News
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
EU ambassador inaugurates Tehsildar Office in PabbiNOWSHERA: Ambassador of the European Union Lars-Gunnar Wigemark has inaugurated the Tehsildar Office in Pabbi, Nowshera.
He was accompanied by UNDP Pakistan Country Director Marc-André Franche.
The floods in 2010 and 2011 caused unprecedented destruction, submerging one-fifth of the country and affecting close to 20 million people.
For recovery and restoration of communities in flood-affected districts across the country, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the government of Pakistan launched a US$90 million Early Recovery Programme (ERP).
The European Union contributed US$20 million to this programme.
This programme is among the largest early recovery and restoration programme carried out by UNDP.
120 buildings have been reconstructed and rehabilitated comprising local administration agriculture departments, livestock, health, education and revenue offices.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 26 buildings were rehabilitated and reconstructed including 17 revenue, agriculture, education, livestock and local administration offices.
The buildings have been reequipped with printers, desktop computers, registered softwares, photocopy machines and furniture.
The Early Recovery Programme (ERP) covered 4,000 villages across the country benefiting more than 5.5 million people in 29 most-affected districts, across the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir by rehabilitating the communities and building their resilience from future disasters.
The ERP’s interventions created temporary employments benefiting 1.3 million people through cash for work schemes to primarily rehabilitate community based infrastructures (e.g. roads, bridges, culverts, and irrigation canals). 1.7 million people have been supported in restoring affected communities’ livelihood opportunities resulting in significant increase of local economic development and agricultural based income generation.
10,494 community organizations members have been capacitated in disaster risk management and planning, through provision of tailored needs trainings and advocacy programs, resulting in the establishment of early warning systems and risks mitigation plans.
Those organizations have helped to build foundations for the affected communities to continue improving their living conditions, with increased resilience.
1,042 Community Based Disaster Risk Management Committees have been established and trained in community disaster risk management and planning.
The programme restored 60 micro-hydro power units and established 2,000 biogas plants to provide communities with access to alternate energy. Additionally, solar water pumps, street lights and heaters were also introduced in the affected communities.
1,912 disaster resilient and energy efficient houses handed over to communities. Assistance was provided to the government institutions to establish one window operations through which more than 4,000 individuals were helped to receive legal documents lost during the floods.
These range from birth certificates and national ID cards, to marriage certificates and landownership documents.
The UNDP, in coordination with the government of Pakistan, national and international partners, local authorities and institutions, and communities across the country, sought to support the millions of survivors recover from the devastating floods, linking relief to recovery and paving the
way for meaningful development.Working in all of the flood-affected provinces and regions, and adopting a multi-dimensional and integrated approach, UNDP supported the most vulnerable in the worst affected areas, including women, children, elderly
and disabled people. prCourtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk