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Pakistan Earthquake 2005 - The Case of Centralized Recovery Planning and Decentralized Implementation: Country Case Study Series Disaster Recovery Framework Guide May 2014

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Introduction to the Recovery Framework Case Study Series

The World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) to develop a Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) Guide that will help governments and partners in planning for resilient post disaster recovery while contributing to longer term sustainable development. The guide is based on global good practices gleaned from country experiences in disaster recovery. Hence, the development of the DRF Guide entailed the development of country-level case studies as well as thematic case studies on disaster recovery.

These case studies have been designed to collect and analyze information on: i) disaster recovery standards and principles adapted by countries for specific disasters;

ii) means adopted by countries for planning recovery including efforts, considerations and provisions (if any) for making such recovery efficient, equitable and resilient; iii) policies, institutions and capacities put in place by countries to implement and monitor disaster recovery; and iv) ways and means adopted by countries to translate the gains of resilient recovery into longer-term risk reduction and resilient development.

Importantly, these case studies aim to learn from, and not evaluate, country reconstruction initiatives. Practices learned from each country’s experience will inform the contents of the DRF Guide. Additionally, the case studies examine the planning processes and not the implementation details of recovery experiences. As such, they do not seek to offer a comprehensive account of the post-disaster recovery program as it unfolded, but rather provide details and insight into the decision-making processes for reconstruction policies and programs.

The 2005 Earthquake in Context

Located in South Asia, Pakistan is the 6th most populous country in the world. Pakistan is divided into four provinces, a state and federally and provincially administrated territories. The country is exposed to several types of natural disasters, prominent among which are earthquakes, floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides.

Recurring floods formed the bulk of the natural disasters to have struck Pakistan quake of 2005 leaving 6,700 people dead. Windstorms, though less frequent, have also been devastating for Pakistan. As of the earthquake of 2005, the windstorm of 1965 remained the most fatal natural disaster in the country’s history, claiming about 10,000 lives.

The devastation caused by the earthquake of 2005, however, eclipsed all previous disasters. Leaving 73,000 dead, the earthquake’s reconstruction was spread across the North West Frontier Province (NWFP, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, KPK) and a federally administered state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). A total of 8 districts across the two administrative entities bore the brunt of the earthquake.

The mountainous region made reconstruction particularly difficult. Not only was the terrain not easily navigable for reconstruction, the approaching harsh winter created the need for swift reconstruction. Reacting decisively to the earthquake, the government established a new reconstruction agency, the Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilita since the country’s formation, with the collective toll of the floods prior to the earthtion Authority (ERRA) to lead, coordinate and oversee reconstruction.

This case study, based on comprehensive literature review and interviews with key stakeholders, presents the highlights of the post-earthquake reconstruction process. It outlines the decision-making processes in recovery planning and extracts best practices and key lessons learned from the experience.