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It is a Pleasure to learn that Nafisa Shah, Fellow Cohort 4, has been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for remarkably administrating the District Khairpur as Nazima that according to the citation is ‘an almost exclusively male domain.’
Nafisa comes from the first batch of the LEAD Fellows that LEAD Pakistan selected in 1995. Her career is unique—on her journey from journalism to politics, she has several remarkable achievements. It was her in-depth research on honor killing in Sindh that created a niche for Ms Shah in journalism. She was awarded the Best Article of the Year award from the All-Pakistan Newspaper Society and her name appeared on the UN Global Roll of Honor in 1993. She has contributed a number of articles to reputed magazines and journals. She has presented papers on Sindhi women’s social status and education, human rights and the environment. She has a Master’s in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Oxford University, United Kingdom. She is a well-known human rights and women's rights activist. She hails from a sound political background.
Nafisa was elected Nazima of Khairpur in 2001 while fighting against three panels. She won the election by securing 834 votes, with a huge margin of 334 votes. In politics, Ms Shah set new standards for integrity in her conflict-torn and crime-ridden district. She led the oppressed and poor women in dealing with injustice and made Khairpur a model of community-supported development.
Nafisa has an outstanding contribution in education. Without her support and guidance, it would have been impossible for LEAD to launch the ESRA/USAID funded education program DEMO (Democratized Education Management and Ownership) in Sindh. Thanks to her active support and involvement, today we are working with over 3000 schools in the area.
Commitment to profession, beliefs, ideals and goals shines through action. To work tirelessly for causes like social development and educational empowerment one needs to be a core enthusiast who believes in reformation and social work. Nafisa is one such personality, who is keeping up the struggle towards a better future for her people.
It is a matter of great honor and pride for all of us at LEAD Pakistan to know that one of our Fellows is among the 1000 women of standing in the world. Her nomination is a testimony to her incredible work that Nafisa has done for the marginalized people of her community.
Name: Sofia Noreen
Professional:
1. How did it help you grow professionally?
When I joined Leadership Development Program, I was very new in the development sector. Though I was an environment information officer but LEAD Pakistan provided me an opportunity to see other aspects of environment which are political and economic. LEAD Pakistan played a catalyst role in my professional life to learn more and more about environment and its different aspects. I was a pure scientist and LP gave me a perspective to have an activist’s point of view as well. We were given an opportunity to work on latest technologies like email etc. which was a very new thing at that time.
2. Briefly write about the Leadership skills you were able to practice (after getting LDP training give an example)
After getting Associate trainings one thing which I learnt was that I started making my conversation very crisp and to the point. I started forming my questions and comments in such a way that they should be heard in a loud audience. The example would be that when we went for International training sessions there always used to be a lot of people in which getting a turn to say something and making a point was very difficult but Leadership trainings trained me in such a way that I was able to make my point and get heard.
3. Did it help to sensitize you on environmental issues. (what were your previous level of sensitization and how much Leadership Development Program contributed towards better sensitization.)
I was aware of the environmental issues but didn’t know the different aspects which were affecting it. I got to know the political aspects of environmental degradation and economic factors which were affecting it while getting the Associate training.
4. State you Job improvement (promotions, better job in some other organization)
I was in Aurat Foundation when I joined LEAD Training. I was working there as an Environment information officer. In 2000 I thought that now I am able to get job anywhere else and I have learnt and equipped myself with skills which will be needed in some other organizations. As soon as I started looking for a job I was hired by Church World Service as a Provincial Manager (Disasters which is again an environmental issue). LEAD paved my way to learn more about development sector and its issues and I kept on growing after that. Now I am heading a program in National Commission for the status of Women as a program Manager.
5. Has your experience with LEAD allowed you as an individual to make a greater contribution to sustainable development?
While I was getting Associate training I initiated debates on WTO and its effects on gender. I became more and more interested in food security issues and got in touch with other networks working on food security issues.
6. Briefly state one of your achievements after getting LEAD training.
After attending Leadership trainings my understanding of issues got diverse and I got exposure to different kind of organization and people. LEAD gave me a vision to get into research and that enabled me to establish my own organization named “Center for Policy and Development Organization”. This organization is focusing on researches. During meetings and discussions I realized that policy level discussions are not happening in public sector institutions and especially educational institutions as youth is coming up and they will be our future leaders so this organization provides them opportunity to come up with their own researches which they can perform from this organizations forum and can satisfy their hunger for knowledge.
The vision for establishing this organization was to utilize and mobilize our local resources. As I think natural resources are being exploited due to political reasons.
