The citizen community boards (CCBs) were created to enable pro-active elements of society to participate in community work and undertake development-related activities in rural and urban areas with a bottom-up and participation-based approaches.

In a local area, a group of non-elected citizens may set up a voluntary organisation under the designation of CCB. Its creation is formalised through registration . A CCB may raise funds through voluntary contributions, gifts, donations, grants and endowments for its declared objectives, i.e. establishing a needed welfare or development project. It may also receive project-based cost-sharing support from local government.

The local body law lays down that at least 25 per cent of the district development funds will be reserved for projects that will be identified, planned and sponsored by the CCBs. The boards are required to submit details of their development projects along with the proof that they have mobilised at least 20 per cent of the estimated cost specifically for that project.

Registeration: A major problem has been the non-establishment/registration of CCBs. It takes a lot of time for the people to grasp the concept. It also affects utilisation of allocated funds for development projects to be implemented through the CCBs.

Operational issues: In situations where CCBs have been registered and established, capacity of these entities and those of its members to deliver has been found to be very weak. They have not been able to formulate projects to benefit from funds allocated by local governments. Some CCBs are finding it difficult to arrange their own share of 20 per cent contribution to initiate projects. Non-co-operation of the bureaucracy and elected councilors are also cited as some of the operational constraints.

In many cases, the required number of departmental personnel for community development are not posted. The new system tends to isolate the existing local organisations as it puts additional demand on them to fulfill various procedural requirements. The schemes proposed by CCBs are crowded out by those put forward by the district development committees.

Citizen participation: The active promotion of CCBs amongst the most vulnerable population could help ensure citizen participation and community empowerment, elements now internationally recognised as crucial for poverty alleviation. The 2004/5 social audit provides evidence that citizen participation is increasing -- in rising membership of voluntary groups--- and specifically in more awareness and willingness to participate in CCBs. The people who are interested in joining a CCB are also those more positive about their community and the way people work together in the community.

Again, it will be necessary to keep monitoring the situation for equity. At present, the vulnerable (poor), women and the uneducated are less likely to participate than others. It will require additional efforts to draw in the more disadvantaged members of society. The willingness to participate is there: people from vulnerable households are as willing to join a CCB as people from less vulnerable households. But they face difficulties and special arrangements might be needed to ensure they can participate fully. CCB promotion could actively target these groups to ensure equitable presence of the most vulnerable in the CCB movement.

Women’s participation remains a challenge and there is clear evidence of their continuing exclusion from many aspects even of household functioning. Women councilors described some of the difficulties they face. Women are less aware of, and expressed less willingness to join CCBs, undoubtedly because of the practical problems involved.

On the other hand, group discussions showed their clear awareness of what was going on in their communities and they had ideas about what needed to be done to improve matters. For the first time in the 2004/5 social audit, we added some specific questions about social capital, which will serve as a baseline for following this important indicator over time. If devolution works as intended, social capital ought to increase.

Conclusion: A recent study shows that the local people are not aware enough to participate in development projects of CCBs. It has been observed that there is a need to improve the CCBs overall system like registration of CCBs, proposal-making, funds releasing and other procedural matters. The effectiveness of CCBs is questionable at this point of time.

As far as income generation projects are concerned; CCBs have played some positive role in micro credit in Sukkur and Larkana districts. People have borrowed money for micro projects and in this way they have increased their income. CCBs’ role in income generation is some how significant in Sukkur and Larkana districts but in Nawabshah it does not have significant role.

In the field of infrastructure, CCBs are very effective in Sukkur district. The qualitative analysis shows that micro credit is the second field in which CCBs are effective in Sukkur district followed by entrepreneurship. The contribution of CCBs in income generation in Sukkur district is very significant The same pattern emerges in Larkana.

Again the qualitative analysis shows that CCBs have an effective role in infrastructure in Nawabshah. Health is the second field in which the role of CCBs is effective in this district and is followed by the micro-credit. The contribution of CCBs in income generation in Nawabshah district is not very significant.