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In
this issue :
The world is entering an era of increasing global complexity, bringing with it unprecedented opportunities in the context of which Pakistan’s environmental issues must be considered. Developing countries like Pakistan, undergoing rapid economic growth and industrialization, have tremendous local environmental problems contributing increasingly to global problems. Pakistan is facing rapid population increase, leading to severe stress on its natural resources. Physical capital scarcities and lack of limited skill development are further triggering environmental problems, leading to increase in poverty, a major concern in Pakistan.
The poor are trapped in a vicious circle whereby environmental degradation increases poverty and poverty degrades the environment further. In the Orientation Training Session for Cohort 11 held at LEAD House, Islamabad on 23-27 April, Dr Talat Anwar, Senior Specialist on Income Distribution, UNDP/CRPRID said ‘The poverty reduction strategy paper will have to mainstream the environment in a way that achieves widespread acceptance and brings conservation in traditional policy making areas.’ Fayyaz Baqir, Chief UNDP/SGP, emphasized the significance of initiating a change within the communities to achieve sustainability by establishing organizations to promote the principles of incremental development.
The theme of the Orientation Training Session was ‘State of the Environment in Pakistan’. The training session provided an opportunity to the newly selected LEAD Associates to share knowledge on current environmental issues, challenges, opportunities and the key determinants of the current state of the environment in Pakistan. They were able to identify linkages between population and environment, and assessed the current status of Pakistan within the context of the Millennium Development Goals. They also shared understanding of the emerging issues in the country like Multilateral Environmental Agreements and compliance of Rio Conventions within the country, legal and regulatory framework of environment and the current status and scope of environmental tribunals and public interest litigation in Pakistan. The Associates, working in diverse fields, participated diligently in the groupwork and presented innovative approaches to overcome the challenges in the field of environment. They emphasized on strengthening the institutional capacities and the role of state agencies to ensure the compliance of environmental standards adjusted to local communities.
The Orientation Training Session was the first of the five training sessions being held for the Associates of Cohort 11. The next training session is scheduled in Peshawar and will be organized by the program on Environmental Management Services.
LEAD Club Meetings
Lahore LEAD Club initiative on the development of Murree Hills
The new construction and industrial projects being planned and implemented in the Murree Hills are being done in spite of environmental laws such as the Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA), 1997. The development in Murree means cutting down old trees which is a threat to the ecological conditions of Murree Hills; pollution of the watershed area; and construction of the housing complexes in the landslide area. This issue of the development in Murree Hills and the New Murree Project was discussed in detail at the Lahore LEAD Club (LLC) in the meeting held on April 04, 2005 at WWF-Pakistan, Lahore. A three-member committee comprising Asad Sumbul, Rina Saeed Khan and Sajjad Haider was constituted for the revision of the LLC charter. The members were requested to come up with activities and offer support and their expertise for collaboration with Indian LEAD Associates to enhance our Fellows network.
Sajjad Haider chaired the meeting along with LLC members Hammad Naqi Khan, Rina Saeed Khan, Asad Sumbul, Javed Cheema, Tariq Zaman, Fauzia Khan and Mukesh Kumar. The next meeting of the LLC is planned to take place on May 9, 2005 at Lahore Fort, followed by a visit to Lahore Composting Project at Mahmood Booti, Lahore.
Karachi LEAD Club visit to the mangrove islands
Mangrove forests have been extensively utilized by coastal people as a resource for a variety of products such as fuelwood, timber, and fodder. The mangroves and their associated tidal flats also provide habitat for crabs, oysters and other species of marine animals. Mangroves depend upon a steady supply of freshwater to keep the salinity levels within certain limits. However, now the mangrove system of the Indus delta is under stress from high salinity resulting from gradual but drastic reduction of freshwater input to the delta from the River Indus.
Taking interest in the matter, the Karachi LEAD Club members decided in the LEAD Club meeting held on April 05, 2005 to visit the mangrove islands in the month of May to explore the conditions of freshwater supply and salinity levels on the islands. This will give them an opportunity to explore the solution to the issue.
It was also decided that in each KLC meeting, there would be a keynote speaker to speak on different issues. Initially keynote speakers will be from among the members so that they can tell each other about their areas of expertise, work and interests. This will enable the members to get to know each other better and discuss new methodologies and interventions and will enable partnerships to be developed among Fellows/Associates. There was a suggestion that KLC members should highlight significant issues in press releases from their platform to be more vocal on the environmental and sustainable development issues which LEAD is playing a role to solve. The tentative date for the next KLC meeting is May 17, 2005 at the HANDS Office, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Pakistan is a forest deficient country with an extremely meager natural forest cover of approximately 4.8% spread over 4,263,000 hectares. This is largely attributed to the hyper-arid, arid and semi-arid climatic conditions that prevail in most parts of the country. In the face of adverse climatic and demographic factors, sustainably managing the forest resources of the country has remained an uphill task. Although the meager extent of Pakistan’s forests can be attributed to the scanty precipitation the country is receiving, the human factor is important, both in terms of dependency and damage, and lacks the capacity to manage the forest resource in a cost-effective manner. Keeping this in view, Saleem Ullah (LEAD Fellow, Cohort 9) conducted his LEAD Associate Project (LAP) on ‘Assessment of Capacity Gap for Sustainable Forest Management in Pakistan’ and found lack of mutual confidence, cooperation and coordination amongst the forest stakeholders, one of the biggest problems that the country is facing.