Personal :
1. What have been the most important impacts of LEAD on you as an individual?
I would say that my thinking canvas broadened and I started to think out of the box. My perception about things changed and definitely I was more confident then was previously. Increased self confidence gave me an opportunity to practice leadership qualities not just in my professional life but also in my personal life.
2. How did you employ Leadership skills learnt at Leadership Development Program to improve your personal life (give an example)
I was personally interested in alternate healing methods and I took courses on it. I have done master level of Reiki a Japanese art of healing through body energies.
I gathered information on herbal medicines and specially indigenous knowledge of herbal medicines. And if I am provided an opportunity I will verify the authenticity of these medicines and would do benefit sharing. I learnt reflexology as well. I realized that since we are exerting our energies so much then why not increase our strength as well which we can do by focusing on our inner strengths.
3. What is one important thing which you learnt from LEAD Trainings which have become a part of your life.
I understood this one thing that market always capitalizes on demand of everything which is beneficial for human being and everything becomes very commercial as soon as its need grows. But I learnt this thing by meeting our international counterparts that we have our own value system and no matter where the market forces are going I will always walk with my value system
LEAD Network:
1. On average, how many times per year do you meet up with other members of the LEAD Network (both professional and personal contacts)?
I always participate in LEAD Pakistan activities when I am being informed well in advance as I have to schedule a lot before sparing my time. I am managing a program and being a manager it’s a very tough job to spare too much time. I have attended all the All Cohorts Meetings and I was a resource person for International training session as well.
On personal and professional level I made contacts with WWF and other organizations and I keep in touch with them on a regular basis.
2. On Please describe the ways in which you have collaborated with other LEAD Fellows.
LEAD in the beginning gave us an opportunity to work on the newest technology of emails and faxes. I have been in touch with LEAD family through emails mostly. But if need be I call them and communicate on faxes as well.
3. Does the network help you in professional tasks (if yes give an example)?
When I started my organizations I sought some help for LEAD Pakistan which I got in the form of our Fellow Hammad Naqi Khan. He helped me a lot and gave me some researches to do as well which were on sugar policy.
4. Do you attend Lead Club meetings? And what do you think is the reason of low attendance of Fellows in club meetings?
I was part of the group who started Lahore Lead Club. In the beginning we were very enthusiastic about the clubs. I had the thinking that we should not just see the work conceptually but should define roles and soon the group realized that the members of the group are from diverse fields and all of them together cannot work for one project due to their different expertise. And I think as a club we were not able to resolve that problem and soon club members got bored of just meeting for fun purposes and nothing concrete coming out of the meetings and stopped attending meetings.
I would suggest that the meetings should be arranged on a specific topic and should have a core issue around which the talk should revolve. This will atleast give a vision and perspective to all the members to attend the meeting and would help in increasing the fellow participation and they will contribute towards the issue.
Suggestions:
1. What is your vision about LEAD Pakistan?
It started off as a capacity building organization in the beginning with one man Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh and his office used to be his laptop. The slowly it started growing in terms of new hiring. But now it is changing its roles in terms of project handling and delivery and now if LEAD wants any kind of support then I have a lot of ideas which would helps us have some concrete results.
LEAD Pakistan should stand up infront of LEAD International and since we are member program we should be included in every kind of decision making. E.g LEAD logo got changed why weren’t our consent was taken and infact this change should have come from member programs not from LEAD International.
2. Do you think the All cohorts listserv and cohorts listserv provide you with any good information?
Due to my interaction with LEAD China and LEAD Japan I got more interested in alternate healing methods.
The network has always been very helpful in terms of when ever I ask the anything. Once I asked them any non allopathic way of treating insomnia and I was amazed to see the number of different responses I got from all over the world where ever LEAD is present. I was so much happy to learn that whenever I need something I know there is a network of dedicated friends who will always help me out.
3. How can we make the listserv more effective to your use?
LEAD should send most recent articles on environment on listserv to keep the fellows up to date about latest developments. The latest articles if shared would help me a lot in getting to know more about environment and current trends
4. Describe LEAD Pakistan in one sentence
Lead is a platform for people coming from different walks of life with diverse fields with current information about environmental issues.
5. Suggestions/Feedback:
It should be made very clear to all the fellows on how the fellows are being taken in to be a part of the board of governors. The opportunity should be provided to all the fellows to nominate some one and then someone should second that nomination. Till now only we get to know that someone from the fellows has been taken in the BOG is when the whole process is done. The process should be clear to everyone and it should be open for all the fellows.
LEAD should have a clear vision if it wants to be in capacity building or project handling or any other field.
