally blew me away, and made me realize the dangers I had chosen to work un-der when I had decided to become a volunteer. During our relief work, we traveled to District Kohistan to deliver some relief items to the affected com-munity. On our way, we were stopped by a gun man, who threatened to shoot us instantly if we went ahead. Terrified though we were, we tried to diffuse the potentially dangerous situation by inquiring about his personal and loss during the earthquake. He broke down into tears as he narrated the irrepara-ble losses that he had endured during the earthquake, which included losing close relatives. At that point, we real-ized that he was experiencing a trau-matic phase in his life, and needed help and support. We told him why we were here. He warmed up to us instantly and guided us to the most affected and vul-nerable communities in his area. After all this time, we are still in touch.”

The 7000 volunteers registered short-ly after the earthquake as part of the NVM played an integral role in a wide variety of tasks, ranging from debris re-

moval and contribution to reconstruc-tion efforts by the government; to im-parting training in trauma counseling, first aid and disaster preparedness and response.

Volunteers deployed to different UN agencies, NGOs and government de-partments under the National UNV Scheme have been making their mark. A total of 132 UNVs, both national and international, have been offering vol-untary services to different regions in Pakistan. These include, Battagram, Besham, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Muz-affarabad, Bagh, Rawalakot and Islama-bad, Quetta, Kunch, Badin and Thatta. UNVs are only given sustenance allow-ance not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.

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Section III: Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas

“let us ensure that peo-ple displaced by con-flict, persecution and upheaval get the sup-port and services they need to build a better

life.” Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General on World Refugee Day 2009.

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Project Title: Refugee Affected Areas Programme Duration: 2007-2010 Project Budget: USD 140.0 million Donors: Partners: EAD and Chief Com-

missionerate of Afghan Refugees (CCAR), Provincial Planning and Development Departments of NWFP and Balochistan

Background: The overall objective of the Needs Assessment exercise is to provide information, analysis and recommendations in support of possible future interventions addressing the consequences of poverty in areas and communities affected by high concentrations of Afghan refugees. The first phase (led by UNHCR) reviewed the situation for Water and Sanitation, Health and Education sectors.

ObjectiveRefugee Affected Areas initiative contributes to a transition from purely humanitarian to more development oriented interventions aimed at the environmental rehabilitation and socio-economic development of selected areas and communities impacted by the presence of Afghans.

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Weaving a life for themselves

Refugees are expected to be repatri-ated voluntarily once conditions return to normalcy in their region. They return as soon as circumstances permit, gen-erally when a conflict ends and stabil-ity returns and basic infrastructure has been rebuilt. While repatriation is considered to be the most durable solution to refugee problems, in the case of Afghan refugees, the prevailing situation in Afghanistan has not been conducive to comprehensive repatria-tion. Uncertainty pertaining not only to security but income generation also presents a huge roadblock in the face of the return of many. Livelihoods are the fundamental factor that moves people from dependence on humani-tarian assistance to take back control of their lives and sustain their way of living.Many refugees who have been residing in Pakistan for years and have carved out livelihoods for themselves which they would have to abandon if they returned.

In the Katwai Refugee Camp located in Balochistan for example, carpet-weav-ing provides a viable means of liveli-hood for the Afghans who have been

here for more than two decades.

“After our arrival in Pakistan, we started carpet weaving in the camp,” says Haji Juma, a Turkmen elder who moved with his family from Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan in 1982 fol-lowing the Soviet invasion. “Initially it was a hard task to establish the set-up in our camp houses, but somehow we did it.”

Now there are around 400 families in-volved in carpet weaving in Katwai, an Afghan refugee camp established by the UN refugee agency in the village of Loralai, some 275 km north-east of the Balochistan capital, Quetta.

According to him, every home in the camp is involved in carpet making in some way. There are small units for spinning and dyeing wool. “It’s actually a combined family effort; women are a great help along with men in making hand-made carpets.”

The skills have sustained them in very difficult conditions. “This is a great help for our families,” says Palwasha Bibi, a woman who, in addition to household chores, makes time for carpet weaving. “Whether we like it or not, we have to do it. It helps us earn money to run our homes. Men and women both have to work to sustain a livelihood.”

The refugees also face prob-lems with Pakistani authori-

ties when trying to send their carpets to customers. “Being Afghan refugees, we face a lot of problems after weaving the carpets and sending them for sale

CAMP OF CARPETSArtisans without Borders

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in other cities of Pakistan,” says Juma.

“Whenever we complete an order and try to send it from Loralai to other cities, the local authorities stop our carpets and accuse us of smuggling them from Afghanistan or Iran. They are often not ready to accept that we are weaving the carpets ourselves,” complains Juma.

Every week the families working under Juma’s supervision weave around 25-30 square metres of carpet. For a long time, a square metre of hand-made carpet had a cash value of around 2,000 rupees, equivalent to $35. That price was also the monthly wage of one carpet weaver.

The refugees want to ease into life in Pakistan, offering even to pass on their carpet-weaving skills to the local Paki-stani population in Balochistan.

A lost opportunity?

It is a reality that one day these crafts-men may move back to their country, thus taking their skill with them. If in-deed the locals can learn the art of car-pet making it could mitigate against the loss of trade as well as skill thus benefitting from the refugees rather than suffering the many pressures that they have created upon their arrival here.

