Your Excellency, the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen On this august occasion I would like to reaffirm our continued solidarity with the many citizens that two years ago lost loved ones or were injured and incapacitated and the many thousands whose lives and livelihoods were shattered suddenly and devastatingly. We have learnt a lot in the last two years as we have worked under the umbrella of the Government of Pakistan’s “wide partnership agenda” to help restore lives, assets and livelihoods. This partnership, embracing government, communities, civil society organizations and Pakistan’s development partners has made remarkable progress in getting results on the ground over this short period of time. Let me turn to the achievements first. The achievements in the last two years are many and broad based as have been presented by Deputy Chairman, ERRA. However, I would like to mention two programs that we have been closely involved in and that stand out in comparison to other post disaster reconstruction programs implemented in other parts of the world. These are the rural housing reconstruction program and the livelihood support cash grant program – two sectors that were accorded the highest priority by the government from the outset. The Rural Housing Reconstruction Program (RHRP) has been unique in many ways – from the close strategic partnership between ERRA and the donor community that has helped to successfully steer the program through the many challenges of implementation, to the achievements and milestones that have been attained in less than two years. By global standards, progress to date has been outstanding, with a rate of start-up higher by multiple factors than seen in other areas hit by disasters of this magnitude. Even more remarkably, this has been achieved against a background of homeowners themselves being firmly in charge of the rebuilding of their own homes. The program is already transforming construction skills and practices and setting the foundation for broad-based adoption of seismic-resistant building construction in highly vulnerable areas. One other measure of this program’s overwhelming success and the credibility it has earned, is the long list of international financial institutions, UN agencies, and NGOs/INGOs that have subsequently joined the program as financing and facilitating partners, with the result that over US$ 1.2 billion has now been mobilized and over $900 million disbursed for rural housing reconstruction from donors, freeing national resources for other pressing needs. Ultimately, however, the real test of results is how quickly all the affected people can once again enjoy the comfort and warmth of a fully restored home that offers greater protection from future potentially catastrophic events. With the indicators at hand --- on start-ups, on the rate of construction progress and completion and, on the rate of seismic compliance --- that day is very, very close. Turning to the original livelihoods support component: this program entailed monthly livelihood support grants to the most deserving affected families all across the affected region. It was satisfactorily completed in December 2006. Between April and December, 2006, around 260,000 families benefited from this program and its further extension benefited another 25,000 families. Preliminary field assessments confirm that the livelihoods component very effectively contributed towards mitigating the struggle of the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the affected population to meet their basic needs in the early recovery period, pending the generation of more sustainable livelihood opportunities and the restoration of fuller delivery of public services. We should not also lose sight of the tremendous organizational and process innovations made by ERRA in being able to deliver such assistance to dispersed communities in challenging terrain on a timely and reliable basis. What have we learnt and how does this relate to the remaining challenges going forward? In terms of present and future implementation challenges to be surmounted, I would like to mention the following key aspects only: The biggest immediate challenge is to enhance reconstruction implementation capacity, particularly at the provincial, state and district levels – in terms of planning, design, procurement, construction and monitoring. In the longer run, the broad challenge is to reduce the present very high economic and human susceptibility to disaster shocks in the earthquake affected regions. This challenge is partly being met but more can be done, including: • Development and enforcement of seismic-resistant building codes in the affected region – to be applied to both public and private buildings;
• Completion of mapping of the hazard risks faced in the affected region, to inform preparedness and disaster-response approaches and mechanisms;
• Continued special attention and emphasis on identifying and prioritizing the susceptibilities and needs of the more vulnerable and marginalized segments of society. On a final and broader note, Pakistan is susceptible to a range of natural disasters, both of the recurring type, and those like the 2005 earthquake, which while they happen rarely, can exact a huge human and financial toll, and severely strain and push back developmental spending, if and when they occur. A principle strategic element of the earthquake reconstruction program has been the incorporation of future risk-mitigating components in the design of reconstructed assets. Going forward, one of the key challenges for Pakistan is how to continue to expand and more comprehensively generalize this approach and move firmly from predominantly response-based disaster management to a more balanced approach that includes more systematic and proactive hazard risk preparedness and mitigation instruments and mechanisms. I would like to end by extending my congratulations, in particular, to the Governments and affected communities of NWFP and Azad, Jammu and Kashmir, and to ERRA and all of its financing and implementation partners on the remarkable progress achieved on the earthquake reconstruction front in the last two years. Thanks to your collective efforts, the auguries for the future are great! Thank You! | 
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