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Ms Susanna Moorehead, Head of DFID
India, answers frequently asked
questions on the PACS Programme.
What does the
UK government expect to achieve
by supporting the PACS Programme?
The PACS Programme is DFID India's
largest civil society initiative.
It aims to help Indian civil society
organisations assist people in the
poorest and most backward districts
of India to realise their rights
more effectively and in a sustained
manner. It is a small step forward
in helping the Indian government
achieve the Tenth Five-Year Plan
targets.
DFID has been
working in India with the central
and state governments. How do you
think the PACS Programme can add
value to DFID India's current work?
A key element of DFID's country
plan is the development of partnerships
for poverty reduction with governments
in our four focus states. However
beyond these four there are other
states, home to large numbers of
poor people, with difficult environments
for poverty reduction. If India
is to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals and the Tenth Five-Year Plan
targets, progress has to be made
in these states. To address this,
our country plan envisages both
a stronger national programme and
continued engagement with civil
society to support efforts to reach
the poorest people and districts.
The PACS Programme is intended to
support stronger articulation of
demand for services by the poor.
This complements our interventions,
through government, designed to
help improve the supply of services.
Is DFID involved
in any other programme involving
civil society organisations in other
parts of the world? Does DFID plan
to work more with civil society
organisations in India?
At the global level, DFID has strategic
partnerships with various civil
society organisations. Many country
programmes also have specific country-level
initiatives. In India, we plan to
continue to build on our civil society
engagement both in our focus states
and at the national level.
Apart from being
the funding agency, what is DFID's
involvement in the PACS Programme
as it is being implemented?
DFID has a hands-off approach to
the programme. The idea was not
to micro-manage but to let the management
agency take on the role of running
the programme. DFID is involved
at the advisory board level and
at the project selection committee
level to ensure that the strategic
direction of the programme is maintained
and that it is in alignment with
our country Assistance plan.
What is DFID's
assessment of the work done so far
under the PACS Programme?
The annual review of the programme, in December 2004, noted
that the most important contribution
of the PACS Programme is creating
an enabling environment through
organisation, capacity building,
information provision and facilitating
the interface between the marginalised
communities and government officials
from the panchayat to the district
level.
Areas that the programme could
look at in the coming year are:
- Sustainability issues need
to be taken up and strategies
have to be evolved.
- Follow-up mechanisms and conflict
resolution techniques need to
be evolved at the local/partner
level.
- The programme needs to move
from networks to partnerships.
- An explicit training strategy
is needed at all levels to be
able to focus on institutional
capacity building.
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Scaling up to reach the poorest and most
marginalized, especially in Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar
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