Build Back Better, Rural housing, policy and its Implementation, Successes and Lessons Learnt

ByM. Waqas Hanif

Program Manager Rural Housing

Rational of The Program

Over 600,000 houses affected and people rendered home less

Dealing with most basic human need i.e. shelter Had to be launched quickly – Declared Flagship program of

ERRA Huge donor interest – managed centrally Approaching winters and saving lives – basic consideration

ERRA’sRural Housing Policy

Policy Pillar 2: Ensuring uniform assistance packages and maximizing program outreach

Cash SUBSIDY for core housing unit – not replacement of loss;

Coordination of multiple reconstruction initiatives & standards for equity;

application of uniform policies across the board: Ascertaining application of seismic design standards Ensuring full spatial coverage; Reducing risks of beneficiary double counting or

being missed; Rebuilding In-situ - addressing land ownership & availability

issues, minimizing relocation costs.

Strategies

The Institutional (Public & Private) Resources & Coordination Mechanisms put in place

ERRA Housing Program Management

Army Regional Management Regional Housing Coordinators (2)

9 District Housing Coordinators

11 PO-Run Housing Reconstruction

Centers

Different Army Formations

Assistance &

Inspection (AI) Teams

MobileTraining Teams (MTTs)

Progress Monitoring

Teams (PMTs)

20+ Partner Organizations (POs)

Training Centers

Mobile Training & Social Mobilization Teams

Village Reconstruction Committees

Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund

Partner Organizations

Inspection Teams

Training & Assistance

Teams

ERRA BENEFICIARIES PPAF BENEFICIARIES

PO Field Offices

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Housing Program Objectives To Be Achieved Through Social Mobilization

Short-term: Reconstructing or rehabilitating damaged houses to seismic resistant standards – “building back better”

Long-term: Reaping the longer term benefits of owner driven reconstruction – “inducing behavioral change and a culture of compliance”

Benefits/Reasons For Social Mobilization

Voluntary adoption of policy by the people Making use of cohesive nature of society – new paradigm in

development – Owner driven approach. Public private partnership Resolving eligibility issues through participatory damage

assessment – minimizing grievances Understanding and resolving issues impeding construction Augmenting available PO resources Telling our story through the people Sharing construction knowledge

Benefits/Reasons For Social Mobilization

Inducing people to start and complete reconstruction in time – adhering to time bars

Minimizing construction cost - Community bulk procurement – community construction support – re use and quality of salvaged material

Networks for greater community counseling Warding off against implementers fatigue Environmental and social safeguards

Manifestation On Ground

The concept of collective responsibility v/s interdependence

Creation of village reconstruction committees – male and female

Training of VRC’s Refresher trainings Due recognition Resolution of problem through them Linking them with other ERRA programs Cascade of training approach

Target groups

• Masons, artisans, self- builders, unskilled labor

Enhance skill through• Hands on technical training• Detailed skill specific training

• Owners with specific modules forwomen

• EQ resistant check list

• Local Councilors, Elders, Imams, School Headmasters,etc.

• Government policies and procedures• EQ awareness raising

• CommunityBased Organizations

• Awareness, policies, compliance,assistance to vulnerable groups, etc.

• New workforce Training from scratch• Hands on technical training• Detailed skill specific training

Type of training

Preparation of common curriculaTraining of Training Coordinators

Cascade of training

Federal and Provincial/State

Districts Housing Reconstruction Centers

Union Councils Partner Organizations

Villages Mobile Training Teams

Training of Master Trainers of Partner Organisations

Training of Mobile Teams

Training of artisans, self-builders,contractors, communities, etc.

District Level Training Summary

No. of VRC's

Artisans Trained

Challenge:

Timely & Transparent Disbursement of Housing Cash Grant to Eligible Beneficiaries

Problems:

• HCG amount being returned to SERRA/PERRA from various banks due to wrong details (individual/banks/POs).

• Unavailability of modus operandi to deal with cases of wrong bank/personnel details

• Delays in getting corrected Housing Cash Grant Lists from NADRA

• Lack of skilled human resources

• Volume of Data (Single NADRA List is comprised of 95800 pages alone)

• Manual searching of thousands of Individual records & their payments status tracking

• Track down of Bank transactions & reconciliations

Challenge & Problems in Grievance & Problems in Grievance RedressalRedressal

• Track down of Bank transactions & reconciliations

• Availability of correct bank details of beneficiaries

• Erroneous Data Correction

• Preparation & Generation of correction lists

• Identification and elimination of duplicate/wrong entries

• Process simplification & Staff Efficiency maximization

Challenge & Problems in Grievance & Problems in Grievance RedressalRedressal

• Development of HCG-Disbursement MIS

• Data Uploading of Reconciled Individual Record of Each Beneficiary

• Generation of Correction Lists

• Status updation of entire beneficiaries

• NADRA Database updation to eliminate errors for subsequent

Tranches

• Establishment of 12 Data Resource Centers all over the area for on

line updation of record of people

Initiatives for Grievances Remedial Measures

• Establishment of SERRA Helpline (Mail, E-mail, Telephone,

fax & web Access)

• Establishment of IVRS helpline

• Publication in News Papers, pamphlet & Radio programs

Initiatives for Grievances Remedial Measures

Objectives of PIC

Image Building and Branding of ERRA.

