Since February 2006, following one of South Asia's worst earthquakes, Crown Agents has been working with the Pakistan government's Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency. Primarily we have been advising on its reconstruction programme, designing systems and procedures to support project design and approval, procurement and financial management. With our help ERRA has been rebuilding schools and hospitals, supporting livelihoods through cash grants, rehabilitating roads, energy and telecommunications facilities, and much else - across hundreds of projects.
We have also provided senior staff with training and capacity building in project planning, monitoring and evaluation, and IT and communications. A new website arising from our communications strategy, is still important in coordinating reconstruction activities.
With ERRA becoming more firmly established our role has changed to that of providing additional monitoring and evaluation support, devising a new M&E strategy and information systems. These now mean that ERRA can see clearly what has worked and what hasn't in the reconstruction programme to date, and so plan its future work accordingly.