News
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Rs 760m agreements to get quake victims back on their feetStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: The European Commission (EC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the government on Saturday signed two separate agreements worth Rs 760 million to launch projects for ‘Community based Livelihood Recovery’ for the earthquake affected families. Around 73,000 affected families are expected to benefit from the projects.
The first agreement worth Rs 639 million was signed between Ilkka Uusitalo, the EC ambassador, and Jan Vandemoortle, the UNDP resident representative, in which the EC would provide a grant to the UNDP for undertaking the project.
Under the second agreement signed between Khalid Saeed, the secretary of Economic Affair Division (EAD), and UNDP resident representative, the UNDP would contribute Rs 121 million for the project. UNDP will execute the project in collaboration with the EAD, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), and the government of AJK and NWFP along with other UN agencies such as International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP).
The UNDP representative said that the project would contribute to the reconstruction efforts by strengthening the capacity of local governments, community organisations, local non-government organisations (NGO) and hoped that it would be as successful as the relief operation.
He said that the major focus would be on planning, facilitation and implementation of development activities by ensuring effective participation of the affected populations in the planning process. The EC ambassador said that the nine million euro grant was part of the total 50 million euros, pledged by the commission for the quake zone.
The activities that would be undertaken under the programme included forming community-based organisations through social mobilisation and capacity building, training of community members to take part in the reconstruction process, provision of high yielding varieties of crops, establishment of seed villages, distribution of poultry units among women, establishment of fish farms, nurseries, reconstruction of dams for water harvesting, water storage, tanks, ponds for animals, hydroelectric power projects, water supply schemes and other need-based micro infrastructures.
Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk