Community Consultation event organized by SPO Hyderabad
SPO Hyderabad conducted a traditional community consultation event on 6th May 2016 at Farm Village Larkana under ‘Citizen First Project’ by OXFAM NOVIB. The key objectives of the event were to increase peace and social harmony among different tribes, and discussion on their basic social issues and their possible solutions.
Holi festival celebrated in District Buner under the AAWAZ Program
For the first time since 1947, members of Hindu community celebrated Holi in District Buner under the AAWAZ program. AAWAZ District Forum and AAWAZ UC forum Noorizai arranged the program at a short notice of 2 hours. It was a small scale program but Hindu, Sikh and Muslims celebrated the event together. A leader of Hindu community briefed the participants about the historical background ‘Holi’. Mr. Ajaz Durrani, Program Specialist SPO briefed the participants about AAWAZ Program and SPO. Mr. Haroon Bacha, Chairperson ADF spoke about the importance of peace and social harmony. The celebration began with cake cutting by Master Summit, a child from Hindu Community. All the participants danced and expressed happiness especially the excitement and joy of the children was worth witnessing. Mr. Bansiri Lal, leader of the Hindu Community said that after 1947 we are celebrating HOLI openly in District Buner for the first time. Others said that we were scared of the extremist views of some Muslim religious leaders. The event was highly praised by Muslims and Sikhs community members; even the district administration appreciated the efforts.
Provincial Closing Convention of Citizens Voice Project – A USAID Project
Citizens demand for government officials to know about ‘Sindh freedom of Information Act 2006’ to access information. The Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) Karachi organized “Project Closing Convention” in local hotel at Karachi with community based organizations, NGOs, government officials, media.and political party members of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Muslim League- Functional (PML-F from Karachi, Thatta and Badin. The project envisioned to build the capacity of the Politicians and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the field of Freedom of Information (FOI), District Budget Tracking and Advocacy& Lobbying for practicing Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006. The event was supported under the one-year project titled “Enhancing Capacities for Transparent and Accountable Local Governance”under Citizen’s Voice Project (CVP) grant -07, funded by USAID for Districts of Malir, Thatta and Badin,aimed at sharing project key successes and lessons learnt.
Right to Information (RTI) is key to promote accountability and transparency
Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) under the Citizens’ Voice Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) organized provincial roundtable at a local hotel in Karachi. The event aimed at discussing the charter of demands reflecting the issues identified through community based interventions and suggestions on need of having laws and institutional mechanisms for effective implementation of RTI and Sindh Freedom of information Act 2006 in the Province of Sindh. The objectives of the provincial roundtable were to share charter of demands based on the identification of the issues through district roundtables and different project interventions, increase active Interaction of Government, Civil Society and Local Community on RTI/FOI and to address grievances of communities through better engagements of provincial standing committees.
Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Festival 20-21 February 2016
The two-day event has been jointly organised by National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage and Indus Cultural Forum in collaboration with Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and USAID-Funded Pakistan Reading Project. More than 150 writers from over 15 mother languages are participating in the event as speakers and moderators. The objectives of the festival are to promote Pakistan’s linguistic and cultural diversity as an instrument of social harmony, peace and tolerance and encouraging reading culture in other languages. The festival is an occasion to showcase a wide range of literary works in these languages.
Highlights of District Roundtables in Targeted Districts of Thatta, Badin and Malir.
Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) is implementing a one-yearproject titled “Enhancing Capacities for Transparent and Accountable Local Governance” from 31st March 2015 under Citizen’s Voice Project (CVP) grant 07, funded by USAID in District Malir, Thatta and Badin. The project envisioned to build the capacity of the Politicians and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in the field of Freedom of Information (FOI), District Budget Tracking and Advocacy & Lobbying.
Meeting with legislators regarding implementation of NPA on International Covenant on ICESCR
Pakistan needs to incorporate the right to health in its constitution and province of Sindh require to draft a policy on right to health to every citizen like right to education guaranteed in the constitution of Pakistan. Policy of right to health for every citizen needs a lot to do to let the people know and care about their health issues. Before marriage, the marriageable male and female individuals need to test themselves medically to know whether they are safe from sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) and inherited diseases like minor thalassemia. Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) having long institutional memory in legislative and policy advocacy may support in this cause to the Government of Sindh. This was stated by Miss. Shammim Mumtaz representing PPP a member of provincial assembly Sindh (MPA) in Karachi at local hotel during lobbying meeting with parliamentarians of SPO Karachi Region.
Third Session of Women Assembly District Lakki Marwat
Third session of women assembly was conducted at District Assembly Hall of district Lakki Marwat. The agenda of the meeting was the discussions on charter of demands which was not discussed in previous session and present it to DC Lakki Marwat.
Consultative meeting with Government of Sindh officials on “International commitments and state obligations for citizens’ rights” held in Karachi
The consultation meeting on the issue of “International commitments and state obligations for citizens’ rights” was organized by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) at Regent Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, 24th November 2015.Fourteen government departments representing the government of Sindh in social sector services met in a consultative meeting to provide their respective inputs, recommendations in context of legislative deficit for devising policies, laws and mechanisms to let the peoples of Pakistan and Sindh entertain their recognized fundamental human rights in letter and spirit.