June 29, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 13, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 28: The UK government will provide over Rs2 billion to support the ongoing devolution reforms in Pakistan by promoting citizens’ engagement in the process.

An agreement in this regard was signed here on Thursday by Dr Yusaf Samiullah, head of the Department for International Development (DFID), Pakistan, and Mikiko Tanaka, Country Director, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Pakistan.

The grant funding will be provided to the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), which are working on the devolution plan. The funds will be administered by the UNDP Pakistan.

The aim of the four-year programme is to support increased accountability of the state to its citizens, by supporting their increased participation, and improved utilisation of the development funds in local governments of the country.

The programme will help DTCE, a non-government organization working in collaboration with the NRB, to broaden its interventions to promote the establishment of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) and other citizen entitlements, as provided by the Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

The emphasis of the programme will be to increase the support to women and to the poor and to take a more meaningful role in local government.

Various stakeholders of the programme will also facilitate local government departments, in the provinces, to help monitor and evaluate CCB formation and other aspects of citizen and community participation in decision-making.

One of the new aspects of the programme is the establishment of a Citizen Engagement Research Programme (CERP). CERP will support research that is linked to the participation of citizens in decision-making.

Ms Tanaka, welcomed the support from the UK government through DFID and emphasised the need for empowerment of communities and stakeholders at the grassroots level. She expressed hope that through this contribution DTCE, provincial government departments and the NRB would be able to assist a greater number of communities to address issues that affect their lives and livelihoods.

Dr Samiullah said, the DFID Pakistan is also working on a new country assistance plan, through which the UK will spend nearly Rs58.2 billion over the next three years. One of the key issues for the DFID is the sustainability and success of efforts to reform governance, particularly through decentralisation.

DTCE is currently working in over 35 districts and has contributed to the formation of more than 16,000 CCBs across the county. It has trained more than 5,000 CCBs to develop community- based projects, by working closely with districts and tehsils governments to expedite the process of CCB project approval and implementation. It also builds the capacity of local government functionaries in planning & budgeting with support from the National Commission for Human Development.

The DFID is the UK government’s department that is responsible for promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty. Its core objective is to work with the Pakistani federal and provincial governments, the international community and other donors to bring enduring and sustainable benefits to the poor.