Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

6
G O V E R N A N C E & C A P A C I T Y D E V E L O P M E N T
At the core of the Sarhad Provincial Conservation
Strategy is a set of structural reforms that are needed
to improve the quality of governance in the province
and to improve the ability of various agencies to
operate in a manner that leads to sustainable development.
These reforms correspond to a series of
issues that reduce Government’s ability to function
efficiently. Many of these are remnants of the colonial
legacy of South Asia and have become ingrained in
the institutional culture of the North West Frontier
Province administration. As such, a great effort will
be needed to affect change. This point needs to be
constantly re-emphasized.
This section of the SPCS is, in many respects, the
most important because it deals with the core structural
Government reforms. These ideas came largely
from people at the district level meetings and from
Government officials. Many of these individuals had
never heard the term ‘sustainable development’. But
they implicitly knew what it meant, and that it was
not being achieved. Similarly, they wished to see a
mandate for change adopted by the Government.
The changes they called for, covered in this chapter,
include:
■ potential reorganization of Government environmental
responsibilities;
■ strengthening of the Planning, Environment and
Development Department and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA);
■ policy and programme reform;
■ law reform;
■ privatization, incentives, and partnership;
■ strategic planning processes;
■ environment and land use planning processes;
■ environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes;
■ state of environment reporting;
■ environmental research; and
■ other institution-strengthening initiatives.
The SPCS commitments in each of these areas are
found at the end of the chapter.
Most of this chapter focuses on governmental
governance, although the term governance may
apply to the quality of leadership and institutions
within civil society as well. Capacity development
for a large portion of civil society is covered in
Chapter 8.
50 SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY
6 . 1
KEY ISSUES & REFORMS
There are a number of general issues and problems
facing the NWFP Government as it attempts to undertake
its development activities. These range from a
lack of administrative accountability in some areas to
an institutional culture that is overly centralized,
paternalistic, and inflexible. Initiating change in this
‘culture’ takes much time and effort.
One fundamental problem is a generally acknowledged
difficulty with administrative accountability.
The Rules of Business that define the organization of
Government and departmental responsibilities are
outdated and rigid. The institutional structure in
Government is highly bureaucratic, and individuals
are trained to adhere strictly to these procedures.
Combined with the generally low rates of remuneration,
there is little incentive for flexibility or creativity.
Training in newly emerging fields, particularly multidisciplinary
ones such as environmental management,
is generally weak. Thus, although the Planning
and Development Department added an Environment
Section and was renamed the Planning, Environment,
and Development (PE&D) Department, the rules governing
who can work for the department did not permit
those trained in environmental management—few
as they are—to work for the Environment Section
(ES). Obviously this has hampered capacity development
initiatives. Although the problem is now solved,
very little capacity development has occurred to date.
Work must accelerate on the various training and
support initiatives described here.
The strengthening initiatives for the ES are taking
place in the context of a much broader strengthening
initiative for the entire PE&D Department. One
objective of this larger project is to improve coordination
and efficiency in processes used by the
entire department. This involves finding mechanisms
to streamline the policy and project approval
processes. In this regard they are coordinating with
the SPCS, incorporating environmental considerations
into various existing approval processes. This
is particularly important for various policy approval
mechanisms because of their largely qualitative
nature. They will eventually be further strengthened