ACS Formulation


ACS Formulation
With the aim of people-centered sustainable development, it was decided that the people of the district should be consulted for identification of needs and priorities for the future development of Abbottabad. Hence, unlike conventional public sector strategic planning and policy development, the ACS formulation adopted a comprehensive participatory approach. This formulation process started with the District Administration (pre-devolution)/District Government (post-devolution) in the lead role on behalf of GoNWFP. IUCN-The World Conservation Union provided the technical assistance whereas Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) provided funding, channeled through IUCN-SPCS Support Project. The IUCN-ACS Support Unit was established in 1997,which was placed first with the Deputy Commissioner (pre-devolution) and then with District Coordination Officer and Finance and Planning Department (post-devolution). The formulation process was started with initial consultations and networking with key partners, culminating into an introductory paper on the ACS that was distributed amongst the stakeholders. This was followed by formulation and notification of the ACS District Roundtable as a broad based multi-stakeholder consultative forum. In addition an ACS Steering Committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner, Abbottabad with members from select public sector and civil society institutions was notified with the purpose to guide and advise on strategy formulation. The meetings of both the Roundtable and Steering Committee were held to deliberate on issues and the process pertaining to strategy formulation. As a key step, a comprehensive Public Consultations were held in all the union councils (57) to seek inputs from the civil society on the issues and possible solutions to promote sustainable development in the district. In addition, consultations were also held at the urban and town level; with public sector functionaries; media; and women groups. Output of public consultation process was synthesized to identify the priority areas of the ACS. In order to collate information, lessons learnt and to identify short and long term interventions required in each priority area, seventeen (17) sector papers were commissioned and reviewed by the stakeholders. These sector papers contain the secondary information to feed into the ACS document. In order to put information in the public domain and to facilitate informed decision making in the district, the development of ACS Website was initiated. Parallel to this process, a few efforts were undertaken to build capacity of the select partners and to raise awareness on environment and development issues. With the announcement of devolution plan by the government, it was realized that this new system of governance would have serious implications for ACS. Hence, a couple of studies were commissioned to establish an interface between the devolution plan and the ACS as well as the institutionalization of the ACS process in the devolved system of district government. The sector papers were finalized and synopsis of each were produced to facilitate reader friendliness. A team of consultants jointly selected by District Government and IUCN was associated to develop the draft ACS document through benefiting inter alia all sector papers. While the synthesis process was underway the District Government Abbottabad was put in place in September 2001. From the perspective of promoting ownership and to solicit input of future policy and decision-makers additional consultations were held with key elected representatives, DCO and EDOs. In order to keep a pace with changing realities additional consultations were also arranged with other key players such as NGOs, financial institutions, hoteliers, development projects etc. Based on collective input, the formulation of ACS document was completed and its approval process by the Zilla Council Abbottabad is well underway. Following are the key ACS Formulation processes and mechanisms. Public Consultations Roundtable Steering Committee / Special Committee