Zubair Qureshi
Stakeholders at the conclusion of an EU-supported programme “Enhancing CSOs’ Contributions to Governance and Development Processes in Pakistan” shared the best practices and lessons they learned during the 5-year initiative.
They were addressing a national workshop held to mark the successful conclusion of the programme at a local hotel.
They spoke about knowledge sharing and best practices and urged the civil society and governance stakeholders to replicate, up-scale as well as build synergies and complementarities with other initiatives.
The ceremony was attended by all the participating organizations that implemented the EU-funded interventions fostering civil society engagement and participatory governance.
Six organizations including Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), Management Development Foundation (MDF), Lasoona, Omer Asghar Khan Foundation (OAKDF), Social Mobilization, Advocacy, Research and Training (SMART), and Water Environment and Sanitation Society (WESS), presented learning and best practices of their respective projects from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The most prominent best practices and case studies include citizen engagement in development planning and budgeting, increasing downward accountability and transparency of local government towards communities as well as strengthened independence of women and persons with disabilities through vocational training.
In the event the Director Local Governance School of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa launched a training module developed with the support of Welthungerhilfe (WHH), for training of local elected representatives of the province.
The elected Chairman of Tehsil Alpuri, district Shangla appreciated the efforts of LASOONA and Welthungerhilfe and emphasized the role of citizens in development planning and public service improvement.
After assuming the role as Tehsil Chairman, he engaged with the Inclusive Civil Society Platform established under the EU-funded project and notified the platform as Citizen Advisory Group to further engage in development planning in his Tehsil.
