Lessons learned and recommendations

Drought in Iran is a regular occurrence and although the timing and duration of a drought is not precisely predictable, we can certainly predict that droughts will continue to happen. Tragically, although droughts have always occurred, their environmental and livelihoods impacts have become more severe over the past several decades according to pastoralists themselves. This has happened over the same period that natural resource management systems have changed radically and traditional pastoral organisations have been weakened. The factors that affect the livelihoods of local communities during drought are similar to those that affect them during non-drought years; drought simply serves to increase existing pressures. These observations suggest that droughts would not necessarily turn into disasters if we could plan and manage our natural resources better, to live with the regular ups and downs of nature.

Drought must be examined, on the one hand, in the context of current and ongoing problems related to natural resource management and pastoral livelihoods, and on the other within the context of the national system for natural disaster planning and management, the Comprehensive National Plan for Relief and Rescue. It is important to understand how the plan works, the responsibilities of each organisation involved in it, the role of civil society including local communities, and how the plan can be improved through critical monitoring and evaluation.

However, we should not assume that policies and practice related to natural resource management are simply determined by technical knowledge and judgement; power is also an important factor. As was seen above, one of the most repeated criticisms of the Koohi against the government was the extent of corruption and the lack of accountability. They repeatedly expressed their frustration at not having any supporters in the government and they implied that they did not have any mechanisms for lodging their complaints or taking government staff to task for their decisions and actions.

Power imbalances cannot be addressed within the context of any single project or plan, but the following recommendations attempt to contribute to a national system which is transparent and open to accountability.

Empowering pastoral communities

Pastoralists have substantial interest in drought mitigation: as a community that depends directly on natural resources for their livelihood they are among the first to feel the impact of drought, and the impact on their livelihoods is more acute than on those of urban communities. Pastoralists are also the keepers of valuable traditional knowledge which recognises the inter-connectedness of drought, livelihoods and community. Tribal leaders, traditional pastoral organisations and institutions are key in ensuring the sharing of relevant information, joint decision-making, conflict resolution, and mobilisation of support for drought-stricken families.

The principal of collective action for collective benefit is one of the most important comparative advantages of traditional pastoral organisations. Under collective systems of natural resource management, there are strong incentives for acting for the collective good rather than for individual gain. By contrast, under modern systems management incentives serve to promote individual benefit rather than the benefit of the group. For example, access to government-owned land on the basis of temporary grazing permits issued to individuals has led to a situation of the “tragedy of the commons” where each individual permit holder, not being assured of their long-term access to a grazing lands, have become disenfranchised from the land and are now engaged in a race to take the maximum benefit from the land in the short-term. Another example can be given of police records that show that during the last drought conflicts within communities increased substantially, while under traditional collective systems mutual support has increased in times of stress.

Collective action is not just required at the level of each local community, but also what is needed is groups of like-minded communities forming alliances (in the form of confederations, unions, coalitions or movements) to influence the government at higher levels. While local communities in Iran have become fragmented and operate effectively on a very micro level, the government is present at all levels from the village to the nation. Therefore, to have an effective national strategy for natural disaster management with local community involvement would require local communities to be organised into coalitions at all levels and ultimately at the national level. This is far from being the case, but it is difficult to see how the government could even open a dialogue with local communities at the national or even provincial level because local communities in Iran do not have an organised presence at these levels. In the past pastoral communities have clearly understood the need for forming alliances with each other and this is the basis for the formation of tribes and confederations.

It is true that the role of traditional pastoral organisations has been increasingly weakened, as has social solidarity, but they are still important factors in determining the behaviour of pastoralists, especially at the level of the clan and tenthold. The comparative advantages of traditional pastoral organisations in dealing with drought, mentioned briefly above, merit a closer look at the possibility of creating hybrid organisations which could address modern needs but also benefit from past experiences and wisdom.

The immense social, economic and political changes of the past decades make it impossible to consider reviving pastoral organisations exactly as they were before land reform. The challenge is to create organisations that would address modern needs and concerns while keeping certain useful elements of the traditional organisations. For instance, traditional pastoral organisations were often quite top-down, with individual leaders who were in a position of power sometimes abusing their power with little accountability for their actions. Hybrid organisations offer the possibility of rebuilding organisations with more emphasis on principles of participatory decision-making, accountability and equity. At the same time their positive traditional elements would encourage the community to accept and trust the organisation, would cause minimal disruption to their culture and sense of identity and would foster a sense of ownership. As mentioned above, one of the main outputs of the Sustaining Pastoral Livelihoods Project has been the establishment of a council for the sub-tribe. This council has a constitution and clear rules and accountability reflecting modern needs, but is also comprised of one member representing each clan of the sub-tribe, reflecting the need to respect the traditional structure of the sub-tribe.

The strongest incentive for pastoral communities in cooperating together for drought management would be to see an improvement in their livelihood. This would lead to a curtailment on the relative independence that they have become accustomed to. For the more powerful members of the sub-tribe it would mean sharing power with an elected council, and for council members it would mean opening themselves to being held accountable. Some of these outcomes may not seem attractive at first, but for those who are keen to continue a migratory lifestyle, these solutions offer a chance at survival. On the side of government, the greatest incentive would be to have more success in their own projects and policies and greater public support because they could count on the cooperation of their constituents. But this would also mean giving up some of their power as well as being open to being held accountable.

The Koohi council believes that they could play an important role in the drought management cycle on the condition that the sanduq has adequate funds. They said that it would probably be best to approach this objective in several phases, the first phase of which would involve activities that would bring some direct and tangible improvement to the livelihoods of all members of the sub-tribe. They said they could achieve this by using sanduq funds to buy and store fodder for the entire community when prices are low and sell the fodder when needed at cost. Fodder is an essential item for all tentholds and its purchase and storage are important and costly activities. Once they had seen the tangible and short-term benefit of cooperating with the council on drought management the members of the sub-tribe would be much more open and serious about cooperating on longer term activities with less tangible or direct benefits such as: achieving a wider consensus than currently possible on the timing and duration of migration, achieving consensus within the community about how to confront drought, how to manage the rangelands and helping to revive traditional systems of managing drought.

Lastly, the accountability that the Koohi say is lacking in the administration of credit schemes, cooperative activities and the administration of grazing permits could be curbed if these schemes were administered through the community as they have been in the past. Self-administration of these important resources would lead to a built-in system of self-policing since any abuse of resources would result in severe consequences for the abusers’ membership and standing in the community. Furthermore, community members have much better knowledge than government officials outside of the community of the resources available to each community member and of their needs.

Recommendations

Pastoral organisations should be supported by a favourable policy and legislative climate which allows them to organise, represent and take action on behalf of their community. This climate would include:

Political and legal support

Introduce policy and legislative instruments to support collective action by self-organised communities of pastoralists or any other local communities. Some specific policy recommendations are presented in the following sections;

Introduce a single law for the official registration of local community-based civil society organisations (such as pastoral organisations), with clear processes for registration and the absolute minimum of restrictions on the structure, objectives and membership^[5] of the organisation placed by the government or the law;

Official recognition of community investment funds (sanduqs) as legitimate community-based organisations with legal rights;

Laws related to loans, insurance and grants should be changed to allow agreements on these with pastoral organisations and not just individuals; and

Laws and regulations related to government contracts with outside entities should be changed to simplify and facilitate government contracts with pastoral organisations and other civil society organisations.

Technical and financial support

Empowerment of local communities should begin with traditional organisations that are most intact; in the case of pastoral communities in Iran this means those organisations which operate at the level of close family members (such as the Koohi clans);

A more long-term goal should be to encourage the formation of alliances of like-minded local communities at provincial and national level through technical and financial support for coalition activities;

Projects to offer technical or financial support should be designed in stages with the participation of the community, giving priority to activities that bring direct and tangible improvement for livelihoods; following success in this stage cooperation could begin on longer term activities or those with less tangible or direct benefits;

In the case of the Koohi technical and/or financial assistance could prioritise fodder provision, building pools to collect rainwater, and tankers to provide water. The longer term objectives could be achieving a consensus on the timing and duration of migration, a drought cycle management strategy and action plan and management of rangelands.

Financial and technical support should be given to pastoral organisations such as sanduqs rather than to individuals in order to reward collective action; and,

Long-term loans, grants or compensation for the sanduq through the Agricultural Bank which currently only offers these services to individual pastoralists.

Research

International case studies on the role of local community action in managing disasters (such as the present project) should be made available to and discussed and debated within key decision-making organisations, most importantly the Interior Ministry, the Disaster Task Force, the Management and Planning Organisation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A network of learning sites could be established at the national level to gain a better understanding of the role of local communities in the disaster management cycle in Iran. The lessons from these experiences should be debated with the relevant governmental and non-governmental organisations and should contribute to new policy and law.

Participatory research is needed on the role of traditional knowledge in drought management and contingency planning, and especially the links between traditional knowledge and pastoral institutions. Particular attention should be paid to the role and mechanisms of social solidarity in the development and use of traditional knowledge. This research should lead to recommendations on how traditional knowledge can be adapted to meet modern needs.

Capacity

Facilitating the council’s communication and collaboration with national, regional and international organisations; and,

Facilitating their communication with similar community-based organisations throughout the world and increasing their participation in international decision-making fora.

Non-governmental organisations

NGOs could play an important role in empowering pastoral communities and in mediating between local communities and the government on disaster related issues. However, currently very few NGOs are involved in natural resource management issues, including natural disasters. Those NGOs or charities that do get involved usually focus on relief work by cooperating in the projects of the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Furthermore, despite the upsurge in civil society activity over the past 10 or more years, there are still very few NGOs doing policy-level research, monitoring and advocacy and also very few that work in the field with local communities.

NGOs have a very key role in improving natural disaster management in the country by regularly monitoring the work of the government in this field. Little is known about the work of the Disaster Taskforce, for example. Regular monitoring would be helpful in bringing the work of this and other relevant organisations to light and ensuring that emphasis is focused on the most important issues, and that funds are spent efficiently and responsibly.

Recommendations

Law

Regulations are needed to clarify and make easier the process of registering an NGO (see the section of recommendations for local communities, above).

Capacity

Gear international funding for, and collaboration with, Iranian NGOs towards strengthening Iranian NGOs in areas where they have been traditionally inactive or weak: policy level work, regional and international networking, lobbying and field work with local communities;

Provide regional and international expertise and collaboration for capacity building of Iranian NGOs on long-term monitoring and analysis of policies and activities of government;

Encourage and build the capacity of Iranian NGOs to monitor the natural disaster planning and follow-up activities of the government, particularly the Comprehensive National Plan for Relief and Rescue.

Collaboration with government

Introduce laws and regulations that would facilitate the cooperation of government and NGOs. Currently, one of the main problems is that no government organisation has a simple mechanism of providing funding or sub-contracting to NGOs and they must improvise with existing regulations which usually results in a very complicated and bureaucratic process.

Collaboration with local communities

NGOs could help local communities understand the structure of the DTF and other relevant organisations, the laws, access to information and so on. They could also help advocate for local communities at the national and provincial levels by airing their concerns, sharing their experiences, and also facilitating the participation of local communities.

Governmental organisations and policy

The 5-year economic, social and cultural development plans represent the main policy document of the government. Although each plan is supposed to be based on a long and meticulous preparation process, in reality it tends to based on a simple revision of the previous plan. This probably reflects the fact that monitoring and evaluation of the plans is quite weak.

Innovations are needed in government to ensure that new policies remain in place even after changes in staff. Government policies are essentially formulated and implemented with the support of influential figures. When key people change positions policies are often abandoned or replaced.

Recommendations

In general, the development plans would be greatly strengthened with a robust system for monitoring and evaluation. Transparency and access to information throughout the entire government (as well as para-governmental organisations) would facilitate the work of both governmental and non-governmental actors in monitoring progress on the development plans. This monitoring could lead to new policy recommendations which could be worked out with the participation of all relevant stakeholders.

