PESHAWAR, Dec 29: The NWFP government is engaging international donors to finance a proposed development strategy amid declining foreign contribution to its Annual Development Programme (ADP).

NWFP Planning and Development Department, which was currently working on a Comprehensive Development Strategy (CDS), was in contact with a number of international donor agencies to secure their financial support, an official told Dawn here on Monday.

The department, said the official, had shared the outlines of proposed CDS with the representatives of major international bodies and sought their support in its implementation in Islamabad early this month at a donor consultation.

“The donors’ response is encouraging,” remarked the official, when asked about the feedback of the department’s deliberations that had so far taken place. He said modalities for their future support would be worked out later on.

NWFP was being considered as the frontline province of US-backed war on terror but overall support of international donor agencies towards development of this province was declining for the last couple of years.

Official statistics showed that in financial year 2004-05 the foreign aid contribution to the ADP was 34.88 of the total programme outlay, which had dropped to 32.65 per cent in 2005-06, 28.84 per cent in 2006-07, 20.21 per cent in 2007-08 and 11.11 per cent in the current financial year.

Official cited worsening law and order situation and spill over of militancy from the adjoining tribal belt into the settled areas as the major reason for the decline.

“For the last one year, not a single foreign mission had visited Peshawar,” said the official, adding the international bodies were not sending their foreign staff to NWFP and all the meetings were held in Islamabad.

The donors had been apprised that NWFP was paying numerous economic and social cost of being frontline province in the war on terror, said the official, while quoting the proceedings of the consultation with donors.

“Asset destruction, lack of investment, disruption of production, trade and markets, prevention of service delivery, displacement of people, poverty and growing criminality are the visible impacts of the war on terror in NWFP,” the official maintained.

Outlining the proposed CDS, the official said that priority would be given to the construction of roads that would decrease congestion, business costs and expand business and attraction. Similarly, different type of initiatives would be executed to create community confidence by addressing issues in governance and private sector development.

“For reducing poverty and creating livelihoods, the CDS would have a two pronged approach, which include strengthening the Zakat and Pakistan Baitul Mal operations and employment generation through micro finance credits,” the official added.Moreover, the official said measures for economic expansion, social protection and improving governance in the mineral sector were some of the other major themes of the proposed CDS, which had been shared with the international donors.