Pakistan: UN achievements - One year later

Relief and Recovery Interventions from October 8th 2005 to Date

Coordination Successes (During Relief Phase):

UNDAC team deployed within 24 hours.

Flash Appeal launched on 11th October 2005 and revised 2 weeks later based on more accurate needs assessment. Total requirement of USD 552 million, with total commitments of USD 399 million – i.e. 72% coverage.

Clusters set-up and sectoral coordination in place on 14th October 2005.

Exemplary collaboration between UN and Pakistan Military in coordination, joint planning and logistics.

Operational hubs set-up in Bagh, Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Batagram. These included UN staff camp with logistics hubs in 9 locations (above 4 plus Islamabad, Abbotabad, Garhi Habibullah, Chatter Plain, and Kahuta).

UN Staff: 1,340 UN staff – majority national staff – worked in the affected areas.

Operational Successes (During Relief Phase)

'Winter Race' averted massive movement of people from higher altitude through the provision of critical shelter, food and health supplies to people living above the snowline. Over 500,000 temporary shelters were built.

Health: Mortality rates immediately returned to pre-disaster situation through the establishment of 123 health units/teams (including 66 field hospitals) to replace the destroyed health facilities. The Disease Early Warning System was immediately operational, with 322 reporting sites catering. Approximately 319 alerts were responded to.

Health: The response created the opportunity to vaccinate and boost the immune system of over 1.25 million children in the region who were not vaccinated before, including polio, meningitis, measles and Vitamin A.

Food: No cases of malnutrition were reported despite 6 out of the 9 districts affected by the earthquake being traditionally food deficit areas. Over 101,000 MT of food were distributed to 2.3 million beneficiaries including 745,000 people in inaccessible remote mountainous locations, 5,000 hospital patients, 150,000 children under 5 through supplementary feeding and emergency school feeding for 150,000 children in tented school.

Education: The relief efforts facilitated enrolment of school-age girls who had previously never joined a school. Over 4,300 schools were immediately re-established in tents allowing almost 400,000 children to enroll, of which 38% were girls, the majority had not been enrolled prior to the earthquake.

Water & Sanitation: Response in this sector was crucial to reduce health risks and eliminate major outbreaks of waterborne disease. Up to 1.9 million litres of safe drinking water per day were trucked to camps, neighborhoods, hospitals and schools. 35,000 latrines were built to serve an estimated 695,020 people.

Protection: Advocacy efforts against the adoption of unaccompanied children, resulted in the government’s early ban on all child adoption proposals. Furthermore, over 102 Child Friendly Spaces in camps and villages were set-up as safe day centers for recreation, counseling and care.

Successful implementation of a joint UN/GoP IDP Returns Strategy for the dignified return of 120,000 IDPs to their areas of origin in 4 months (Mar-Jun 2006).

Produced with ERRA, the joint ERRA-UN Early Recovery Plan for a total cost of USD 255 million, of which nearly two-thirds have been secured.

Sectoral operations are detailed below.

Health Sector (WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA)

Establishment of the Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) focused on 12 diseases covering 322 reporting sites catering for 3.8 million people. For DEWS, almost 80% of the reporting target has been met with an average of 94,000 consultations being done every week.

Conducted an immediate post-earthquake measles campaign that reached 1.25 million children aged under 15

Distribution of 150 Emergency Health Kits, serving the needs of 1.5 million people for 3 months

Established spinal cord injury rehabilitation facility in Islamabad for women and children, treating over 100 quadriplegic and paraplegic patients and the establishment of two medical rehabilitation centers in Muzffarabad and Abbottabad

Provided Vitamin A supplements to 515,000 children to boost immunity

Established over 30 health outlets with international and local partners

Revitalized 123 health facilities through provision of medicine, equipment, supplies, and personnel, benefiting over one million people

Supplied 10 ambulances to district hospitals

Trained over 1,000 Community Health Workers (CHWs), 2,300 Lady Health Workers (LHWs) and DHO/EDO personnel.

