PESHAWAR, Sept 6: Peshawar University Vice-Chancellor Mumtaz Gul has said that capacity building for effective planning and implementation is need of the hour and developing countries like Pakistan must needed to pay serious attention to it.

He was speaking as chief guest at inaugural session of a training workshop entitled ‘Social Audit Methodologies and Evidence-Based planning’ at the Senate Hall here on Tuesday. The workshop was organised jointly by the Department of Geography and Urban Regional Planning of the University of Peshawar and the University of Guererro, Mexico.

Mr Gul said that capacity building and facilities implementation was need of the day for countries like Pakistan. Today, he said, developing nations must concentrate on human development.

He said it was regrettable that many plans were made and developed but they were hardly implemented. To overcome this problem, he said, serious steps must be taken to compel the authorities concerned to implement plans in their original shape. In this regard, he said, there was need of collecting accurate data for the purpose of planning.

The VC hoped that the course would play a vital role in building capacity in teaching institutions, particularly at the University of Peshawar, by continuing such efforts in future. He said besides their studies, students must also concentrate on their extra curriculum activities, adding students could play leading role in progress and development of nations.

Shedding light on objectives of the course, Dr Anne Cockeroft, CIET, country program manager of the course, said that the first module of the course was organised in February last year, while this module would deal with skills to communicate and use of mapping and other techniques in date analysis and presentation.

She termed the course as an important step in building national and regional capacities for evidence based planning and hoped that the participants would apply the knowledge and skills acquired during the course while fulfilling formal responsibilities in their respective fields.

Steve Mitchel, coordinator for CIET and Dr Khalid Omer CIET’s Pakistan-based coordinator also spoke on the occasion. Participants from South Africa, Kenya and Canada and Pakistan are attending the course which would concluded on September 25.

Earlier, Dr Amir Khan, chairman Department of Geography and Urban Regional Planning, University of Peshawar expressed his pleasure that the university had the privilege of being involved with CIET since beginning of the devolution process in Pakistan.

He said the National Reconstruction Bureau should audit and evaluate the devolution process by collecting information on basic government facilities across the country.