The earthquake 2005 caused severe damage to rural housing where 462,546 houses were completely damaged and 101,091 were partially damaged. To bring back normalcy ERRA Pakistan adopted owner driven Rural Housing Programme with assisted & inspected construction.The Rural Housing Programme promotes builiding standards and designs that are earthquake resistant along with in situ rebuilding so that minimum population relocation should take place.Rebuilding would be owner-driven, but assisted and inspected by the government through partner organizations. it was felt that owners needed to be in charge of the reconstruction of their houses and understand earthquake resistant building techniques. Fimiliar building methods and easily accessible materials are in use for rehabilitation. A uniform financial assistance package for rebuilding has been disbursed to all affectees. Coordination ensures full spatial coverage and avoids duplication of service provision. About 800 new rural model houses were constructed by Partner Organizations (POs) and handed over to extremely vulnerable women in the affected areas of AJK and NWFP.

The overall objective is to reconstruct an estimaed 600,000 houses that were either destroyed or damaged, by using earthquake resistant building techniques, through grants and loans to eligible housholds from Goveronment of Pakistan and Donors. The programme objective is to rebuild houses as per siesmic resistant standards for rehabilitation of people's lives, enhancement of their skills and capacities and strengthened social capital.

Ensuring owner-driven housing reconstruction where home owners in charge of rebuilding their homes.
Assisted and inspected reconstruction and retrofitting.
Ensuring seismic safety.
Ensuring uniform assistance packages across all programmes and funding sources, and maximising outreach, through optimized designs and implementation mechanisms.
Ensuring judicious use of grants; reducing and managing conflicts and grievances; minimising socio-economic distortions, inequities and disparities.