Joint efforts of provincial government and development partners will contribute to build a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Chief Secretary

Peshawar, February 17, 2014 (PPI-OT): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Muhammad Shehzad Arbab has stated that joint efforts of the provincial government and the development partners will contribute much to building a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that will be more peaceful, stable, just and prosperous.

He was addressing a two-day workshop on Strategic Development Partnership Framework at a local hotel in Islamabad on Friday. The workshop was convened by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Planning and Development department in collaboration with UK-AID.

All the donor agencies and administrative secretaries of the provincial government departments, technocrats and members of civil society participated in the opening session. The Chief Secretary while opening the workshop called upon all the donors to align their individual strategies with the priorities of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government as per principles of the aid effectiveness.

He further emphasized that all the provincial administrative secretaries should play their pro-active role in ensuring close coordination with the development partners and implement the reforms already initiated by the present government.

The chief secretary highlighted that the provincial government believed in financial transparency, mutual accountability, equal partnership and participation in decision making at grass root level.

In his welcome address the Additional Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khalid Pervez emphasized the importance of the strategic development partnership framework and informed the participants that the provincial government was keen to achieve the targets fixed mutually with the development partners in the reforms agenda of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The additional chief secretary appreciated the proactive role of all the donors in the sector coordination committees to translate this strategy into action. He also emphasized that all the secretaries should ensure their next year proposals for the budget to be aligned with the recommendations of the partnership strategy.

The Secretary Planning and Development Department Dr. Aftab Akbar Durrani, gave a comprehensive presentation on the SDPF and highlighted the priorities of the KPK government, the challenges faced by it and the potential areas where the province had comparative advantages.

In the second session on Friday a group discussion was arranged in which the experts were distributed in 8 groups. The groups discussed priorities of the government including economic growth, job creation, peace building, rule of law, social service delivery in basic health and elementary and secondary education.

The groups also discussed improving the citizen participation and bringing state closer to the citizens, improved transparency and accountability, enhanced fiscal space for economic and social development as well as gender equality.

The workshop will continue on Saturday and the administrative secretaries will speak on the above areas. Discussion on donors harmonization will also be held with the closing remarks by the additional chief secretary. The participants of the workshop will formulate their recommendations and will compile the outcomes and outputs.

For more information, contact:
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Tel: 091 921 1789
Email: info@khyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk