Pakistan Civil Services Academy partners with PARC to strengthen training on climate and food security

LAHORE: The Pakistan Civil Services Academy (CSA) has entered a formal partnership with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) in an effort to build a better-prepared cadre of civil servants capable of navigating the country’s mounting climate and food security challenges.

The two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research on Tuesday, marking a rare convergence between Pakistan’s civil service training apparatus and its scientific research establishment.

The agreement forms a core component of “URRAN – Pakistan”, a government-backed initiative designed to introduce more rigorous, field-focused learning across the civil service.

The partnership reflects the federal government’s growing recognition that the country’s environmental pressures including water scarcity, extreme weather, declining crop productivity and volatile food markets require civil servants with far greater technical grounding than in the past. The CSA intends to integrate agricultural and environmental modules directly into the training of probationary officers from all 12 occupational groups, with particular emphasis on the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), which remains central to frontline policy implementation.

PARC will provide technical material, research access and expert support, while CSA will nominate focal persons and ensure that environmental learning is embedded across its curricula.

Both bodies will also co-host policy dialogues involving federal and provincial officials, in an attempt to improve coordination across a notoriously fragmented governance landscape.