ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The UK Government's Department for International Development (DIFD) in a cost-sharing agreement committed 2.75 million pounds (Rs305 million) to the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) here on Friday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed at a ceremony between the DIFD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under which the DIFD would provide the grant for implementation of devolution reforms in Pakistan.

The British High Commissioner, Mark Lyall Grant, signed the MoU with Resident Representative UNDP, Haoliang Xu. The ceremony was attended by the Chairman National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) and Board of Directors, DTCE, Daniyal Aziz.

Devolution Trust supports the efforts to ensure citizen participation and community empowerment in all unions of Pakistan by 2009 and promotes rights-based development.

"The Government of UK is delighted to support the cause and process of community empowerment through creation of Citizen Community Boards (CCB) in Pakistan," said the British high commissioner.

"In the past three years, DIFD's development cooperation with Pakistan has gone up and in 2004-05 we expect to spend about 70 million pounds (Rs7,700 million)," he further said, adding, "Giving ordinary people a say in how a local government should allocate its development budget is a fundamental component of Pakistan's devolution process and its embedding of democracy. It is also fundamental to the prospects of bringing sustainable and enduring benefits to the poor."

Resident Representative UNDP, Haoliang Xu, emphasized strengthening the devolution reforms in order to achieve the goals of participatory governance in Pakistan. Appreciating the support, Daniyal Aziz said promotion of people's rights to development through devolution of power at the grass-roots level was vital for progress.

Nearly 98 per cent of union councils were committed to supporting the empowerment of people. "The forthcoming financial assistance to DTCE will be an important contribution towards advancement of community empowerment elements of the Local Government Ordinance 2001. The cooperation will help in realising the long-cherished dream of participatory and right-based development in Pakistan," he said.