PESHAWAR: A two-day capacity-building training workshop for members of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) from the merged areas concluded here on Sunday.
The training covered nine different skills and topics, including development and sustainable participatory development, transparency and accountability, need assessment, data collection and analysis, problem identification and prioritization, environmental, health, and hygiene education, resource mobilization for CBOs, leadership skills, record keeping, and developing an effective action plan for implementation.
The two-day event was attended by 88 participants from North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Kurram, and Orakzai districts.
Director General Local Government and Rural Development Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Usman Mehsud was the chief guest on the occasion of the closing ceremony.
Addressing the participants of training, Usman Mehsud highlighted the long-lasting collaboration between GIZ-FDP and Local Government Election and Rural Development Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (LGE&RDD), and acknowledged the support provided by GIZ-FDP to LGE&RDD.
Usman went on to emphasize the importance of Community-Based Organizations, citing the Community-Driven Local Development (CDLD) program as an example of how CDLD gave local communities control over development-related decisions and resources.
CDLD was considered increasingly as a nexus between bottom-up and top-down approaches to improving local governance and service delivery. It increased not only income but also citizen empowerment in terms of service quality, Usman Mehsud added.
He continued by saying that the KP government has taken significant steps to bring newly tribal districts up to speed with the rest of the country.
He also stated that a World Bank-funded project to improve the socioeconomic conditions of the merged areas will be launched very soon, and that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has already approved the Qabaail Led Development Programme, which will be launched very soon.
He said that the training will not only improve the capacity of CBO members but will also improve the participatory development approach by involving citizens from merged areas in development initiatives.
He added that after getting knowledge and skills about CBOs led development the participants will share the knowledge and skills with their colleagues in field.
Usman said that the collocation between GIZ and LGE&RDD will continue with same pace for the betterment of the merged areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022