LONDON, Jan 20: The British government has earmarked over 500,000 pounds for capacity building of Pakistani legislators. The information was given in the House of Commons by International Development Minister Gareth Thomas in response to a question by MP MacShane about the projects for democracy being supported by the British government in Pakistan, China, Kenya, Uganda, the Balkans, Eriteria, the Russian Federation and Burma.

Pakistan is the only country in the list where funds have been earmarked for ‘capacity building of parliamentarians’.

“In Pakistan, the DFID has provided £525,000 (approximately Rs54 million) to build the capacity of parliamentarians at the federal and provincial levels,” the minister said.

He said the DFID had also allocated £326,000 to strengthen the capacity of local political party branches and £208,531 for election monitoring to develop an understanding of the processes and outcomes of the 2005 local elections.

He said the DFID was also supporting promotion of grassroots democracy across its projects by providing £2.8 million for a gender equality project through the British Council. He said the funds would be used to strengthen the capacity of local organizations to achieve access for women to political and economic decision making, protection from violence and equal treatment in law.

He said £18 million was being spent through the Asian Development Bank to strengthen the ability of the civil society to demand improved delivery of services and access to justice. About £5 million had been allocated for a ‘citizens’ empowerment initiative’ to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to engage government on issues of social exclusion, human rights and poverty reduction, he said.

The minister detailed the projects and the DFID funding for all the countries except China, where, he said, the British government was supporting the promotion of grassroots democracy by promoting the participation of poor people in decision making. Without giving any figures, he said such participation was institutionalized in some projects through the creation of community-based organizations such as water user associations.