“We are ready to do that. All that we ask from the Pakistani government, lo-cal authorities and the United Nations is to make local authorities understand that we are working on our own. They should respect our skills by considering the carpets as our own products – not something that we keep smuggling from Afghanistan,” says Juma.

The need for social cohesion

The lack of understanding extended to Juma and his colleagues highlights the need for social cohesion and presents an opportunity for explor-ing the medium of carpet making to

build bridges between local and refu-gee communities to achieve greater social and economic integration. In an effort to achieve this, UNDP has re-cently launched the Refugee-Affected and Hosting Areas Programme (RAHA) that aims to improve livelihoods, reha-bilitate the environment and enhance social cohesion within communities of refugee-affected and hosting areas.

Afghans have made a substantial con-tribution to the Pakistani economy. They have contributed towards eco-nomic uplift and have transferred tra-ditional knowledge and skills to local communities in industries other than Afghan-style carpet weaving as well cultivation of nuts, fruits and vegeta-bles, beekeeping, timber gathering and retailing, transportation, among others. The economy in some areas has flourished due to the presence of low wage Afghan labourers and their entrepreneurial activities, such as brick kilns, garbage collection and recycling. Some of these economic activities have caused social inequity and the RAHA programme intends to build on the positive elements of this influence.

In order to further help in the integra-tion, public services will be improved and policies made more effective by strengthening the capacities of the government, community institutions and vulnerable groups among the ref-ugees and their hosts. This Programme also takes into account, the UN One Programme crosscutting issues relat-ing to human rights, gender equality, civil society engagement and refugees. Peaceful co-existence between the communities will support a more pro-ductive and peaceful stay for Afghans until they can return to Afghanistan.

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Section IV: Post Conflict Initiatives

“People expect to feel safe, to have access to basic serv-ices and to have the chance to provide for their families. They want to see things around them getting better quickly and to feel that they are included in the political process going forward.”Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz, Chairperson of the Peacebuilding Commission

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The conflict in the FATA and NWFP led to the displacement of an estimated two million people. In their efforts to find a safer haven, the IDPs took refuge with host communities and in camps. “My home is my paradise,” declares Ta-hira 25, and a mother of two infants. “Even if you make us a Taj Mahal here, we will not stay for long.” This conflict further worsened conditions in regions where communities did not have any confidence in the local administration. Inadequate access to basic services, including health and education have compounded their problems. “When we go back we will be living in dark-ness as the infrastructure has been destroyed. There is no electricity or communication facility,” says Mazhar. “My fields and my livelihood have been destroyed so there will be no way that I will be able to make a living when I go back,” he elaborates. “This means that we will be reliant on external aid and will probably have to live in tents as our homes have been damaged and are uninhabitable.”

As people begin to rebuild their lives, UNDP will support the process through its programme on “Sustainable Devel-opment through Peace building, Gov-ernance and Economic Recovery in NWFP”.

The US$ 25 million programme will focus on the Malakand Region as pri-oritized by the government. The three-year programme will help IDPs recon-

struct their lives as they return home. It will support early recovery activities to bridge the gap between relief and long-term rehabilitation. This will in-clude restoring livelihoods through cash for work on rubble removal and involving the community in micro in-frastructure projects. The conflict has damaged or destroyed, water pumps, water pipelines, footpaths, culverts etc., which can be rehabilitated with the participation of the community. Skills training and financing support to small projects or businesses in the farm (agriculture, horticulture) and non-farm sectors (marble quarrying, gem and jewelry, carpentry, tourism) sec-tors is another important component of this intervention .This programme

Sustainable Development through Peace building, Governance and Economic Recovery in NWFP

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will also strengthen mechanisms for a coordinated response to the needs of the returnees at district level as well.

As the millions returned, the need to diminish the social tensions and griev-ances that have escalated as a result of events leading to the conflict and the subsequent displacement became evi-dent. Communities have become di-vided roughly along the lines of those who supported and benefited from conflict and those who fell victim to it. During this time, the latter categories have allegedly lost all their properties, faced harassment, in some cases, death of family members and displacement.

UNDP will work towards diffusing and preventing local conflicts and gain-ing a better understating of its struc-

tural causes. This will be made possible through engaging and establishing peace committees and alternate dis-pute resolution mechanisms while un-dertaking a comprehensive analysis of the root causes of conflict.

The programme will focus on the con-flict affected population with a special emphasis on the vulnerable, especially women-headed households; families with disabled members; families that have 10 members and an income of Rs. 7000.

The programme will be implemented in cooperation with the Provincial Re-lief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Au-thority (PaRRSA), NGOs and other rel-evant stakeholders.

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Photograph Credits Front CoverBEGINER/ UNDP Pakistan

Cover Front InsideCBLRP

Cover BackRegional Climate RiskReduction Project in theHimalayas Page 6 -11National DisasterManagement AuthorityOne UN DRM JointProgramme Component Page 12 - 17Regional Climate RiskReduction Project in theHimalayas Page 18- 28UNDP PakistanBEGINER/ UNDP PakistanMariyam Nawaz Page 29 - 34CBLRP Page 35Environmental RecoveryProject Page 38Muzammil Pasha Page 39 - 41Support to VolunteerismInitiatives

Page 42 - 44UNHCR Page 46 – 49UNDP PakistanMuzammil Pasha

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