Meeting of FoDP Working Group on Institution Capacity Building

A meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) Working Group on Institution Capacity Building was held on 27 July 2011 at the Foreign Office. The meeting was chaired by Senator Syeda Sughra Imam, Advisor to Prime Minister’s Policy Research Wing. The meeting discussed the agenda of the upcoming Workshop on Institution Capacity Building scheduled to be held in Ankara, Turkey on 8-9 September 2011. The representatives of FoDP member countries/organizations and the national stakeholders participated in the meeting.

Senator Sughra Imam expressed appreciation at the continued interest and support of FoDP members, particularly in the field of institution capacity building. She said that Pakistan’s international partners were already engaged in sharing their best practices with various institutions in Pakistan and this cooperation and joint flagship undertakings could serve as model for more collaboration in diverse areas. The Senator, particularly, mentioned the MoUs signed between Pakistan’s National School of Public Policy and its counterpart organizations in Turkey, France and China and also the exchanges that were in progress between universities of the United Kingdom and Pakistan. Senator Imam was of the view that the Ankara Workshop would boost the existing cooperation of FoDP countries with Pakistan, and also galvanise partnering in areas relating to agriculture, security, and parliamentary institutions.

The meeting endorsed the agenda of the Ankara meeting which includes cooperation in the fields of governance, education, security, agriculture, energy and democracy. Assuring their full support for institution building in Pakistan, the FoDP members flagged different areas in which their countries and organizations will assist Pakistan.

Islamabad
27 July 2011

248/2011