Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

is being used to develop, design, and implement projects
for sustainable development in various fields
such as forestry and wildlife, agriculture and livestock,
rural development, public health, irrigation,
urban infrastructure, watershed management, communication,
tourism, and cultural heritage. Some examples
of these are provided in Table 3.1.
Four decades of experience with field development
projects and the worldwide move to a new
development paradigm have led to an understanding
that only participatory approaches to field projects
have any hope of success. Thus virtually every programme
in Table 3.1 either has been adapted to use
a beneficiary involvement model or was designed
that way from the start.
A continuing problem, however, has been the ability
of institutions to sustain or replicate programmes or
get beyond the pilot stage. The pilot may not fail, but
the line department does not always have the capaci-
R E S P O N D I N G T O T H E I S S U E S 3
ty to follow through, often due to a lack of trained
staff. Thus many of the new generation of programmes
include institution-strengthening and capacity
development components at their core. Indeed, the
SPCS programme itself is almost entirely a strategic
planning effort, with a large institution-strengthening
component at its centre.
A similar, related problem is that Pakistan—and
the NWFP is no exception—often lets donor assistance
funds lapse due to a lack of absorptive capacity.
This is both ironic and tragic. It has led donors in
several instances to encourage new forms of collaboration
through international NGOs which can function
as in-country partners, becoming a partial conduit
for development assistance. The Government is
still involved in approvals and funding, but it does not
bear all the burden. This approach is helping develop
a stronger civil society and accelerating genuine
sustainable development.
SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY 23