Mobilization of national mental health teams to address mental health problems.

Some 100 prefabricated health facilities constructed for temporary health care delivery in scattered settlements.

Facilitation in the management and disposal of hospital waste through provision of incinerators and bridge repairs

Nine Mobile Service Units were deployed where some 4,500 babies were delivered.

210,000 Hygiene Kits have been distributed among female victims of earthquake

Development of Women Friendly Spaces for psycho-social support activities.

Shelter Sector - Housing Reconstruction (UN-HABITAT, IOM, UNDP)

Twelve Housing Reconstruction Centers established to train 7,621 Technical Professionals (Architects, Engineers and Sub-Engineers), Construction Workers (Masons, Carpenters and Steel Fixers), Army (Engineering Officers and Non-Engineering Officers) and Social Mobilisers.

'Winter Race' brought critical shelter supplies to households above 5,000 feet in rural areas and the ability to get supplies to the populations which stabilized potential population movements.

Distributed and provide shelter to remote communities

Helped deliver over 500,000 tents, 5 million CGI tin, roofing sheets, 6.4 million blankets and 2.2 million tarpaulins/plastic to insulate tents from rain and snow.

Helped to build 549,872 temporary transitional shelters.

The return of 76,000 people from temporary camps to their place or origin. Medical screening, transport and food rations were provided.

Nearly 400 families from so-called “red-zones” were relocated to seven “residual caseload” camps in PAK. In Manshera district, more than 100 families from Kashtra camp in Garhi Habibullah to a camp in Jaba near Mansehra city due to the threat of flooding.

Registration and constraints survey of IDPs conducted resulting in the registration of over 5,000 IDP families in Muzaffarabad and Bagh districts. It covered people from 31 “Red Zone” villages in Muzaffarabad district who were relocated to tent settlements due to the threat of landslides and flooding during the monsoon season.

Camp Management (UNHCR, UNDP)

Facilitated in the running of over 170 camps (of 50 tents and above) housing some 200,000 people during which the following items were distributed; 21,548 tents, 847,031 blankets, 115,933 plastic sheets, 1,739 plastic rolls, 24,884 heating stoves, 3,762 sleeping bags, 38,871 mattresses, 785,000 liters of kerosene, 34,271 jerry cans for kerosene, 22,869 jerry cans for water, 25,005 kitchen sets and 419,637 soaps.

Heating and cooking facilities were given to 48,000 affected families

Following residual camps have been identified- three in NWFP and 43 in PAK for vulnerable people such as widows, orphans, severely disabled and others who have lost their land in mudslides, or came from devastated areas like Balakot.

People from 23 villages in PAK and 4 villages in NWFP are being relocated from landslide prone areas to existing camps.

Capacity building and training of local authorities in charge of camp management.

Ongoing upgrading and maintenance services in the camps.

Food (WFP, WFP, UNICEF)

Distribution of 113,344 MT of food people in the earthquake affected areas

Provision of supplementary feeding for 150,000 children under five and emergency school feeding comprising of high-protein biscuits and dates for 150,000 children in tented schools.

No cases of malnutrition were reported despite 6 out of 9 districts affected are traditionally labeled as food deficit areas.

Education (UNICEF, UNESCO)

Launched a “Welcome to School” campaign aiming to re-enroll all pre-quake school-going children and to enroll for the first time at least 30 per cent of children who had never attended school (especially the most marginalized - girls, orphans, IDPs, physically challenged children).

Over 4,300 temporary tented schools are supported, enrolling around 260,000 children.

Around 22,000 children who were living in camps attended tent schools with one tented school in each camp.

Some 8,000 School-In-A-Box kits distributed.

Introduction of hygiene education to 100 schools covering around 9,500 students

Vocational training programs and psycho-social counseling classes were held in camps focusing on Extremely Vulnerable individuals (EVIs).

