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In this Issue:

· LEAD and the prestigious Oxford University partner a field research program on climate change

· Bridging the yawning information gap on health impacts of climate change

· Calculating risks: LEAD’s ecological footprint

· Citizens’ Reports: understanding reproductive health in Lodhran and Khairpur

· LEAD Pakistan helps give back Jamshoro its due in development

· CANSA for more regional cooperation on climate change

· Regional journalist workshop on climate change

Networking and Partnerships
LEAD and the prestigious Oxford University partner a field research program on climate change Realizing that generation and subsequent management of information on climate change is a big challenge that needs to be addressed urgently, LEAD has partnered with the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) of the Oxford University on a Field Research Program. Under this initiative, LEAD Pakistan’s Climate Leaders Action Network - a global network to leverage the expertise and commitment of LEAD Fellows to form a network for collective climate actions - will provide travel and research grants to selected ECI students to undertake field research under the mentorship of a LEAD Fellow from a national or regional program. The CLAN network was formally launched during the LEAD – ECI joint initiative platform in October 2009. So far, 78 LEAD Fellows have joined the network. The network aspires to provide an active platform for sound, relevant, multi-sectoral, and crisply defined inputs into the program. For this year, almost 20 Fellows had the opportunity to interact with the young ECI students and their faculty. This year 4-6 students will be offered grants under the program. Talking about the research program, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO LEAD Pakistan said that ‘currently the challenge for us is to facilitate good matching of research interests of interested ECI student and the participating CLAN member.’ He further added that at this point, we are reaching out to our Fellows and Associates for partnership in designing various sub-national, national, regional and international initiatives. Read more
Capacity Development
Bridging the yawning information gap on health impacts of climate change Educational and scientific baseline on health vis-a-vis climate change has a direct bearing on increasing or constraining a country’s capacity to adapt Go and look for a research on the ‘Health impacts of Climate Change’ and you will be disappointed. Of the sixteen national health impact assessments on climate change carried out between 2001 and 2007, only 5 were in the developing world — India, Bolivia, Panama, Bhutan, and Tajikistan. Understanding the effects of climate change on human health is the first step toward taking effective action for keeping these to a minimum. A timely response to the negative health effects of climate change depends on a state-of- the- art, locality specific information system- which the developing world is lacking mostly. To address the yawning information gap in this area, LEAD in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research has envisioned a project that will start soon. The project aims to strengthen the health scientists’ research capacities on health effects of climate change. With their knowledge about the effect of weather on the incidence and prevalence of diseases serving as baseline, this exercise would enhance their understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities posed by climate change to human health. These experts will be required to produce a series of research papers directed at determining the attribute-able burden of climate change to climate sensitive diseases vis-à-vis Pakistan. The research findings will be shared with the decision makers concerned for effective policy making to limit the impacts of the onslaught of the impending catastrophes. Knowledge Management Calculating risks: LEAD’s ecological footprint As the natural resource capital becomes scarcer by the day, sustainability will depend on resource accounts such as the ecological footprint as much as the Gross Domestic Product and other financial accounts. The case study on measuring LEAD Pakistan's ecological footprint is an attempt to sensitize the organizations in Pakistan to the environmental and climatic consequences of their business operations, and to encourage them toward adopting sustainable office policies and practices. The study documents the process adopted by LEAD Pakistan for the development of Ecological Footprint Calculator and the measures undertaken in the light of its findings for reducing organization's ecological impact. This study is expected to help build a strong community of interest around the tremendous challenge of ecological scarcity facing Pakistan. Read more
Citizens’ Reports: understanding reproductive health in Lodhran and Khairpur The 2 recent reports by a Cohort of Leaders in Reproductive Health on the state of reproductive health in the underdeveloped districts of the Punjab and Sindh outline a grim picture and pose a daunting challenge for the policy makers and the implementers. These reports give valuable analyses of strengths and weaknesses in the districts’ current health systems. These also aim to become tools for future civic engagement and building blocks for further more detailed reports. The Citizens’ Reports were produced under a two-year project, ‘Enabling Effective Leadership for Reproductive Health’ in collaboration with The David and Lucile Packard Foundation from October, 2007 through September, 2009. The project was implemented by LEAD Pakistan in two districts- Khairpur and Lodhran- to create local agents of change in the reproductive health. The above mentioned 3 publications are on sale and can be had from LEAD Pakistan @ Rs. 250 for individuals and @ Rs. 500 for organizations. Read more
Community Empowerment LEAD Pakistan helps give back Jamshoro its due in development LEAD Pakistan in collaboration with the Eni, a leading international oil and gas exploration company working in Pakistan for decades now, has started a comprehensive development program in district Jamshoro, Sindh. Eni is exploring potential oil and gas reserves in the district for a decade now and felt obligated to contribute to the development of the district that has contributed to its economy. The initiative is named ‘Bhit Rural Support Program’- BRSP. LEAD Pakistan is the implementing partner in the program with the responsibility to manage and improve quality standards of the service centres. Eni, being a socially responsible company, allocates sizable amount of money for the development and uplift of the communities living in its operation areas. So far, it has made significant investments in human capital in the catchment areas of its concessions in District Jamshoro. The comprehensive development program for district Jamshoro has 4 portfolios on education, health, natural resource management and community physical infrastructure development. The education portfolio caters to eighteen Schools, 1 Computer Training Centre and a Vocational Training Centre while the health portfolio deals with 1 Mother and Child Healthcare Centre and 4 Community Health Centres. Kitchen gardens and nurseries are run under natural resource management portfolio. Physical infrastructure projects such as dug wells, hand pumps, ponds for storing water and schools and health centres buildings are catered to by the portfolio of Community Physical Infrastructure. LEAD Pakistan believes that over the next 4 years the BRSP will eventually be a local, community-driven, not-for-profit initiative. Networking and Partnerships CANSA for more regional cooperation on climate change The Steering Committee of Climate Action Network South Asia emphasized, in a workshop held in Bhutan last month, on devising effective approaches for engaging regional forums like SAARC to promote climate cooperation for the next round of policy negotiations at COP16. The 2 day workshop was hosted by the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) and attended by members from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pakistan. CANSA’s National Steering Committee members from Pakistan, including Dina Khan from LEAD, participated in the workshop to chalk out the Network’s strategy for 2010 and decide the long term biennial agenda. Read more Forthcoming Regional journalist workshop Sharing our resources: a vision for addressing cross border water scarcity caused by climate change LEAD will be holding a regional training workshop for journalists on climate change from 28 to 31 March. Selected journalists from India and Pakistan, having interest in environmental reporting, will be attending this workshop. Read more

This newsletter reports on LEAD Pakistan’s interventions in its three key program areas – climate change, environmental management and grassroots social capital development - threaded together through the organization’s five core competencies: capacity development, networking and partnerships, community empowerment, public policy engagement and knowledge management.