One-Point Agenda of ERRA is to reconstruct remaining projects on a fast track basis, Chairman ERRA Hamid Yar Hiraj
ERRA’s model being adopted international community speaks of our transparency and professionalism; Deputy Chairman ERRA

International partners like USAID, UNICEF, UNDP, JICA, European Commission, Word Bank, IDB. SDC, CIDA have been active partners with ERRA in reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake affected areas of AJ&K and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A donor conference was held in ERRA today, where a comprehensive briefing was given to the Donors and Sponsors at ERRA HQs. The conference was largely attended by over 70 international partners along with Ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Oman, Finland and Bosnia. Country Representatives from UNDP, Senior Institutional Development Specialist Raja Rehan Arshad World Bank, Mr. Shahid Ahmed Country Representative IDB, Mr. Deepak Bajracharya Office in charge and Chief Field Operations UNICEF and Mr. Rodney Dyer Infrastructure and Environment Advisor DFID were among the dignitaries who graced the occasion. Guests were welcomed by Deputy Chairman while newly appointed Chairman ERRA Hamid Yar Hiraj showing his appreciation for donors and sponsors looked forward to future collaboration with international partners.

Welcoming the guests, Deputy Chairman ERRA Lt Gen Muhammad Haroon Aslam thanked Government of Pakistan, Governments of AJK and KPK, international partners for their all-out support for ERRA. Confident of ERRA’s progress and warm response of donors and sponsors , Deputy Chairman ERRA said that though Pakistan had tough time facing world’s one of the worst natural disasters, however, ERRA’s success story speaks of international community working hand in hand with Pakistan. He said that ERRA in its fifth year is now a specialized organization which is fully capable to face any future disaster and ERRA model can be applied successfully elsewhere in the world including reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood affected areas
The newly appointed Chairman ERRA Hamid Yar Hiraj appreciated the positive role of the donors and sponsors in reconstruction and rehabilitation of Pakistan and said that with one point agenda ERRA is focused on completing the ongoing projects within a time line of two years. Talking to the media Hamid said that the pace of reconstruction though had slowed in past due to paucity of funds, however, with funds being made available and political backing of the Government of Pakistan the speed of work will gain momentum in coming days. Answering one of the questions about old Balakot, the chairman said people are emotionally attached to the home land and it is difficult to relocate people by force, and expected media to play a positive role in mass awareness regarding old Balakot as hazardous land for concrete building for being situated on red zone. He also said that in coming months reconstruction of new Balakot will pick up as funding and land issues are being amicably resolved.

Apprising the multilateral and bilateral Development Partners of the progress achieved by ERRA, Chief of Staff ERRA Brigadier Massoud Ahmed said that ERRA has achieved more than 97% progress in Rural Housing sector, while 6441 projects have been completed in Urban Housing, 1581 in education, 4002 in water and sanitation, 363 in governance, 142 in environment, 117 in transport and 70 in livelihood. He said that recent initiatives such as establishment of Transparency Cell and ISO Certification beyond January aim at making ERRA a more vibrant organization.
Senior Institutional Development Specialist World Bank Raja Rehan Arshad, Office Incharge and Chief Field Operations UNICEF Mr. Deepak Bajracharya and Country Representative IDB Mr. Shahid Ahmed ensured their full support for ERRA in future and praised it as being a post-disaster model of excellence for the world to emulate. The donors and sponsors showed overall satisfaction on new management and its vision and showed confidence on ERRA strategy to build back better.