Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), a non-governmental organization under Citizens’ Voice Project funded by USAID, will launch a citizen’s oversight on 18th Constitutional Amendment in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Initially, the organization identified three districts Mardan, Abbotabad and Peshawar for oversight on service delivery issues in three sectors, including education, health, agriculture and food in KP.

This was stated by an official of CPDI, while talking to a group of reporters here on Monday. He said a group of volunteers in each district will be established to oversight the performance of KP Government in the stated sectors. CPDI co-ordinator further elaborated an oversight on performance of provincial government will be made through citizens to identify the loopholes in the service delivery issues. After implementation of 18th Constitutional Amendment, he viewed the provinces have become autonomous to make legislation on their own policies for the development of citizens; so it is imperative for the provincial governments to provide the best service delivery in the Federalised sectors as they are self-governing to manage the issues related to public, the release added.

He further said the oversight groups will be formed in the three districts Mardan, Abbotabad and Peshawar to monitor the performance of the Government. A policy draft for education and health will be developed and presented to the elected representatives after discussion with the stakeholders of the province, he added. About salient features and objectives of the project, he said the purpose of the project is to carry out action-oriented and policy relevant research, which is based on sound understanding of implementation related challenges and which provides practical ideas for progress in terms of people-oriented and more efficient implementation, the release said.

Other objectives are to improve public awareness about the salient features of 18th Constitutional Amendment any implementation gaps, and how it should be implemented in relation to the selected sectors for the benefit of public and to ensure maximum public participation, transparency and public accountability.

Similarly, he said, to oversee the progress in terms of implementation of 18th Constitutional Amendment and highlights progress as well as gaps with the aim of drawing the attention of relevant authorities is also included in main target of the project. To build capacity of journalists and civil society activists in terms of effective reporting or oversight of as well as engagement with authorities about the issues related to 18th Constitutional Amendment. To promote use of available accountability mechanisms for the purpose of ensuring that pace of implementation improves in manner that is consistent with best practices and ensures public participation in all its phases, he concluded.

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