Introduce mechanisms in all relevant government departments for adjusting policy and practice based on the outcome of monitoring and evaluation activities.

Continuity of policies could be improved with the creation of lobbying, advocacy and monitoring groups at the highest possible levels, including government and parliamentarians with the involvement of NGOs and the media to maintain pressure on the government to deliver on its policies.

The Disaster Task Force and The Comprehensive National Plan for Relief and Rescue

The Comprehensive National Plan for Relief and Rescue represents the first national plan for prevention, preparedness, relief and reconstruction in relation to natural disasters. The plan depends largely on inter-ministerial and inter-departmental cooperation and coordination, and yet these are the most widely criticised weaknesses of the government even according to many of its own staff and parliamentarians. The plan, which was supposed to be drafted and approved within one year, actually took 3 to 4 years to get off the ground and according to some observers, this delay in development of the plan does not bode well for its implementation.

Despite finally having a comprehensive national plan, the DTF, and particularly the Ministry of Interior which heads and hosts the DTF, are still criticised for responding to each situation on a case-by-case basis. The media outcry to the government’s lack of planning and preparedness for the Bam earthquake shows that the old criticisms are still being held against the government.

According to the Iran daily newspaper the plan had no positive impact on the preparedness or relief for the Bam earthquake. Dr. Mohammad Taher Kanani, head of the Secratariat of the National Committee of Human Rights said that one of the problems with the plan is that the responsibilities that have been given to the members of the DTF is not compatible with their capacities. For example, according to the plan the IRCS is responsible for coordination of all rescue and relief operations, but he said, they do not currently have the capacity to carry out all their responsibilities.

Several journalists and researchers have recently called for the transfer of coordination of disaster relief and preparedness from the Ministry of Interior (through the DTF) directly to the President. They argue that with a government as hierarchically structured as Iran’s, the chances of successful implementation of any plan are increased the higher the level of the responsible person.

These criticisms may suggest that the plan needs more time to iron out some problems, but they also call for a closer look at the plan to see understand whether any of its elements contribute to the poor performance and if so, in what way.

A closer look at the plan shows that it is not really a plan, but more of a terms of reference and organisational structure for the DTF. It presents a framework for a plan, but it does not have any of the important elements of a plan, such as detailed aims and objectives, a timeline of activities, or a strong system of monitoring and evaluation. The plan does not specify sufficiently how the various parts of the DTF communicate, collaborate and make decisions.

The plan and the DTF would probably have been radically different if they had put communities and constituent groups at the centre of their planning. For instance, instead of creating specialist group based on the type of disaster, it may have been more useful to create specialist groups for pastoralists, farmers, fisher folk, urban dwellers, etc.

It is good to see that the DTF and the comprehensive plan attempt to prioritise preparedness through the national and provincial preparedness working groups since lack of preparation has been a very common criticism of disaster management in Iran.

The plan creates a very hierarchical structure of accountability within the DTF where district and provincial level offices of the DTF and all levels of all of the specialist working groups are ultimately responsible and accountable to the national DTF. But it is not at all clear who the national DTF is accountable to and who monitors its work.

The DTF is layered with various committees and working groups, each made up of anywhere from about 6 to about 30 organisations, and each acting at the national, provincial and departmental levels and there is a great deal of overlap in the membership of the groups. This creates a very complex structure where each group is related to a number of other groups in vertical or horizontal relation. Furthermore, each member is not simply an individual, but a ministry or other organisation with its own internal structure, rules, objectives and processes which add yet another layer to this complex puzzle.

The current structure of the DTF (as introduced under the comprehensive plan) is extremely hierarchical. For instance, the TOR, members and internal guidelines of the drought and rangeland rehabilitation working group must be drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (it is not clear who has this responsibility within the ministry) and approved by the DTF and the national working group on preparedness. This structure puts a lot of power ultimately in the hands of the Ministry of Interior (as the head of the DTF).

