KADO trains 236 community leaders in Gojal Valley

Hunza (PR): The HiMaT Indigenous Leadership and Development Program (HiMaT-ILDP), a project of the Karakoram Area Development Organization (KADO) conducted workshops on “Governance for Development” for the community leaders through its Leadership Development Series. Workshops conducted in Gulmit, Shimshal, Sost and Chipurson of three days each to enrich the skills of the community leaders and to strengthen governance structure of the community based organizations working in the region. A total of 236 community leaders including men, women and youth participated in the sessions. Representatives of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program attended the sessions as observer.

The participants were trained through practical demonstration of the election processes within the community organizations to elect the governance body and executive

committee. It is aimed to encourage the communities to introduce the democratic practices in the community organizations to ensure transparency and participatory development approach. It is pertinent to note that at the end of the session the AGM of Chipurson Local Support Organization was arranged where the new board and executive committee were elected by the communities through a transparent election process based on the learning’s from the workshop and the HiMaT team facilitated the election process in the AGM.

Participants of the previous workshop were awarded certificates who had replicated the learning’s from the workshop in their communities, family and friends circles which is a pre requisite to be entitled for the certificate.

The participants and community leaders highly encouraged the efforts of KADO in strengthening the community based organizations. The communities ensured the continuous cooperation with the development institutions and active participation in the development process.