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Development of Chitral-Need for a new Paradigm

By Islamuddin

Any development paradigm has to be correct both in terms of substance as well as methodology. In this write up I will confine myself to methodology, leaving the substance to a future date. Theoretically speaking there are three development models viz authoritarian, participatory and Laissez faire, which correspond to the society’s level of socio-political development.
Authoritarian model suits primitive feudal societies, while the participatory model has been found effective in transitional societies. The laissez faire model is giving good results in the highly developed societies of the west.
Govt. driven development activities in Chitral followed the authoritarian model, whereby from funding till completion and maintenance development projects were managed by legally constituted authorities. This model corresponded to the society’s level of socio-political development. But with corruption and erosion in the writ of the Govt. this model failed to give the desired results. The Govt. allowed the drift to continue willfully or by default. Timely steps to correct the system, through reforms, were not taken, thus compelling the donor community to channelize their development funding through non governmental organization (NGOs).

The new development partners of the donors, who supplanted the Govt. proved themselves more loyal to the donors than to the people that they claimed to be serving. By playing to the gallery in the donor countries, these NGOs adopted the laissez faire model prevailing in the highly developed societies. In their zeal to please the donor community through developing cultural compliance, they forgot local conditions and the local society’s level of mental development. In the process they disturbed the existing social fabric without being able to replace it with a new one.

The logic of evolution was dictating authoritarian or participatory model but this logic was subordinated to the overriding consideration of pleasing the donors to get more funds through promises of socio-cultural compliance with donor values. Here I am not disputing the merits of the values in the donor countries. I am only saying that this level had to be reached through an evolutionary process. When you bulldoze something without preparing a sound alternative, then you are inviting trouble. You can not bypass the participatory model to jump start laissez faire development.

When huge funds started coming to the NGOs, the Govt. began thinking of putting curbs on the NGOs through regulations. This cost Nawaz Sharif his Govt. and the new one under the leadership of Musharaf effectively became an NGO driven Govt. He introduced his own NGOs in the form of District Govt. to compete with private NGOs for funds. But for obvious reasons the donor community was not prepared to prefer Govt. NGOs over private NGOs. Orchestrated campaigns were launched to highlight Govt. inefficiency and corruption, which in turn led to erosion in the writ of the Govt. and its level of acceptance among the people declined.

The participatory development paradigm introduced by General Musharaf was more suited to the local conditions but the Govt’s credibility problem came in the way of selling it to the donors. Political considerations prevented the official NGOs to generate funds through taxation. As a result the official NGOs working in the form of district Governments have yet to prove their worth Meanwhile donor funds continued coming to Chitral through private NGOs and development activists spoke of these NGOs as engines of growth eclipsing the role of the Govt. Development practitioners who challenged the laissez faire paradigm were shouted down. Meanwhile the district government failed to create impact due to lack of funds ,administrative skills and irrational administrative expenditure. Cost of POL and telephone ate up much of the budget.

Review of NGO driven development paradigm in Chitral has proved that we have lost more and gained less. Chitralis have lost their innocence, simplicity and honesty and have developed insatiable taste for easy money without accountability. Under the laissez faire model funds were provided to the local NGOs without making them answerable to the donors despite provisions in the procedures that donors are supposed to exercise audit control over the funds provided by them. When this question was put to a European commission official, he had no clear answer, except saying that E. U has no mechanism for audit control. When it was suggested to him to seek help from the Auditor General of Pakistan, he was non committal.

It is a measure of NGO failure that they have not been able to sustain any major development project. Many of these projects would disappear, if donor funds to maintain them are withdrawn. The community has not been given the capacity to sustain these projects through self help. Most of these NGOs are controlled by few individuals and there is no mobility in their leadership. In most cases Govt. officials, specially from the education department have been involved in NGO work without departmental approval under the law.As a result Govt. officials ignored their primary responsibilities and worked for NGOs to make easy money.Thus vested interests were allowed to develop and evolve into development mafia with a view to resisting monitoring and control of their activities. Lately this mafia has developed political tentacles to perpetuate the culture of impunity. Thus instead of creating awareness to exercise correct choices, these NGOs created distortions intentionally or unintentionally. It is a measure of the strength of the mafia that even AGM decision to replace President of a local NGO could not be implemented ad the new president had to seek help from Bank Manager to issue him a cheque book as the old one was not being handed over to him. The Manager rightly refused his request and the person left the bank high and dry. This event symbolizes the power of the mafia and helplessness of the general public, enhancement in whose capacity was the avowed objective of every NGO and this very objective is now the major casualty. In many cases the cost of servicing projects has eaten up more funds than those spent on actual execution of projects. Is it the trickle down theory at work¬¬¬¬¬?

It however, does not mean that all the NGOs are alike. Many components of AKDN are going strong in the area of sustainability. But these are small outfits. Sustainable projects, transparency and accountability by the bigger outfits can have multiplying effects. By becoming role model they can bring about overall improvement in Chitral. It is time that the present focus on obtaining funds to spend is replaced by the community’s ability to sustain the gains and transfer it to the future generation, which at present happens to be the major casualty .

In view of the above Chitral’s development needs a paradigm shift. A blend of authoritarian and participatory models is the answer. Laissez faire can wait. In fact the Western donors have also realized this. At one stage, during a recent meeting, a donor appeared to favour the district Govt. as a development partner but the district Govt. itself advised the donor to pick up a good NGO as the district Govt. has yet to reach the position where it could handle big funds. At the end of the meeting there was a feeling of consensus that NGOs in Chitral should work under the leadership of the District Govt. which should monitor and carry out audit control over the NGO driven development activities to ensure correct need assessment, transparency and sustainability.

As far as the Govt. is concerned it is already working on this paradigm but without effective independent monitoring and audit control. Unless this paradigm is adopted as a package, desired results can not be achieved and the vicious cycle will continue. Some improvement can be expected as and when there is a district ombudsman, for which the Devolution Plan makes a provision. The experiment to replace contractors with honest project leaders, viable LSOs/CCBs has proved successful and needs to be expanded. The bane of ring system in contracts has deprived Chitralis of the full fruits of development but has enriched individual contractors, who are now a powerful political force to reckon with. Genuine public empowerment and honest governance are not possible without abolishing the contract system. MMA Govt. took some steps towards this end and we expect the present Govt. to complete the process.