PESHAWAR: A Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-supported project to strengthen the capacity of local government officers and elected representatives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged districts has been completed, with all 19 tehsil councils preparing and approving four-year medium-term development plans.
The Local Government, Elections and Rural Development Department (LGE&RDD) in collaboration with JICA held the projects’ final seminar at a hotel in Peshawar the other day. Representatives of tehsil, district and provincial governments and development partners attended the event.
The project covered all 19 tehsils of the merged districts and focused on strengthening local governments’ ability to identify community needs, undertake development planning and improve public trust in the local government system.
Under the project, the Local Governance School trained 808 elected council members and local government officers including 163 women in the basic functions, planning and development responsibilities of tehsil governments under the Local Government Act (Amendment) 2019.
Another 763 council members and officers received specialised training in tehsil profiling and mediumterm development planning.
According to the projects outcomes, all 19 tehsil councils became functional, holding regular sessions and establishing statutory committees.
More than 2,500 community consultations were held during the planning process, identifying over 18,500 development needs.
Based on the findings, all 19 tehsil governments prepared four-year Tehsil Medium-Term Development Plans, which were approved by their respective councils under Section 25(d) of the 2019 law. APP