UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME

UN-HABITAT Pakistan
Newsletter

Issue No.2/ 2008

February 2008
A monthly
newsletter
published by
the United
Nations Human
Settlements
Programme
Department
of Public
Information
covering all UN-HABITAT receives USD 2 million DFID boost for
UN-HABITAT Pakistan reconstruction
news in
Islamabad:- UN-HABITAT ous donors including CIDA, post-earthquake Pakistan is
Pakistan. received an additional fund- Sida, SDC, DFID and USAID. internationally recognized
ing of US$ 2 million from To date over 660,000 benefi- as an unprecedented suc-
the Department for Interna- ciaries have been trained on cess with two thirds of the
tional Development (DFID) how to build homes using 600,000 houses damaged
to strengthen its training earthquake resistant con- or destroyed already rebuilt
-DFID Boost and technical assistance struction techniques. 55,000 after two years. With heavy
for Pak for housing reconstruction. technical and construction snowfall and freezing tem-
Reconstruction: professionals trained in- peratures reaching as low as
Page 1 This new funding will al- clude architects, engineers, minus 14, this winter is the
-Ghulum low UN-HABITAT to im- masons, carpenters and most severe winter experi-
mediately increase its sup- steel fixers. Furthermore, enced in northern Pakistan
Murtaza port and to continue its close to 1 million information for more than a decade. Be-
Landless case: activities until October 2008. products promoting safer cause of the rate of recon-
Page 2 construction have been pro- struction, there is no increase
-Financial “UN-HABITAT Pakistan is duced and distributed in the of mortality during this winter.
support to Land starting its third year of activ- earthquake affected areas. 2008 will be the last impor-
ities in support of the recon- tant building season as the
Less families: struction of safer housing in One major achievement of Earthquake Reconstruction
Page 3 the mountainous areas af- UN-HABITAT has been to and Rehabilitation Authority
-Cha Cha fected by the October 2005 contribute to broadening (ERRA) would like to final-
Chairman: earthquake. The main focus building standard options ize the housing reconstruc-
Page 3 of the activities has been and by doing so, ensuring tion programme by the third
to provide basic training and that the maximum year commemoration of the
-Information technical advice to rebuild number of beneficiaries (of- earthquake in October 2008.
Management In earthquake resistant hous- ten the most vulnerable)
NCRS: es. This has been strongly have access to financial
Page 4 supported by the strengthen- assistance for housing re-
-Management ing or creation of thousands construction. The efforts of
Training:
of community organizations”
said Jean-Christophe Adri-
UN-HABITAT have resulted
in a significant increase of February
Page 4
2008
an, the UN-HABITAT Paki- understanding and applica-
-Ambassador’s stan Chief Technical Adviser. tion of safer building tech-
Conference: Since October 2005, UN- niques. The rate of compliant
Page 5 HABITAT Pakistan mobilised houses proves the success
U.S. $17 million for its earth- of UN-HABITAT’s support.
quake response from vari- Housing reconstruction in
 Ghulam Murtaza
(Village Kohinoor, UC Pungran, Tehsil Patika AJK)
Ghulam Murtaza was the resi-
dent of village Kohinoor, UC
Pangran when the earthquake
struck. He is 10 years old and
is in the 3rd grade. A few weeks
ago Murtaza and his younger
brother Mujtaba were living in
a small temporary shelter with
their Uncle. Before 8th Octo-
ber, 2005 they were leading
a happy life with their parents
in a katcha house near a rock
fall area. On 8th October 2005 he started his day as
he usually would by walking to school with his younger
brother not knowing what was in store for himself and
his family. He was in his classroom when his school
building started shaking from side to side. His teacher
advised all of the students to run out of the class room
as quickly as they could. When the shaking stopped
