Islamabad, 19.04.2010: A three-day ERRA International Conference on “Converting Adversity into Opportunity: Learning from Experiences in Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Rebuilding Lives and Communities after Disasters” started today in Islamabad. Chairman ERRA Altaf Muhammad Saleem expressed his hope that this confluence of disaster management experts will emerge as useful knowledge sharing experience. Thanking the development partners, Chairman ERRA said that their unflinching cooperation and generous contributions have helped ERRA achieve its enormous task of reconstruction.
While speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chairman ERRA Lt Gen Sajjad Akram apprised the participants of ERRA’s achievements in past four years. Lt Gen Sajjad Akram said that ERRA was tasked with implementation of 13,000 projects, over 80% of which have been completed so far adding that ERRA’s success can be attributed to its high standards of transparency and accountability.
Addressing the participants, ADB Resident Mission Director, Rune Stroem, expressed his confidence that the lessons in disaster management shared through this conference will go a long way in uplifting lives of natural disasters victims around the globe. Country Director World Bank, Raja Rehan Arshad said that World Bank has been a key partner in ERRA’s Rural Housing Reconstruction Programme (RHRP), which has been recognized as a global success both in terms of quality and scale. Head of DFID Mission, George Turkington, lauded ERRA for its efforts, mentioning in particular the 600,000 rural houses that have been built since the calamity. Resident Director Islamic Development Bank, Akhtar Bhatti praised ERRA’s commitment and added that IDB is sharing ERRA’s disaster response experiences with 57 Islamic countries.
At the end of the Inaugural session, Chairman ERRA launched three publications of ERRA namely ERRA Monitoring and Evaluation Report 2009, Social Impact Assessment Report and Build Back Better: Lessons Learned from the experience of ERRA.