PRESS RELEASE: On the July 1 and 2, the Centre for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG), Forman Christian College held its first consultation with the Local Government and Community Development (LG &CD) Department’s officers from all over Punjab as part of the consultations and research on local governance in the Punjab project, which is being implemented in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Recognizing the gap between what laws imply and what is actually implemented, the officers were given a platform to share their experiences and empirical evidence that they have gathered over years of work in the field, along with their insights on PLGA 2013 implementation.
Shahid Zaman Lak, Additional Secretary (Local Government), Punjab was present on the occasion, along with Rainer Rohdewohld, GIZ’s Team Lead, Strengthening Local Governance and Dr Saeed Shafqat, Founding Director and Professor, CPPG.
The consultations took place over two days and had multiple objectives, including strengthening the capacity and silks of elected public officials and Local Government officials. Besides processing lessons learnt from the PLGA 2013 implementation, they aimed for more open and inclusive interaction between key stakeholders and for an increased acceptance of the PLGA 2019. There are going to be a total of three consultations as part of this project. The second consultation will be in August and will focus on ascertaining former local elected officials’ views on PLGA 2019. The final consultation will explore how coming up with better rules and regulations can enhance implementation of PLGA 2019.