There is an almost complete absence of information flow to and from the grassroots level and almost no involvement of community vehicles in forest protection and awareness. Contradictory political influences in forest management and lack of priority setting by the local communities results in both lack of ownership and political will in the Pakistan forest sector. Saleem Ullah put his efforts to adopt a broad based participatory methodology. He conducted his study in the temperate and sub-tropical belt of NWFP forests and chose a two-track system for his research:
1. Focus on the resource itself
2. Focus on the stakeholders
Various discussions were done with experts involved in the framework of development as well as with other associated stakeholders. However, it was continuously felt that the experts’ views have to be supplemented by the experience and opinion of the grassroots forest dependent communities. ‘Thus a mix of top-down and bottom-up approaches will always have to be used in framework development as well as in formulation and conclusion drawing’, says Saleem Ullah.
It was also found that the Forest Department is better off in the technical aspects of forest management while NGOs are better in the social dimension. The Forest Department lacks social and management skills. The private sector is somehow better in entrepreneurial skills, but lacks other skills: this needs integration for overall effective implementation of systems. The communities are better off only in the indigenous practices and badly lack bargaining, management and technological skills. The major challenge in this situation is to create synergy among the stakeholders. In this case, mutual exchange and skills building initiatives in an environment of lasting interface could be the solution to the problem.
Sallem Ullah, in his LAP, mentioned that although his study was confined to a few zones and the whole of the country couldn’t be explored, keeping in view the similar history of management and the socio-economic and institutional policy, to a certain extent the capacity gap identified in the study can be extrapolated on all the eco-zones of the country.
Khalid Sherdil (LEAD Fellow, Cohort 10), originally doing his PhD in Computer Sciences from University of Western Ontario, Canada, has recently enrolled in a cross-disciplinary inter-sectoral joint program of PhD Environmental Science and Computer Science. According to Mr. Sherdil, this important addition was made possible solely because of the interest generated at the LEAD training program. He is currently exploring various topics which relate Environmental Science to Computer Science, including the implantation of embedded web servers within automobiles/trucks which emit radio/wireless signals giving information on their smoke levels, cargo details etc, in the form of simple http web pages.
Empowering the Minority Rights
To empower the minorities and indigenous people organizations of South Asia to protect and realize their individual and collective human rights and fundamental freedoms more effectively, the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) have organized an ‘International Training Workshop for Minority Rights’. The training workshop comprises of five phases: three workshops and the two follow-ups. The first workshop was held at Katmandu (Nepal) in 2004 with the follow-up in Italy, the second was held at Lahore in March 2005 with the second follow-up to be held in Italy from 13 to 23 June 2005. The last workshop will be in New Delhi in January 2006. The workshop includes the participants from Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and SriLanka. Ms Tahira Kamal Umrani (LEAD Associate, Cohort 11) and member of South Asian Human Rights (SAHR) and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is selected from Pakistan to attend the International Training Workshop and recently she will be attending the second follow-up taking place in Italy. Ms. Umrani says, ’In Pakistan, the minorities are facing a problem of separate electorate and this is not bringing a change in the circumstances in which they are living’. This training workshop is very beneficial, as this has given me an opportunity to learn about the condition of the minorities prevailing in the South Asian region and think as a group, the solutions for empowering the minorities of their human rights in an effective manner.
With the mandate of capacity development of professionals working towards the empowerment of communities and marginalized groups of society, LEAD Pakistan undertook training of the staff of the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE), a government sponsored NGO funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The training, held in December 2004, was a five-day induction training program under which three batches of a total of 63 participants attended the training sessions at LEAD Pakistan. The objective of the training was to develop an induction program for DTCE staff, and establishment of a system of needs assessment and staff profiling that can contribute towards periodic training plans of the organization and introduction of a management development initiative to inculcate leadership abilities in DTCE managerial level staff.
After the successful completion of the training, LEAD Pakistan organized the certificate distribution ceremony on April 25, 2005, at Best Western Hotel, Islamabad. Iftikhar Malik, Manager, Governance Program, LEAD Pakistan conducted the ceremony. Dr Tariq Hasan, Chairman Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the Chief Guest, the Associates of Cohort 11, DTCE staff and the LEAD staff attended the certificate distribution ceremony. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO/NPD, LEAD Pakistan welcomed the guests while an overview of the program was given by Brig (Rtd) Masood Salam, CEO, DTCE. Brig Salam shared the utility and impact of the training program with all and appreciated the LEAD’s inputs in the DTCE training program. Ahmad Saeed Sheikh (LEAD Fellow, Cohort 4) briefed the guests on the design of the training program and spoke of the way forward for DTCE to efficiently and effectively achieve its mission and programmatic relevance, which will help in building the requisite human resources to serve DTCE’s constituencies.
