Annual Report 2009-10 - Sustainable Development Policy Institute

Annual Report2009 - 2010the economy and increase the tax net. They said that the taxpayers should play a pro-active roleto ensure people-friendly budget. They mentioned that the nation was facing a crises of Fs i.e.,fuel, food, fiscal, functional democracy, fragility of climate and frontier crises but unfortunatelythe country's budget revolved around 3 Ds i.e., debt-servicing, defense and day-to-day administrationof the country. Political uncertainty was further aggravating the energy insecurity whilehydal power could be solely relied upon.Series of Post Budget Orientation SessionsSoon after the announcement of the federal budget 2010-11, Strengthening Democracy throughParliamentary Development (SDPD) decided to organize budget orientation sessions for parliamentariansto review the federal budget in general and its different aspects in particular includingsector-wise allocations and the process of decision-making. It was expected that these sessionswould enrich parliamentarians' knowledge about the budget, which was always difficult tounderstand due to technical financial terms and number crunching. SDPD subsequently engagedthe Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) to jointly organize these orientationsessions to make this process more productive and meaningful given SDPI's vast experienceand diverse networking with different stakeholders including parliamentarians, policy-makersand the media. Both the organizations jointly organized 10 orientation sessions on the followingaspects of the federal budget 2010-11.• Analysis of Federal Budget 2010-11;• National Budget: NFC Award and 18th Amendment;• Federal Budget: Revenue and Taxation (VAT);• Federal Budget: Pro-poor Planning and Social Safety Nets;• Federal Budget: Energy Sector;• Federal Budget: Food Security and Agriculture;• PSDP: Structure and Process-I;• PSDP: Structure and Process-II;• Federal Budget: Response to Conflict & Terrorism;• Federal Budget: Health Sector.Additional SeminarsUnprecedented Floods in Pakistan and SDPI in Pakistan 2010Following the floods in Pakistan, Policy Advocacy and Outreach Unit organized the followingevents and activities;• Seminar on “Unprecedented Floods Devastation: Responses and Challenges”;• Seminar on “Household Water Treatments (HWTs) as point-of-use to Access SafeDrinking Water Technologies for Flood Survivors”;• Seminar on “Post-Flood Food Insecurity in Pakistan”;• Seminar on “Post-flood Strategy to Rebuild Pakistan”;• SDPI Also launched a humanitarian appeal to different stakeholders for helping floodaffectedpeople in Pakistan.Networking with StakeholdersThe Policy Advocacy and Outreach Unit maintains good networking and coordination with differentinternational and national development, rights-based and research organizations; governmentinstitutions and departments, and universities. Some of those development partners includeJinnah Institute (JI), Pakistan-China Institute, ActionAid-Pakistan, Center for Peace andDevelopment Initiative (CPDI), COMSATS, ABT Associates, Swiss Agency for DevelopmentCorporation(SDC), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization(WHO), NationalCommission for Human Development (NCHD), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Law andSociety Trust(LST) Sri Lank, Insani Haqooq Itehad (IHI), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan50S u s t a I n a b l e D e v e l o p m e n t P o l I c y I n s t I t u t e