Pakistan
Institution
Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and
cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals. Institutions
are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending
individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and
enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior.
The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior
patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal
organizations of government and public service. As structures and
mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the
principal objects of study in the social sciences, including sociology,
political science and economics. Institutions are a central concern for
law, the formal regime for political rule-making and enforcement.
Institutional Development
Institutional development is the creation or reinforcement of the
capacity of an organization to generate, allocate and use human and
financial resources effectively to attain development objectives, public
or private. It Includes not only the building and strengthening of
Institutions, but also their retrenchment or, liquidation In the pursuit of
institutional, sectoral, or government-wide rationalization of
expenditure. Institutional Development Is typically aimed at Improving
and strengthening the following:
Inter-institutional relationships.
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Implementation
Monitors/Evaluate
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Impact Analysis
A structured workshop for representatives of all groups concerned with
the change process, held before the process begins. It helps to get all
stakeholders involved; to identify objectives and predicted areas of
impact; and to build stakeholder consensus and commitment. It can
also produce innovative suggestions for evaluation measures.
Sponsor Evaluation
This is a questionnaire, which looks at key aspects of the change
sponsor’s attitudes and readiness to change.
Change Forecasting
A tool, which is being developed within DFID to assist in the
development of Country Assistance Plans. The tool will assist in the
identification of interventions, which will promote change; in the
measurement of performance and in the assessment of particular
sectors where reform may take place.
7-S
This describes 7 key interdependent organizational variables that need
to be taken into account in organizational design. It forces practitioners
to think not only about the "hardware" of an organization – its strategy
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and structure - but also about the "software"- its management style,
systems and procedures, staff, skills and shared values (i.e. culture).
SWOT
SWOT analysis is a tool for assessing and communicating the current
position of an organization or a particular reform option in terms of its
internal Strengths and Weakness and the external Opportunities and
Threats it faces.
Benchmarking
A comparison of processes in a different context as a basis for the
design of a series of interventions.
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Implementation
Change Management
This provides a note of the five key elements to take into account in
change management and a checklist of activities to carry out for a
major change programme.
Stakeholder Management
How to identify the individuals or groups who will either be affected by
the changes or have the ability to impact on the change process; and
developing a strategy to manage these stakeholders.
Monitor/Evaluate
EFQM Excellence Model
A framework for assessing the aspects of performance which make an
organization successful.
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The social organization pilot project in the Sindh is one of three such
major pilot efforts by IIMI in Pakistan. The first pilot site to be started in
this study program was the Hakra 4-R Distributary in the Fordwah
Eastern Sadiqia (FES) irrigation and drainage system in south-eastern
Punjab.
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The social context was also identified with a "canal irrigation culture",
which had been fashioned by the long association with a legal
framework of three main enactments: the Canal and Drainage Act of
1873, the Sindh Irrigation Act of 1879 and the Punjab Minor Canals Act
of 1905. The operation, maintenance and water allocation rules in
canal irrigation are all administered under these laws. The "canal
irrigation culture" pervades the rural life in canal command areas.
The major source of employment is irrigated agriculture, the people's
knowledge and skills are closely linked with it, and they speak an
"irrigation language". Most of their disputes and litigation efforts are
also related to irrigation. Their habitats are generally identified in
terms of hydraulic boundaries.
2. Use this knowledge to interact with the water users in the pilot
distributary/dam command area with a view to discussing with them
the possible management strategies for improved productivity and
sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the area;
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Small Field Teams: Usually, the pilot projects are over-burdened with
highly qualified and trained staff. Often, they have been found to be
unable to reach the community deeply enough for better mutual
understanding of project objectives and conditions. Also, such an
approach with large staff and highly qualified staff being deployed in
pilot projects has made the project findings less replicable. The field
approach of IIMI involved the placing of social organizers in the
community to interact with and slowly catalyze the farmers to identify
their own problems, solutions, leaders, organization, financing,
budgeting, and management. For each pilot command area, a Field
Team of 3 to 5 members was deployed initially, consisting of one Team
Leader, all being of either sociology or agricultural science background.