Dr Tariq Hasan gave a keynote address on ‘Corporate Governance and its Interface with Poverty Alleviation & Social Service Delivery’. He distributed certificates among the participants and extended his appreciation to LEAD Pakistan for developing and organizing the Induction Training Program. In his address, Dr Hasan said that ‘Social service delivery, poverty alleviation and socio-economic development of Pakistan are the need and responsibility of us all, so achieving them is only possible through concerted efforts and an alignment of the aims, objectives and interest of the government, regulatory authorities, corporate sector, social development institutions and the public at large”.
‘The most important component of your program is recruitment of outstanding local experts, development of a very effective and powerful MIS, close monitoring and analysis of field activities and engagement of local people through village assemblies. That is real devolution… you have a committed, experienced and dynamic team headed by two very dynamic leaders. I propose that at the end of project period, LEAD should continue the initiative for improvement of schools and development of innovative and demand driven educational packages. This may be done by mobilizing resources from the government and in partnership with District Education Department. I wish you success in your future work in Khairpur and Sukkur and would be willing to offer my assistance in any way that you need.’
Fayyaz Baqir, National Coordinator, GEF/SGP and LIFE Program, UNDP, April 6, 2005
‘My profound thanks for taking the time and making the workshop on IMI possible. It was a great experience interacting with such a motivated and experienced and hands-on group. Wish you all the best of luck in your very important work.’
Tauqeer Shah, Fellow, Cohort 8, March 30, 2005
‘We are very fortunate to have very capable NGOs working in the district, which can act as local partners for PPAF. One such promising organization is LEAD Pakistan, which is currently implementing a project of USAID/ESRA on school improvement planning through community participation. The organization has well equipped and fully functional offices in five tehsils of Khairpur, covering more than 2000 target communities through a team of about 150 persons. Considering LEAD’s extensive outreach and professional capacity, I would like to suggest that LEAD Pakistan may be considered an implementing partner for PPAF’s program in the district.’
Nafisa Shah, Zila Nazim, Khairpur, February 11, 2005
‘I would love to see all the relevant messages, and congratulations for the wonderful LEAD spirit in Pakistan’.
Julia Marton-Lefevre, LEAD International’s Head, November 4, 2004
‘I offer LEAD [Pakistan] and all those who work for the organization my congratulations for having come such a long way in such a short time and having achieved so much.’
Qazi Azmat Isa, Senior Community Development Specialist, World Bank, Islamabad, June 28, 2004
‘Joining the LEAD program was a real learning experience. During the two years we interacted with recognized faculty and were involved in range of learning activities. But the most important thing for me was to share the diversified knowledge, expertise and experience of Fellows and Associates. The multi-cultural environment and diversity are main strengths of LEAD that help Associates/Fellows in leadership development. A year ago we graduated at Guadalajara but it feels as if it was a few weeks ago. On the first anniversary, my heartiest greetings to all of my Cohort-mates who graduated. I believe they are making a difference and bringing changes within their spheres of work.’
Sajjad Haider, Cohort 9, November 4, 2003
The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 the International Day for Biological Diversity, to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the source of the essential goods and ecological services that constitute the source of life for all. The International Day for Biological Diversity is an occasion to reflect on our responsibility to safeguard this precious heritage for future generations.
The theme for International Day for Biological Diversity 2005 is:
Biodiversity: Life Insurance for our Changing World.
The world is changing faster than ever before. Growing human populations and expanding consumption patterns are placing great pressure on biological diversity. This year’s theme for International Biological Diversity Day reminds us that, in addition to providing the physical conditions for all life, biodiversity also plays an important role in protecting life and making it resilient to the pressures brought about by change.
Events Dates Venue Lahore LEAD Club Meeting May 9
Lahore PERT: Waste Management & Pollution Control for SMEs May 11 Sialkot PERT: Waste Management & Pollution Control for SMEs May 12 Jehlum Karachi LEAD Club Meeting
May 17 Karachi PERT: Ecology & Environment: Challenges & Opportunities for Local Enterprises
May 17 Khairpur PERT: Ecology & Environment: Challenges & Opportunities for Local Enterprises
May 18 Sukkur
Editor : Nida Khan
Layout By : Imran Butt
Editorial Committee : Zabreen Hasan, Samra Hanif
Fellows and Associates can send us details of their job achievements, job alterations or any other news they wish to share with the LEAD Family. All contributions will be an asset to the bulletin. Write to us at ldp
For up-to-date information on LEAD Pakistan activities and services please visit our website www.lead .org.pk
© LEAD Pakistan 2005