If you talk about stakeholders dialogues the medium of discussion is always English and it never represents the larger part of the stakeholders who are not literate enough to understand English and who are mostly affected by any change. If any organization says that they are representing that larger part of the population then I disagree with it as I think every organization works for its own interest and mostly they either over exploit the whole issue or don’t give it much importance which actually should be given.
In this scenario LEAD should try to arrange for papers which are available and accessible to all the stakeholders and easy for them to synthesize as well.LEAD is saying that it provides a neutral platform but in actual since it is working on Environment which is not a neutral issue itself it will always have a tilt towards environment and will not be able to play neutral role.
Achievement of Fellow
Raza Ahmad (Cohort 11)has been recently promoted to Capacity Development Specialist and has moved to the ADB Head Quarter. Previously he was working as a Governance Specialist at the Pakistan Resident Mission (PRM) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) since late 2002. At PRM, he contributed to the management of the governance programs and projects on devolution, access to justice and gender. He was also the NGO focal person and helped forge ADB-government-NGO linkages and design interventions to enhance the capacities of the civil society for public sector reforms. He assisted partners in civil society to introduce a law clinic in Peshawar and extend advocacy for justice sector reforms in the country. In 2004, he won an ADB wide award of exemplary performance along with the team he worked in Pakistan. Also, in 2004, he was selected by LEAD Pakistan as an associate for effective induction into environmental issues and to contribute to LEAD’s international network. Prior to joining the ADB, he worked for the United Nations Administration Mission in Kosovo as Civil Affairs Officer, posted in a remote municipality bordering Macedonia. In Kosovo, he assisted the UN Mission to set up municipal administration, recruit municipal civil service and set up local departments for service delivery. In addition, he also managed the provision of public utilities to the residents after the tragic war in Kosovo.
In 1994, Mr. Ahmad joined the Government of Pakistan’s district management group after standing first in the nation-wide civil service entry examination and later served in the field as assistant commissioner/sub divisional magistrate, municipal administrator and land revenue collector in several sub-districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Mr. Ahmad has also worked for two leading NGOs in Pakistan: the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (1992-94) and the Aurat Foundation (1991). He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics-international trade and development and a Masters in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics, UK. In addition, he has been trained at the Civil Services Academy (CSA), Pakistan in Law and Public Administration. Among other awards, he received the President’s Gold Medal for best under training officer and also topped the final passing out examination at the CSA. Raza was also the President of the Pakistan Society at the LSE, UK (1988-90) and Secretary of the Overseas Students Society at the London University.
Raza aims to contribute to improvement of governance systems across Asia through his work at ADB. His long term goals include pursuing a doctorate in political economy focusing on the evolution of governmentality in South Asia, setting up regional centers of research that would bring indigenous solutions to development at the forefront of development debates; and establishing an advanced center of learning in Pakistan that will be inspired by the teachings and philosophy of Ibn-i-Rushd. His interests include reading fiction, history, psychology, exploring mysticism, comparative religion and music.
ARY City channel started a program by the name of Medical update in which Mr. Suleman Otho (Cohort 10) was asked to host this program. Though this program could not continue for long but soon the group decided to start a medical digest by the name of “Medical Update”.
Mr Otho is nominated as the Managing Editor of the Digest. He aims to keep the standards of this digest according to the international standards. The first edition of this digest is already out it is distributed freely to all the doctors but the editors have written it in simple terms which would let other audiences read it as well.
The members of the health group of LEAD Pakistan have also been added to the mailing list of “Medical Update”.
In The Friday Times of Friday 22 July 2005 a brief review of the booklet—What happened to all the water? By Ms. Rina Saeed Khan was published. This is the first time LEAD Pakistan has published an Associate’s LAPs as LEAD publication.
The booklet effectively features the importance of water for children. It portrays the state of water in a very reader-friendly manner. It could also be used as a quick reference to the water.
LAPs cover a wide range of issues—poverty, natural resources, community development, pollution, etc. Every LAPs is a story for us to learn a lots of lessons In future, we plan to bring more LAPs as LEAD publications and look forward to your support in this regard.
The First NTS session was held from 23 July 2005 to 29 July 2005 in Peshawar. The theme of the NTS was “Multilateral Environmental Agreements”.
The sessions were designed to give general introduction about MEAs and familiarize participants with the basic concept of the agreements. The sessions also discussed different issues of environmental governance, international trade and environmental laws and National Policies for these laws.
The role of government and civil societies was also discussed in terms of prompt actions for endorsement and conformity of all international conventions and agreements relating to environment at national levels.
Field visits were carried out to assess different conservation practices which gave associates hands on experience in critically reviewing a project.