Disseminate ERRA Rural Housing Policy among various Stakeholders.

Keep the Interest of all the stakeholders alive.

Challenges v/s Achievements

Challenges Achievements

Devising a flexible policy that is acceptable to all stakeholders.

• A multistakeholder consultative process adopted before finalizing the policy.•Uniform assistance package was adopted to minimize discretion•Maximum spatial coverage was ensured

Setting up implementation mechanism for policy implementation from damage assessment to seismic completion of the house.

A hybrid implementation mechanism, at central, regional, district and tehsil level was put in place involving Army, NGO’s and international development partners to ensure program presence and provide people with interface at all levels. The mechanism was able to survey over 600,000 houses three times over and all the forms were sent to NADRA for processing.

Challenges v/s Achievements

Challenges Achievements

Co opting the suitable implementing partners and a clear distribution of area of responsibility amongst them – Arriving at unity out of diversity through central authority. To outsource or not.

•The entire EQAA was distributed among the partners ranging from 23 NGO’s, Army and UN HABITAT. Some aspects of the program were outsourced as no in house expertise were available, such as data management was outsourced to NADRA. ERRA lead the project and was able to generate consensus among the partners.

Informing people about the policy and its various facets – ensuring voluntary adoption of policy by the communities

• The program was owner driven – putting people in charge with assisted and inspected construction regime. People were given their traditional and improved design options to reconstruct which speeded the reconstruction.•A massive public information campaign was launched to disseminate program related info to people and image building of ERRA.•An IT based grievance redressal system was put in place which helped resolve grievances of the people with in the project life span.

Challenges v/s Achievements

Challenges Achievements

•A massive social mobilization campaign to adopt people ERRA training program was launched. The campaign was spearheaded by ERRA implementing partners and was implemented at the union council level. A training management information system was developed to capture all training related data. As such over 250,000 people were provided technical training and over 500,000 social mobilization training.

Transparent Financial disbursement mechanism – matching physical completion and financial disbursement

•All the financial disbursements were made through the banks and ERRA helped open over 600,000 bank accounts for the purpose. A mechanism was adopted to ensure the credit of all amounts to people bank accounts and obtain certification to that effect from all 7500 bank branches involved. All returned amounts due to non credit was re credited to correct bank accounts of the people. The mechanism helped disburse Rs. 70 Bn among 500,000 people in 4 years time.

Challenges v/s Achievements

Challenges Achievements

A data base to capture all record and preserving for reference and re use NADRA MIS, TMIS, RME etc.

•The record was of prime importance to be preserved and put to later use. All record was computerized and hard copies were also kept in safe custody. Following data was captured:•Financial disbursement data through NADRA•Physical implementation data through Reporting monitoring and evaluation data base•Training data through Training management information system .

Changing the mindset of people – success not to be judged by disbursement but completion of seismic houses

•The challenge of speedy implementation was overcome by massive emphasis on compliance regime. Over a period a culture of compliance was inculcated among people by tying the financial disbursement to the complaint reconstruction. To date 417,672 houses have been re constructed out of 463,243 houses that were completely destroyed.

Challenges v/s Achievements

Challenges Achievements

How to end the program – The program has the potential to linger on for years and years – The issue of sustainability

•Final status of all the cases was ascertained supported by photographs•The drop out cases were written off from the highest forum before closing the project.•A compliant cell to deal with court cases was established to continue working beyond project life.•Although the project was handled centrally but supported by regional officials ensuring transfer of knowledge•All data was transferred to regions•No permanent mechanism to ensure future seismic construction could be put in place

Lessons Learned

Provision of Timely Information and involving beneficiaries from the very outset should be ensured

A supplementary community validation mechanism for determining grant eligibility must be in place

Provision of enabling environment for grant beneficiaries to comply with disaster-resistant construction standards

Even though individual assets are being created through the housing program, it is important to breed a community driven approach

Key messages to communities have to be sustained Need to provide a wide menu of reconstruction options for the

beneficiaries to chose from building on the strengths of local construction practices – field test of all given designs

Lessons Learned

A mechanism to ensure future seismic construction has to be put in place

Use of technology in grievance redressal and financial disbursement be ensured

Absolute compliance may never be achieved, the concept of anticipatory compliance to be adopted – a flexible policy with room for mid course corrections

Its good to outsource – involvement of diverse partners in the program brings credibility