Previous NWFP government was
better informed -- Dr. Samia
By Rana
Fawad
WASHINGTON:
The previous provincial government in the NWFP
(North-West-Frontier-Province) was conservative but its members
had more knowledge and awareness about social services needed in
their areas.
This was commented by
Pakistan Scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, Dr. Samia Altaf, while responding to a question at an
event "Aid Effectiveness in Pakistan: Case Study of the Health
and Population Sector" under the aegis of the WWICS on
Wednesday.
Introducing the
speaker, Asia Program Director
Robert
M. Hathaway told the audience about Dr. Samia Altaf
was the Wilson
Center’s 2007-08 Pakistan Scholar. In her career she had
contributed to the management and coordination of complex health
delivery systems for low-income populations
She was
acting director and later on senior advisor with the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Islamabad
before she joined the Wilson Center in Washington. She also had
the opportunity to work for the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) as a primary health care program officer.
Moreover,
she provided consultancy to international aid agencies. On the
academic side, Dr. Altaf has served on the faculty at Pakistan’s
Aga Khan University Medical College.
During
Question and Answer session, Dr. Samia Altaf agreed with the Agha
Khan Foundation official that the political stability was
important in carrying out
projects.
She pointed
out that it is interesting to note that the government of
mullahs in the NWFP was
very conservative but it was stable for five years whereas its
representatives were very knowledgeable as compared to other
provinces.
She told
the audience that though their female representatives were
veiled from head to toe and you could only see their eyes while
talking to them, they had far better understanding and
information about the social services needed in their respective
areas.
Propounding
her suggestions and recommendations regarding aid in Pakistan,
Dr. Altaf commented that the future projects in Pakistan should
incorporate the local perspective in its design. She was of the
view that the current methodology was outmoded and did not pay
attention to the requirements at the field level of projects.
She
regretted that the consumers of the aid, people, have no
knowledge that it was
being done on their behalf and added that in Washington D.C.,
the information is
placed in the community in a language or
languages which they
could understand
before the project is launched. She suggested that the target
audience of a project
in Pakistan should also be provided with
sufficient information
about the activity.
Analyzing
the current situation of foreign aid and it's use in
Pakistan, Dr. Samia
Altaf illustrated that there were five to six permanent actors
like Government of
Pakistan, donors, sub-contractors, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), etc.,
that follow a script to play their roles.
She
remarked that if the script is changed according to the modern
day requirements,
those actors could do a better job. Plus, a component of
incentives for them should
be
added to projects.
Referring
to the growth of NGOs in Pakistan, she mentioned that NGOs have
sprouted
like flowers because there is money to be spent and many of them
do a
very good job.
Highlighting another factor, she regretted that the government
officials take leave from their official duty and become
consultants for certain projects.
Commenting
on the notion that donors agencies try to push certain agenda
through their aid packages, Dr. Samia Altaf said donors always
had certain tasks to accomplish in helping out a country. She
added that if a country thought the aid was tied to some other
things it could always be rejected.
She informed the
audience that once the Indonesian officials faced a similar situation
and they refused to take the World Bank aid.
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