Reflections by Sahibzada Irfanullah :
“To me the 1st NTS was a great opportunity to learn, not only about the international environmental issues, but also about the status and stand of our country regarding those problems.
Our understanding of the subject matter was broadened as we came to know the process going on at international level at time of negotiation, and preparation at national level before negotiation and afterwords implementation.
Resource persons came from government as well as private (NGO) sector which was a good combination. the reading material was also supportive to the workshop content.
One suggestion to put forward: it would be better if we had have a session of discussion upon the potential role to be played by private sector, NGOs, researchers, development professionals in addition to government at all the stages of the process. It seems that presently government is the major player, and thats too at very apex level. A process or mechanism is needed to involve all these into a more collaborative and interactive process.”
Reflections by Ahmed Khan :
Although having some knowledge and practice of some of the MEAs, particularly concerning biodiversity and wildlife (CITES, CMS and Ramsar), it was great to have detailed lectures on MEAs and various aspects of it. I really benefited from knowing the Pakistan's status on various MEAs and that what has been done so for. Clearing of conceptual clarity on the gaps in MEAs at country and international level and the required actions is of immense importance to me.
The training was well structured and the most of the resource persons had grasp of their subject. They were successful in communicating to us their knowledge and sharing their experiences about MEAs. Some of the speakers were really impressive in context of their knowledge, role played and experience they had gone through. I really appreciate making the effort to invite leading expertise with state of the art knowledge and hand on experience of MEAs.
Before going on the field trip to Buner, I had a very good impression of the CBRM. But knowing that their work directly or indirectly promotes exotic species in their project area, is somewhat discouraging. Dicouraging introduction of exotic species and eradication of the introduced species is talk of the town everywhere now. But I felt, we were still in the mid 80's when exotics were favored. Honestly, as a conservation biologist, I was disappointed with the CBRM and their anti CBD initiatives. Further, support to the tobacco growers may be an indirect encouragement of the child labor and again against the CRC. A hot topic on the international fora, wherein the role of Pakistan is still questionable. Other visits, to the VETS and the NWFP Wildlife Department were highly commendable and productive.
Mobilizing the community is the crux of most development projects that seek to bring about change at the grass root levels. The Education Program at LEAD Pakistan has for the past year been working on sensitizing the communities in two districts of Sindh; Sukkur and Khairpur towards improvement of Government Primary Schools through the Democratized Education Management and Ownership (DEMO) Project in partnership with USAID’s Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) Program.
In order to enhance the performance and efficiency of the DEMO team members, LEAD Pakistan conducts Planning & Review Meetings from time to time, which is a forum for a participatory approach towards review of the past activities undertaken and planning of upcoming activities. This also gives the participants an opportunity of developing various sets of skills that are imperative for ensuring constant improvement in progress towards achievement of the project objectives. In July 2005, the 3rd meeting of this nature was held, this time around, focusing on DEMO’s social mobilization activities.
The meeting was conducted in 2 groups of 20-22 participants – representing all the 8 ‘Tehsils’ of the project area – giving due consideration to the fact the team of social mobilizers constitutes over 70% of the overall DEMO Project team. This initiative of streamlining the direction of this large team of highly qualified and dedicated social mobilizers was seen as a compulsory requirement to ensure complete participation from the field for a comprehensive planning and review session. The meeting was facilitated by Ms. Anila Aftab, Executive Director of Cavish Development Foundation accompanied by Dr. Naeem Khalid, Course Convener for Development Management and NGO’s at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK.
To enhance the efficacy of the event, supplementary topics touched upon included SWOT analysis of the DEMO community mobilization process; establishment of working definitions for ‘community’, ‘participation’ and ‘development’ through illustrations and discussions; introduction to PRA tools and their practical application, which was undertaken during the field visit to a village in the Kallar Syedan Tehsil an hour and half’s drive away from Islamabad.
The meeting culminating in the creation of a space for mutual learning – enabled the participants to take away invaluable experiences resulting from in an ideal blend of field realities and strategic management orientation. The event thus resulted in successfully upholding the essential quality assurance provided by LEAD Pakistan as value added in all aspects of its work.
Events Dates Venue Stakeholders Dialogue on Lai Nullah
Aug 9
LEAD House
Launch of Oil Spill Report
Aug 15
Best Western Hotel
Training on EIA (tentative)
Sept 1 - 3
Nathiagali
Training on EIA (tentative)
Sept 27 - 29
Abbottabad
Editor : Samra Hanif
Layout By : Imran Butt
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 shanif@lead.org.pk
For up-to-date information on LEAD Pakistan activities and services please visit our website www.lead .org.pk
© LEAD Pakistan 2005