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Donors wanted for Chitral Integrated Vision

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: The district government of Chitral is in dire need of the technical support of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to put into action its integrated development vision (IDV) it had formulated three years ago. Talking to our correspondent here on Sunday, source in the district government said that Chitral was the first district in the country to have its conservation strategy created and passed by the zilla council. He said that on the basis of the strategy, the district government had proposed the IDV containing short, medium and long-term development plans. He said that as per procedure, the district government had to develop concept papers of different development and conservation projects for onward submission to the donor agencies to get financial assistance. He said that all this was to be done with the aid of IUCN through its support office Chitral but for want of donors, the office is presently dysfunctional which has put the district government in troubles because it has no technical capacity to prepare the proposal papers according to the needs of the international donors. He said that the most of the donors have shifted their focus to the war-ravaged Afghanistan and to some of our tribal areas. “The getaway of the donors from Chitral has created a deep vacuum here whose aftermath is that problems of development nature and environment degradation are cropping up here”, he said. Chitral deserves the same treatment by the donors as the federally administrated tribal areas (FATA), he said adding that the situation of poverty and backwardness will touch the new heights if no earnest effort is made in this hour. He said that Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is extending financial support to the provincial office of IUCN while the district office is yet to be energized in Chitral. He said that the donor agencies and IUCN have three-pronged job of imparting training for capacity building, providing equipments and financial resources to fight the poverty in Chitral. When district nazim Maghfirat Shah was contacted by Dawn, he said that the district government is engaged in its hectic efforts to seek the support of foreign donors to make the IDV a reality. Expressing his hopes, he said that Norwegian government has agreed in principle to contribute to the IDV of Chitral through the district government and within some weeks, the Norwegian team of donors will again visit Chitral.