Support to secondary & tertiary and technical/vocational & non-formal education by teacher training of 60 master trainers and approximately 20,000 primary teachers across the earthquake area

Protection (UNICEF)

Monitored the voluntary return elements in all IDP camps through protection monitors.

Monitored vulnerable children in camps. Identified, registered and monitored separated, unaccompanied and orphaned children.

Jointly funded census, conducted by Population Council, of 252,000 people in 466 camps for profile of vulnerable groups: children who are orphaned, unaccompanied and separated; disabled; elderly; widows and single women.

Advocated against adoption of unaccompanied children, resulting in the government’s early ban on all child adoption proposals.

Established 102 Child Friendly Spaces in camps and villages, providing 11,500 children with safe day centers for recreation, counseling and care.

Supplied 600 tents for Child Friendly Spaces. Supplied Child Friendly Spaces with 620 recreation kits containing toys & games for up to 40 children; 6,100 jumping ropes; 4,500 lido games; 1,000 sets of wooden blocks; 1,500 tarpaulin sheets

Trained teachers, social workers, caregivers in psychological first aid and management of stress in children and adolescents

Developed manuals on psycho-social support for social workers, community mobilizers and LHWs.

Distributed 687,000 winter clothing kits plus one million blankets and quilts to protect children from harsh winter and Acute Respiratory Infections

Water & Sanitation (UNICEF)

Repaired water supply systems in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Mansehra, Battagram and Garhi Habibullah urban centres.

Supported repair over 180 rural water supply systems in 115 villages, benefiting 175,000 people.

Trained and equipped more than 80 water quality monitors to control chlorine doses.

Supported trucking of chlorinated water to camps and isolated neighborhoods, IDPs, hospitals and schools received 1.9 million litres per day of safe drinking water.

19 water tankers delivered 950,000 litres of water per day to 67,000 people

Helped build 35,000 latrines, serving an estimated 695,020 people

Supplied latrines and safe drinking water to schools, benefiting 9,500 students

Distributed more than 160 thousand hygiene kits benefiting over 1 million people

Supported hygiene messages – e.g. wash hands with soap after toilet use and before handling food - to an estimated 423,112 people via interpersonal and mass communication, and through schools and child friendly spaces

Livelihoods – (FAO, WFP, UNDP, IOM)

Cash-for-work in rubble removal got rid of over 770,000 cubic meters of rubble, thereby facilitating reconstruction.

Over 61,000 households have been provided with 770 metric tones of Maize seeds and fertilizer to restore and rehabilitate their agricultural activities. Over 4,000 households were provided with 200 metric tones of wheat seeds immediately after the earthquake in order to restore the wheat cropping. Some 25,000 households were provided with six different kinds of vegetable seeds.

In district Bagh 126-KM rural link, paths stretching 115 km besides making six cattle ponds and rehabilitating 2 km water supply schemes rehabilitated. In Muzaffarabad about 122 Km of rural linked road, 23 km of walking track, 275 number of animal shelters and over 50 km of irrigation channels have been rehabilitated.

Livestock has been replaced, including sheep, goats and buffels in orden to restore female livelihoods.

Governance & Capacity Building (UNDP)

Provision of organizational design, human resources and technical assistance to National UNV scheme.

TAMEER-Technical Assistance for Management of the Earthquake Early Recovery - ERRA , PERRA, SERRA and DRUs provided support for building planning capacity.

Capacity Development for Aid Coordination-Development Assistance Database system customized for Pakistan is now online at www.DADPak.org http://www.dadpak.org ; DAD office operational at EAD;597 projects have been entered in the database, including 255 earthquake-related projects; DAD is currently tracking total commitments amounting to USD 17.6 billions.

Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan

For further information and media assistance, please contact,

Raabya Amjad, Public Information Officer, Pakistan
UN – Resident Coordinator’s Office, Sector E-7, Street 11, House 124, Islamabad;
Tel: +92(0) 51 2652840; Fax: + 92(0) 51 2652536; Mobile: +92 (0)301 8542442
Email: raabya.amjad@un.org.pk