Projects side
UN–HABITAT has a long history of cooperation in Pakistan and has pioneered innovative approaches in community rebuilding of housing and basic urban services and infrastructure delivery. Currently, UN-Habitat is operational in many provinces, and has a diverse project portfolio.
UN-Habitat in Pakistan
UN-Habitat’s engagement in Pakistan began on a small scale in the 1990’s addressing issues of secure tenure and other related problems. It further revived its operations after the 2005 earthquake. During the period 2006-2010 through the rural housing reconstruction programme, 3.5 million were successfully moved to safer and better homes; 14,000 families were moved to safer places from hazardous land and over 55,00 houses were constructed by the women-headed households.
The floods of 2010 affected more than 18 million people and caused an estimated $10 billion in damages. They were followed by heavy monsoon rains in September 2011, which affected some 9.7 million people in Sind hand Balochistan. Natural disasters have disproportionately affected the excluded and the vulnerable.
UN-Habitat Pakistan has extensive experiences, expertise and human resources in the fields of Housing, Basic Services, Community Infrastructure, Urban Development, Disaster Risk Management and Geographical Information Management. During its biggest project, Pakistan Settlements Flood Recovery Project, UN-Habitat maintained a strength of over 700 national and international staff with country office in Islamabad and provincial offices in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Mardan. In addition to these locations, UN-Habitat operated out of 12 field offices throughout the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab.
Today, UN-Habitat’s engagement in Pakistan is in the areas of housing, community infrastructure, basic services, urban development, disaster risk management/early recovery land and property, and Geographic Information Management (GIS). The implementation approach is primarily “community-led” development, people’s process approach in which affected populations takes charge of their recovery, rehabilitation and development.
From 2005 to 2013, UN-Habitat has a total portfolio of more than $100 million for it developments and humanitarian work.