The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District Governance and Community Development Programme (KP-DGCD) Programme has finalised the priority contingency mechanism for District Chitral to address post-flood infrastructure rehabilitation needs in the flood damaged areas. To that effect, several important decisions were taken during the 4th Policy Coordination and Review Committee (PCRC) meeting in Peshawar, 25 Aug 2015, chaired by the Secretary of Finance of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mr Ahmad Hanif Orakzai. The contingency mechanism has been amended in conformity with the Chief Minister’s directives to facilitate a speedy response to the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs of the flood affected people in Chitral.
We need to move swiftly and efficiently to respond to the emergency in Chitral which has caused significant infrastructure damage. Therefore, we are making special arrangements while remaining within the CDLD Policy guidelines so that the implementation of CDLD projects can be expedited according to the emergency needs in Chitral.
— Ahmad Hanif Orakza, Secretary of Finance, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Chair of the 4th PCRC meeting
Under the contingency mechanism, the routine proposal submission process as stipulated under the CDLD Policy has been eased from a two-step to single step process for District Chitral, whereby, local community-based organisations (CBOs) will be able to directly submit their project proposals to the district authorities for review and approval. The CBOs registration process with the government has faced administrative delays due to which the required adjustment to the process has been approved only in case of District Chitral. Now, the Deputy Commissioner will oversee the completion of registration documents from the respective CBOs and allow them to work until a permanent mechanism is in place.
The ceiling of funds of CDLD projects for District Chitral has also been revised from the current limit of PKR 0.5 million – PKR 2.5 million to an enhanced limit of PKR 0.5 million – PKR 5 million.
Under routine mechanism, calls for community project proposals are spread over four cycles per year. In the specific case of District Chitral, there shall be one running cycle throughout the year to provide simultaneous emergency response in all village councils of the district. The CDLD Policy also requires 10% contribution from the respective communities either in cash or kind, which has also been waived off for the CDLD projects in District Chitral. During the fiscal year 2015-2016, the total allocation for District Chitral is PKR 340 million to be spent in due course.
The PCRC meeting also reviewed the overall implementation progress of the KP-DGCD Programme in other districts of Malakand Division, including Lower Dir, Malakand, Shangla, Swat and Upper Dir. The EU Delegation, the partner funding agency of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for CDLD Policy implementation, along with the officers from concerned line departments, representatives of the district authorities, technical assistance team members and the social mobilisation partner also contributed to the meeting outcomes with suggestions and recommendations.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Community-Driven Local Development (CDLD) Policy was approved by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This calls for the active participation of communities in the planning, implementation and management of local projects.
Implementation of the CDLD Policy has been initiated from FY2014-15 by the Finance Department of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the six districts of Malakand Division, including Chitral, Lower Dir, Malakand, Shangla, Swat and Upper Dir with EUR 64 million EU budget support.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District Governance and Community Development (KP-DGCD) Programme is contributing to the achievements of the development agenda of the provincial government in the targeted districts by strengthening the local governance system through community participation.