PM approves FODP’s capacity building report

Report opposes parallel institutions that promote inefficiency.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has approved the incorporation of recommendations given by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) Report on Institution Capacity Building into future bilateral and multilateral loan agreements with lenders, aimed at ensuring a long-term and sustained engagement.

“The prime minister has approved that recommendations of the FODP capacity building report should be made part of future agreements on bilateral cooperation with development partners in general and FODP in particular,” an official told The Express Tribune.

The component of capacity building has invariably been included by Pakistani organisations in almost all mutual assistance programmes. However, the executing and implementing agencies at federal and provincial levels have been following the donor-driven approach of using technical assistance for building the capacity of state-run organisations.

The focus of this technical assistance has mainly been on consultancies, trainings, seminars, etc leading to wastage of financial resources and promoting repatriation of capital back to partner countries in the form of consultancy and training fee. This drains out resources with no sustained outcomes and results.



The report advocates that a long-term, sustainable model for capacity development should be promoted and adopted by the government of Pakistan and international partners. It focuses on developing capacity of Pakistani institutions through linkages and partnerships with institutions in FODP countries.

The report has been prepared by Senator Sughra Imam and her team in consultation with FODP partners, who have supported and endorsed it.

Another report on energy sector by FODP’s energy task force has already been published in October 2010. A report on water sector is also being prepared.

The capacity building report observes that friendly countries in the last decade had supported a mushroom growth of new institutions in Pakistan’s government, all of which were parallel structures that grew both the cost and size of the government. Supporting new and parallel structures and creating parallel programmes actually promote inefficiencies and affect governance, it says.

“Discontinue building new institutions or supporting parallel structures in an attempt to build capacity of the government. Instead, international partners must engage only with mainstream institutions within the government,” the report recommends.

It says short-term capacity building programmes seldom yield results, but many international partners still fall back on using short-term technical assistance as a way to build capacity.

“It is essential, therefore, to ‘walk the talk.’ Make sure that the ICB (Institution Capacity Building) programme guarantees a long-term, sustained engagement with the Pakistani partner,” the report says.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.

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