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organizing people. This cautious approach was to gain entry into the
community slowly through well-designed steps in interactions, each
step meant to progressively establish mutual trust between the
farmers and the field team members. In the gradual step-wise
approach chosen by the project, the process of organization of water
users was designed to be in four phases:
1) Support mobilization;
2) Initial organization;
3) Organization consolidation; and
4) Organizational action.
The first two phases of this iterative process took relatively more time.
The experiences prompted some changes to be incorporated into this
process for each pilot site, depending on its special physical and
community characteristics.
The support mobilization phase was a "get set" stage during which the
field teams were mobilized and trained, initial collaborative
arrangements were discussed with operating agencies, selection of the
pilot sites was finalized, members for a Field Implementation
Coordination Committee (FICC) were identified, and initial baseline
information was collected. Being a learning exercise, the training for
the field staff was mostly derived from the experiences of social
organization field research conducted already in the Hakra 6-R
Distributary.
This training included farmer interviews, use of key informants, process
documentation, and some exposure to other social organization
projects in the country.
In the next initial organization phase, some progressively advancing
steps in interacting with the community were taken. Unlike many top-
down government projects, in this pilot project, a consciously
developed participatory approach was adopted. This approach itself
made the field team's task so much more difficult than the usual
practice of "handed down" instructions, and the challenge was that
each step taken collectively with the people had to be based on the
popular agreement on the previous step's results. Gradually, the
majority of the water users were convinced that the pilot projects were
for their own benefit, which they had to achieve with work hard.
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The Outcome
The pilot project was successful in establishing widely accepted water
users federations, which, in a short duration of time, were able to
mobilize resources and collective interest to attend to maintenance
requirements of the distributary canal pilot sites. In terms of the
potential for operation and maintenance management, the results
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shown by these WUFs so far are very favorable. Given some time for
consolidation, and continued institutional support, the pilot projects are
most likely to become socially and economically viable management
organizations and to provide widely replicable encouraging results. This
development will greatly contribute to reducing the strain on ailing
government agencies, improving the equitable distribution of water
resources, and enhancing the productivity of both water and land
resources.
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Access to Justice
•Judicial systems need to balance the need to provide swift and
affordable justice to the people.
•The basic problems of judicial administration relate to governance and
administration; case management and delay reduction; automation
and court information systems; human resources; and infrastructure.
•The success of judicial reforms depends on
•Increasing the accountability of judges; providing for incentives to
perform effectively, simplifying procedures, and targeting resource
increases.
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•The channels for such accountability can be the free media and civil
society organizations, or accountability can be built into the judicial
system itself.
•Transparency or the provision of information that makes it easy to
monitor judicial performance
•Simplifying legal procedures tends to increase judicial efficiency
•Judicial independence needs to be coupled with a system of social
accountability.
Police Reforms
•The local control and institutionalized accountability at the grass
roots, while ensuring functional autonomy of Police
•An independent Police Complaints Authority would also be helpful in
expediting investigations into allegations of excesses and neglect by
Police.
•More effective recourse to redress grievances and more open access
to justice in their own communities, an important element for
empowerment, dignity, and rights
Civil Services
•Perception that government is to provide jobs in public sector;
•Poor salary structure;
•Protecting status quo;
•Resistance to sharing the information;
•Centralization of decision-making;
•Lack of discipline;
•Lack of professionalism and performance orientation;
•Corruption;
•Archaic operating procedures and regulatory mechanism;
•Public aversion to public servants.
The main elements of the Government’s civil service reform strategy
include:
•A flatter structure of civil service;
•Merit based recruitment and promotion criteria;
•Performance based compensation;
•Incentives to improve innovation (i.e. encourage prudent risk taking);
and
•To increase the demand for professional skills (i.e. for training and
education).
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Financial Governance
•Because of the misuse of discretionary power at various tiers of the
government, and unfair considerations, there has been rampant
corruption. The government has established the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate and prosecute cases.
Besides punishing the corrupt, preventive measures such as instituting
a system that collects information and raise the possibilities that
corruption is detected would also be required.
Freedom of Information
•Access to information would go a long way towards transparency in
the use of public funds, certainty, and predictability in the economic
policies. Freedom of Information Act can go a long way in this direction.
•Credibility of the statistical authorities
Conclusion
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