Model Presented at Business Partnership for Sustainable Urbanization Forum
Nairobi, Kenya, 17 April 2007 – A model for re-building lives, environments and livelihoods after the devastating South Asian earthquake in 2005 was profiled by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) at the just concluded first stakeholders’ forum of the Business Partnership for Sustainable Urbanization organized by UN-HABITAT.
Official figures suggest that 75,000 people lost their lives in the quake that destroyed cities, towns, villages and remote settlements across mountainous regions of India and Pakistan. The AKDN’s Multi-Input Earthquake Reconstruction Programme in Kashmir was presented at the Forum as an approach to address challenges facing the urban poor in the aftermath of natural disaster.
“Investments targeted at rehabilitation are best sustained if they are supported by a holistic, multi-sectoral approach which is complemented by an area development focus.” said Mr. Hafiz Sherali, Chairman Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan, presenting the model in a session entitled “Cross Cutting Challenge: Financing Partnerships.” “Effective responses,” he noted, “must go beyond risk assessment, home reconstruction, integrated water supply and management and mobile health clinics, to community-based risk management, infrastructure financing, enterprise development and microfinance.
Ismailimail 