According to article 44 of the 3^rd development plan, the comprehensive plan was drafted primarily by IRCS, but the plan, which provides a structure and responsibilities for the DTF, is dominated more by the Ministry of Interior than any other organisation and this begs the question why one organisation is writing plans for another? On the other hand, if IRCS is the most competent disaster management organisation in the country then it should be charged with heading the DTF.

The plan obviously envisions the role of civil society mostly in the context of helping voluntarily in disaster relief and giving donations, but not in terms of decision-making, planning, management or monitoring. Furthermore, it does not differentiate between different types of civil society: local communities are not mentioned explicitly at all, but they are different from, and must be treated differently than, NGOs or businesses.

Recommendations

Either the 4th development plan or parliament should call for the following clarifications and changes regarding the plan:

Provide detailed aims and objectives, a timeline of activities, and a system of monitoring and evaluation;

Provide details on the mechanisms for communication, collaboration and decision-making of the various component parts of the DTF;

A restructuring of the plan to put communities and constituent groups at the centre of the planning;

Clarify who the DTF is accountable to and how its work is monitored;

Discuss and adopt a less complex and more streamlined structure for the DTF;

Clarification on of the DTF communication and decision-making mechanisms;

A change in the text of the plan to allow for greater autonomy for non-governmental activities at the district level (currently the plan calls for the DTF to supervise all non-governmental activities at the local level);

The plan seems to be quite ambitious and perhaps too demanding of the limited capacities of the members of the DTF, therefore it would be helpful to introduce a mechanism or process for determining priorities within the plan’s objectives and activities.

An independent evaluation of the capacities needed to implement the plan, and those currently available within the DTF, would also be helpful in identifying potential problem areas and opportunities for capacity building.

The plan should include a call for a strategy and action plan for increasing the involvement of local communities in the disaster management cycle. The action plan should begin with achievable even if modest targets at the local level and build up to participation in policy making, etc. Key areas for local community participation would be developing indicators, monitoring, administration of funds for loans and insurance schemes. At the same time, the NGOs, journalists, academics and researchers who are active at provincial and national levels could begin to engage with the government on those levels.

In the short and medium term, a strategy for real cooperation should begin at the level of local communities: the level of the sub-tribe in pastoral language and the level of the department and district in government language. This calls for a closer look at the national plan at the department and district levels and the identification of entry points into the existing system, and also the identification of changes that would be needed to the plan and how those changes could be made. The table, below, summarises some of the concerns about working with DTF at the local level:

Lastly, a website for the National Comprehensive Plan for Relief and Rescue would be a key tool for improving civil society involvement in the plan and would assist monitoring and evaluation. The website should provide information about laws, policies, activities, and budget.

The 4^th development plan and natural resource management

Prevention and preparation related activities for drought tie in closely with policies for natural resource management and in the case of pastoralists this mainly includes rangeland management. The draft 4^th development plan offers little in the way of new policies related to range management. The overall aim of sedentarisation is pursued through 2 objectives: sedentarisation of at least 50% of the country’s nomadic pastoralist population and the continuation of the livestock and range equilibrium plan.

Under the current system, the government has developed separate institutions and policies to address range management, pastoral livelihoods and drought (Forest and Rangeland Organisation, Organisation for Nomadic Pastoral Affairs and the Disaster Task Force) and their policies are uncoordinated and sometimes in direct conflict with each other.

According to pastoralists, drought simply acts as a catalyst to accelerate the government’s existing policies of sedentarisation and eventual elimination of mobile pastoralism. Therefore their first demand is that the government should treat them as equals - especially in relation to farmers and other sedentary populations, giving them the same benefits and access to resources.

In relation to drought the government tends to look for technical solutions without an in-depth assessment of the root causes of the increasingly severe impact of drought. Whereas some of the root causes lie in past and existing government policies themselves, policies that have restricted pastoralists’ access to natural resources through grazing permits and created a centralised and inflexible decision-making system.

