EU funding project for capacity building of Pakistan’s legislators: Androulla

Islamabad : EU Ambassador to Pakistan Androulla Kaminara has said the European Union continued to support Pakistan in its efforts to strengthen good governance in the country.

To materialize the concept of good governance, the EU would fund a parliamentary project for capacity building of Pakistan’s legislators, she added.

Talking to APP, she said the EU would allocate Euro 9 million, which would be used to strengthen the functioning of public service offices in terms of building up capacity regarding the parliamentary core mandates of legislation, oversight, budget, and representation.

The three-year project, to be implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS), would work with the National Assembly, the Senate, and the four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan, she added.

Androulla Kaminara said, “The EU has been a steadfast supporter of democratic progress in Pakistan for many years and with today’s signature we enter the most ambitious phase of our support yet, focusing, for the first time, assemblies at the national and provincial levels at the same time. Good governance is the backbone of human and democratic development and plays a crucial role in poverty alleviation.”

The envoy said the new project would respond to the priorities of the EU-Pakistan Strategic Engagement Plan 2019, specifically to the joint priority Democracy, Rule of Law, Good Governance and Human Rights and was financed under the EU’s development cooperation priorities from 2014-2020. Both strategic roadmaps supported the implementation of Vision 2025 and helped achieve the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations in its Agenda 2030, she added.