UK announces 1 million for Revival of Local Government in Earthquake Areas ISLAMABAD: The UK`s Department for International Development (DFID) is to provide 1 million (US$ 2 million) to UNDP in support of its Building Enabling Governance and Institutions for Earthquake Response (BEGIN-ER) Project. The agreement was signed Friday at the UNDP office by Dr. Yusaf Samiullah, Head of DFID Pakistan and Mr. Haoliang Xu, Country Director UNDP. The DFID funding is part of a total UK contribution of 128 million to earthquake emergency relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation. The project has been operational in the earthquake affected areas since August 2006 and has been providing support to the Governments of NWFP and AJK for rebuilding the governance institutions in the earthquake affected areas. This project aims at enabling local government institutions to function again quickly and have technical capacities to plan and implement disaster response activities through a transparent, equitable and participatory process. The project is also building capacity of local government officials, elected representatives and civil society through district level workshops on disaster management and disaster risk reduction. UNDP is responsible for project implementation through its Direct Execution modality. The project staff is on board and actively working in the field in coordination with local government departments. The project covers districts, tehsils and union councils of Mansehra, Battagram in NWFP and Muzaffarabad and Bagh in AJK. Tehsils and union councils of Abottabad and Rawalakot are also included. 310 prefabricated structures with necessary equipment and furniture have been delivered to the project camp in NWFP, from where they are being delivered to recipient government departments, identified in consultations with provincial and district officials. At the moment, a total of more than 120 prefabs have been delivered and erected on the sites. It is expected that the remaining will also be delivered within the next two months. BEGIN-ER project was funded until today mainly from UNDP`s core resources, with a total available budget of US$ 4.4 million. With DFID`s additional funding, the project will be able to cover the remaining earthquake affected districts and tehsils. This support has therefore arrived at the right time to support local government departments, and will assist in better service delivery in the earthquake affected region. Local government institutions at the district, tehsil and union council levels are expected to play a critical role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The undeniable human and physical loss requires the development of skills as well as restoration of physical infrastructure. This project and the additional funding from DFID provide valuable resources in achieving these huge tasks. On this occasion, Dr. Yusuf Samiullah stated, "DFID is delighted to be able to support the UNDP in this vital programme. The UK has been a front-line supporter of the efforts of the Government of Pakistan since the earthquake struck and we remain committed to ensuring the rehabilitation of life and the pursuit of opportunity for the people of the affected areas. Our support to this project also reaffirms our belief that the people of Pakistan must have ownership of the decisions made on their behalf by elected representatives." Mr. Haoliang Xu, Country Director, UNDP stated that "BEGIN-ER is contributing to restoring government capacity and infrastructure for better service delivery and to facilitate rehabilitation and self-reliance among the people of the affected areas". He also said that he was confident that the additional DfID support "allows us to upscale the project activities and enable the local government departments to operate effectively before a long term rehabilitation of government infrastructure is completed". End.