April 30, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 29: A two-day international conference on governing of Millennium Development Goals has observed that provincial departments in the country should be restructured to bring them in line with the local government system.

The conference organised by National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) at the conclusion recommended that provincial restructuring in accordance with section 133-A of the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) needed to be expedited, so that donors may support the activity through their programmes and projects for improved service delivery.

The conference was attended by scholars, practitioners and researchers from United States, India, Singapore and China. The World Bank, government of Japan, UNDP and CIDA supported the event.

The speakers said local government’s capacity should be supported and integrated into provincial government programmes in order to ensure achievements of MDGs.

It suggested that direct election at the district and tehsil levels would strengthen the local government system.

The government was recommended that donor programmes and projects would be more effective if they remained within the parameters of the Local Government Ordinance.

If the donor programmes and projects remained in the line of LGO, they would be helpful for the local government system which would lead to the early achievement of MDGs.

It said government transaction cost sectors like revenue, police, judiciary and audit and accounts needed to be treated as special sectors. It said the existing programmes/projects must be restructured and aligned to the devolved structures for meeting the MDGs targets.

The conference recommended that all financing of local government functions must be through the provincial finance commissions and donors should make efforts towards harmonising their support through the PFC award (provincial allocable amount) which will ensure cost effective use of donor funds being provided for MDGs.

It said provincial governments needed to build their capacity to perform their new functions of policy formulation, standard setting and performance analysis of local government effectively. This will create an enabling environment for MDGs.