CHITRAL: Aided by the European Union, a 64 million Euros project is being launched for bringing improvement in the grassroots level infrastructure and governance and bridging the gap between community and government by involving the community-based organisations in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, a representative of the Finance and Planning Department, Ziaur Rahman, said that this budgetary support would augment the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s development agenda and supplement funding for development projects.

He said that the ‘district development strategy’, developed by the Oxford Policy Management, was a key pillar for the implementation of the present government’s District Governance and Community Development Programme.

The first district development strategy was formally approved by deputy commissioner, Chitral, Aminul Haq in a meeting the other day and hoped that under the strategy Chitral would be transformed into a model district.

“The main purpose of the strategy is to have an overview of the state of public service delivery, identify the gaps in service delivery both quantitative and qualitative, the key constraints in terms of resources, capacities and governance issues, and develop a roadmap to improve service delivery over the next three to four years,” Mr Rahman said.

Published in Dawn, August 31, 2014