most of his fellow classmates were injured or had died.
The school building could not resist the intensity of the
earthquake and turned into debris within seconds. Dam-
age was widespread and nobody was present to help
rescue all those innocent children who were suffering
from the effects of the earthquake. Those who survived
were confused and were unable to understand the en-
tirety of the tragic situation. In this complex situation
Ghulam Murtaza tried to take his younger brother to a
safer place. He was unable to reach his home where he
had safely left his parents a few hours ago. With no op-
tions remaining he spent the night under the open sky
with those classmates that had also survived.
The next morning he went home to check on his par-
ents. When he reached his Village he was unable to
recognize the land and the location of his home because
the entire area was completely destroyed and nothing
was left in its original place. All of the houses of his rela-
tives had collapsed. He desperately started searching
for his parents but did not find them. On the third day of
searching he found the bodies of his parents near his
house under a heavy stone and cried for someone to
help him take them out from under the rubble.
As a result of the earthquake, he did not only lose his
beloved parents but also lost his land and became land-
less. He was shifted into a temporary camp where he
lived for over six months without the everlasting love
and care of his parents.
On a routine day in September 2007 when he was
on the way back to his Uncle’s home he overheard
a stranger discussing the state of landless affectees.
He was distributing printed material in which the cri-
terion for landless people was explained. He took all
of the printed material from the stranger and went to
his Uncle’s shop. A few days later his Uncle visited the
Land Verification Unit (LVU) office in Patika where he
explained the story of Ghulam Murtaza and his family.
His uncle returned to his village and the next day he
took Ghulam Murtaza with him to the Land Verification
Unit office where Ghulam Murtaza was interviewed by
the LVU staff and a landless application was filled on his
behalf. After a few days the LVU spot check team vis-
ited his village and verified that Ghulam Murtaza’s land
was completely destroyed by land sliding and declared
him a landless child. Ghulam Murtaza and his younger
brother Ghulam Mujtaba received the certificate of en-
titlement from LVU Patika in which they were declared
landless and were advised to search for a new safer
piece of land. This land would ensure that they receive
financial installments from ERRA to rebuild their home.
His Uncle was declared by him as his guardian. When
Ghulam Murtaza’s Uncle found a seller he provided the
LVU team with all the necessary information. All the
necessary paperwork was filled by his Uncle and from
time to time the LVU staff kept them informed about the
status of the case.
In February 2008 Ghulam Murtaza, his younger brother
and their Uncle were invited by the LVU staff with the
seller and witnesses to participate in a One Window
Operation in Patika. At the One Window Operation Mur-
taza received his cheque, the land he purchased was
mutated in his name and he now owned five Marlas of
new land. His Uncle explained that through the ERRA
housing policy they had already received two install-
ments and that now they will begin the construction of
their new house on newly purchased land.
When Murtaza was asked how he felt after becoming
a landowner he said “I was not expecting all of this,
I used to play while making stone houses and now I
am going to build my own real house on my newly pur-
chased land.” He
also said, “I wish
that my mother
could come and
live with me in our
new house which
will be safer than
before”.
Ghulum Murtaza at a One
Window Operation at the
Patika Land Verification
Unit
Ghulum Murtaza receiving
a Check for 75,000 rupees
to Purchase New Land
 Financial Support to Landless Families

February 2008 was a busy month cial assistance certificates in favor

for the Rural Landless project team. of all of the beneficiaries. The fi-
A Total 121 applicants received Cer- nancial assistance certificate is
tificates of Entitlement. They are signed by the seller, buyer, two
now in the process of finding a land witnesses, tehsildar and Revenue
seller based on the Landless policy. Officer of the LVU. This certificate
During the month the MIS team in is awarded to all the beneficia-
Islamabad generated financial re- ries in the closing session of the
quests to ERRA for disbursement One Window Operations in all the
of the funds. Eight One Window LVUs.
Operations were conducted by the
Land Verification Units (LVU) during
the month. Through these One Win-
dow Operations an amount of Rs.
7,350,000/- was distributed among
98 beneficiaries (Rs. 75,000)/- each)
to purchase land during the event.
During the One Window Operation,
the Landless Information Manage-
ment System (LIMS) team captured
the financial disbursement and land
mutation information for every fam-
ily. At the end LIMS generates finan-

Cha Cha Chairman

Four live programs with daily repeats of the UN-HABITAT funded hous-
ing reconstruction radio program “Cha Cha Chairman ki Bhaitak” aired
in the month of February. Guests for the shows in order included Kam-
ran Abbasi of UN-HABITAT, Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Tanwir of
UN-HABITAT, Ayaz Raja and Noman Qabool of UN-HABITAT and Vasif
Shinwari and Jason Philbrick of Shelter for Life (SFL). Topics covered
in the programs were the status of the rural landless program, remedial
measures and the Non-Compliant Referral System, information aware-
ness campaign on safer reconstruction of houses, No Work Started
cases, role of Village Reconstruction Committees, housing policy up-
dates and the status of reconstruction in NWFP and AJK. Vasif Shinwari & Jason Philbrick of SFL on Cha
Cha Chairman ki Bhatak.
 Information Management in Non Compliance Referral System
(NCRS)

In order to support the ongoing survey and data analysis of the Non Compliance Referral System (NCRS),
the GIS/MIS unit in UN-HABITAT have developed a database to capture and process the information col-
lected from the field by the technical department. NCRS is collecting housing inspection data during their
field visits with the Army. Apart from the survey, the field team also captures 12 to 17 photographs of each
house being surveyed. Presently surveys are going on in three of the most affected districts of P.A.K, cov-
ered by eight Housing Reconstruction Centers (HRCs). In order to make a simple reporting tool, the GIS/
MIS of UN-HABITAT unit have designed a concrete system for data collection and IT assistants, with sup-
port from the public information team are entering the data and reporting to the Islamabad Head Office
regularly.

Management Training

Two more 5 day Management Trainings for UN-HABITAT Staff took place in the month of Febru-
ary. The initial training took place in Muzaffarabad in the last week of January. The second train-
ing was held in Bagh from February 4th to the 8th and had 18 participants. The third training was
conducted in Rawalakot from February 25th to the 29th and also had 18 participants. Two more
trainings are set to take place in the month of March with an estimate of 86 staff being trained in
management skills building.
 Ambassador’s Conference

On February 7th, ERRA organized a Conference for

all Donors and Ambassadors to provide an update on
their activities to date at the Prime Ministers Secretariat
in Islamabad. A special focus of the Conference was
given to the Social Protection Section of ERRA and
those programs which are benefiting the most vulner-
able affectees of the earthquake. Deputy Chairman
ERRA, General Nadeem Ahmed highlighted the prog-
ress of the projects in the earthquake affected areas,
what has been achieved so far and what the future
holds in regards to program activities. As a unique
part of the Conference stalls were setup by several
agencies to highlight their work in regards to Social
Protection. Agencies that participated by setting
up stalls were UN-HABITAT, UNDP, Khoshali Bank,
ERRA Legal Aid Center and the Medical Rehabilita-
tion of Persons with Disabilities. UN-HABITAT is the
implementing partner of ERRA for the Rural Landless
Project. The UN-HABITAT stall contained information
material distributed to landless beneficiaries, had an
interactive data management tool to show visitors
how the data entry of the landless project works and
had the presence of an actual beneficiary who had
received financial assistance from ERRA to purchase
new land. Participants of the Conference included
Heads of Multilateral Institutions, Ambassadors of
several countries, Donors, Heads of UN Agencies and
Government officials.

UN-HABITAT stall on the Rural Landless

Project at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat

For further information please contact:

Ali Raza Kamran Abbassi Muhammad Rizwan

Senior Public Information Officer Regional Information Officer Regional Information Officer
UN-HABITAT Pakistan HRC Muzaffarabad HRC Bagh
Islamabad kamran@unhabitat.org.pk rizwan@unhabitat.org.pk
raza@unhabitat.org.pk 058810-34994-5 058720-72529/45012
051-8255230 ext. 131