Facilitating community development with housing microfinance: appraising housing solutions for Pakistan after disasters

After the deadly floods and earthquakes, more than two third Pakistanis were in urgent need of assistance. Malnutrition and homelessness are continuing threats to the victims of these disasters. The scope of destruction is so wide that instead of huge international donations and governmental efforts for relief and reconstruction, the situation is not healing effectively and the gap is enlarging day by day between supply and demand of houses. In early 2010, after these tragedies, Central Bank statistics revealed that now there is a total shortage of 8.8 million houses and 700,000 houses/year must be provided to cope with the increasing demand. Especially for low-income households, there is a dearth of financial resources to build/renovate damaged and destroyed houses; this is worsened by the fact that non-sustainable methods and materials that are used continue to be vulnerable in future disasters. There is an urgent need for policy change in Pakistan towards innovative housing strategies including financial and technical assistance programs.