Cavish to Provide REFLECT Trainings to Plan Staff & Communities

Islamabad: Cavish Development Foundation is going to provide training on ‘REFLECT Approach’ to the staff and partner communities of Plan Pakistan.
An agreement was reached between the two organizations on August 13, 2009 in Islamabad.

Under the agreement, Cavish would initially assess training needs of the staff and partner communities of Plan Pakistan to understand their knowledge, attitudes and practices with respect to REFLECT, PRA and other participatory approaches.

Based upon the findings of these assessments, Cavish would launch a series of customized trainings in the coming months. Initially trainings would be conducted in Chakwals districts with 25-30 participants from Plan’s communities.

Cavish is among the pioneers of this approach in Pakistan and has implemented several projects using REFLECT approach training around 30 master trainers and about 200 teachers. The approach has successfully been implemented with over 6000 non-literates.

Evaluation of Cordaid Project Completed

Islamabad: Cavish has successfully completed a post-project evaluation for projects implemented by Cordaid in earthquake affected areas of AJK and NWFP.

Cordaid is a Netherlands based NGO which has been working with the affected people of 2005 earthquake. It has supported around two thousand families and rehabilitated sixty schools through provision of construction materials, furniture and other supplies during the two years of the project.

Cavish was asked by Cordaid to evaluate the satisfaction level of beneficiaries besides evaluating project’s appropriateness, efficiency, effectiveness and impact, connectedness and coherence.
Cavish conducted twenty two focus group discussions, five in-depth interviews and used ranking tools with beneficiaries and related stakeholders in Bagh, Neelum, Muzzafarabad (AJK) and Mansehra (NWFP) districts. Later, a report was shared with Cordaid that was based upon the findings of the process.

Training held on Data Collection for members of Youth Parliament Pakistan

Islamabad: Cavish Development Foundation facilitated a three-day training workshop on Data Collection for members of Youth Parliament of Pakistan (YPP) & staff of the British Council, recently.

Supported by the British Council, YPP is working with more than two thousand members across 10 districts of the country. It was formed by famous singer Abrar-ul-Haq.

British Council, being strong supporter of YPP, hired services of the Cavish to conduct a “training needs assessment” exercise of the members of YPP in order to develop a long term capacity building program for YPP. This training was part of the TNA exercise through which Cavish had to train YPP’s research teams in “data collection for TNA”.

During the training, Cavish facilitators conducted various exercises to assess training needs of the participants. Later, they were apprised with contemporary concepts on research and data collection, understanding of training needs assessment frameworks and tool designed for this particular exercise. In all, twenty three people participated in this workshop including nineteen members of the YPP belonging to ten districts of Pakistan and the AJK. The trained members would now collect data in ten districts for the TNA. In the next phase, Cavish is preparing to hold a two-day workshop on Data analysis for the YPP.

Project Launched for Accountability of Elected RepresentativesProject Launched for Accountability of Elected Representatives

Islamabad: Cavish Development Foundation is all set to change the public accountability landscape in two districts of Sindh by increasing civic engagement activities and strengthening local democratic platforms.

Under a thirty-month duration ‘Citizen's Action for Democratic Governance in Pakistan’ project, supported by The Asia Foundation, Cavish is going to facilitate formation of four ‘Constituency Relations Groups’ (CRGs) that would strengthen public accountability mechanisms for the members of the national and provincial assemblies. These CRGs would have members from different walks of life.

The CRGs will hold several public forums and peoples’ assemblies where elected representatives will be invited to listen and address issues of civic concerns.

Besides, the CRGs will also visit national and provincial assemblies after every three months to meet MPAs/MNAs and lobby with them for addressing issues facing their constituencies.
Being a founding member of ‘Free and Fair Elections Network’ (FAFEN), Cavish would also collect data for Corruption Index and State of Political Parties Index through surveys and focus group discussions, to be held under this project.

Understanding Land Rights in Pakistan's Context - A dialogue series initiated

Islamabad: Cavish Development Foundation (CAVISH) and South Asia Center for Law and Development (SACLAD) has initiated a dialogue series on “Understanding Land Rights in Pakistan’s Context” in order to develop a broad policy consensus dealing with the issues of landed poverty, land market efficiency, agency wide reforms in revenue departments and tenancy laws formulation and implementation.

The first dialogue of this series was held at University Institute of Urban Management (UIMS), Arid Agricultural University on February 3, 2009. The focus of this dialogue was on land reforms, land inheritance laws of women and exploring key problems in processes of land and revenue department. Representatives of civil society organization, media professionals, lawyers, academics and a large number of students actively attended the dialogue

Introducing the dialogue series, Hassan Nasir, Program Manger of Cavish said that land has an important role to play in poverty alleviation and ending social injustice; however in Pakistan little efforts have been made to explore the area of land rights. He added that often one finds much news in print media about murders and injuries due to conflicts on land; however, no major initiatives have been taken by the civil society to explore this important area. He added that both Cavish and SACLAD have therefore initiated this dialogue series to understand and explore issues and problems related to land rights by consulting key actors. He said that two more consultations are planned to be held in Khairpur Mirs’ and Sanghar District of Sindh which would followed by more in Southern Punjab.

Explaining the key methodological understanding about land reform programs, Javed Ahmed Malik, prominent governance consultant and founder of SACLAD, said that it is important to determine the objective of land reforms i.e. why you want to do it; either it’s political objective or economic objective and the land reform programs must be linked with human rights of all the humans. He added that land reforms must have long term implementation plans supplemented by sufficient governance capacities of the implementing agencies.

Saleem Malik, Director Land Inheritance Program at Bedari Islamabad, sharing findings of a research study on “Land Inheritance rights of women in Earthquake affected area of Pakistan", conducted by Bedari, said that in Pakistani society women are not considered human beings and hence their rights are denied. He added that the research study found that in 90% cases women did not receive any share from their fathers' property however in case of husbands property 90% of women got their due shares. However, he added, that women who got share from their husband's property, mostly did not have control over the property. He said that property has key role in uplifting status of women but men do not want women’s status more than theirs so they deny women's rights.

Choudhary Sajid, an agribusiness-man, explaining the problems in land and revenue department said that Patwaris are considered to be kings of land and revenue department and they are the most corrupt persons. He added that a record maintained by Patwari is even respected by Supreme Court that is why they make negative use of the power and there is no check and balance system on them. He said that normally common people are not aware about their rights related to land and processes involved into sale and purchase of land.

Cavish Development Foundation is a leading National NGO with solid experience of development and working with gross root organizations and communities for improving quality of their lives through rights based governance and development model.

South Asia Centre for Law & Development is a newly formed coalition of law and development professionals, law firms and organizations and project teams working on law & development research, legislative strengthening, citizen oversight mechanisms and justice systems.

Both Cavish and SACLAD are in process of forming a coalition of civil society organization and professionals to advocate for reforms in land and revenue departments and better implementation of land reform initiatives in Pakistan.

For more information send email to info@cavish.org