Once pastoralists have organised themselves in order to defend their collective rights and interests they should be ready to negotiate new rights and responsibilities with the government. Lack of transparency and accountability and extreme centralisation of power and resources in the hands of the government and other related powerful actors have led to pastoral communities finding themselves caught between dependency on the government and lack of trust.

Recommendations

The following recommendations should either be recognised in the final 4^th development plan or within the internal regulations of the relevant organisations.

Making the links

What is needed is for the right of pastoralists to migrate and to continue their system of production should be recognised as a right in the 5-year development plans; the development plans should view pastoralists as an important food producer rather than as destroyers of the environment; each pastoral family or tenthold should be viewed as a unit of production in the policy and legislation of the country;

Recognise and make explicit the links between drought management, natural resource management and livelihoods policies in the country by establishing a joint commission between FARO, ONPA, the Disaster Task Force and the Management and Planning Organisation, as well as civil society groups, to examine how policies could be better coordinated among various branches of the government to have better coordinated policies on natural resource management, pastoral livelihoods and disaster management;

Further explore the best division of responsibilities between the government and pastoral organisations for natural resource management; closer collaboration between the government and pastoral organisations would require an increase in the capacity of government to work with pastoral organisations for drought contingency planning;

FARO, ONPA and DTF to introduce regulations and mechanisms that facilitate cooperation with community based organisations; objectives would included recognition, access to information, and entering into agreements and contracts with community organisations;

Land and grazing rights

The system of land tenure has to be re-thought to give sufficient control of sufficient amounts of land to pastoralists to ensure their livelihoods and sustainable management of resources, for instance by negotiating long-term and flexible leases between FARO and pastoral organisations;

Give more flexible grazing permits that would allow pastoralists to react to early warning information;

Ensure that grazing rights are respected;

Monitoring and evaluation

FARO, ONPA and DTF to adopt regulations to allow civil society groups to monitor and evaluate their work;

These organisations to adopt regulations and mechanisms to improve their accountability, particularly where distribution of funds or goods is concerned;

Improve transparency in pastoral cooperatives, both in terms of their finances and also decision-making and governance;

Ecosystem research as a basis for sound policy

The latest theories of range management in arid eco-systems and lessons about the role of traditional management systems should be introduced to Iranian decision-makers and their policy impact explored;

Introduce and assess the applicability of recent work on dynamic ecosystem theory or non-equilibrium systems to Iran and use that as a basis for policy-making.

Economy

Intervene in the pastoral economy in case of crisis (terms of trade collapse) while ensuring transparency and accountability and provide employment and livelihoods for those pastoralists who are driven out of pastoralism due to drought and other natural disasters;

Provide guaranteed prices for pastoral products and prevent terms of trade collapse in drought years by providing guaranteed prices for livestock through community-based funding mechanisms;

Supply fodder at reasonable prices and with affordable interest rates through community-based mechanisms;

Ensure fair loan schemes with reasonable and equitable pay-back schedules and interest rates and consider waving loans of pastoralists in heavy debt.

Extension

Strengthen government extension activities in ONPA and FARO and ensure a greater level of participation by civil society - including local communities - in planning and decision-making.

The 4^th development plan and civil society

It is useful to look at the opportunities that exist for the participation of local communities in national affairs in general and not just in the context of disasters and natural resource management. This wider context will influence how local community participate in natural disaster planning.

There has been a growing realisation that the government on its own does not have the resources to fulfil the needs of every single citizen. This has strengthened the movement for greater public participation in government programmes, but generally participation is endorsed only as long as it simply entails the involvement of the public in programmes devised and implemented by the government. This amounts to the mobilisation of free labour for government projects. The organisation of communities to define their own priorities and devise and implement their own plans is still not prominent on the agenda.

The draft 4^th development plan addresses issues of civil society and governance in an unprecedented way (though many of the details still need to be worked out), including:

New mechanisms to be introduced to facilitate the cooperation of governmental organisations and the non-governmental sector; based on a draft executive bylaw which is to be prepared by the Management and Planning Organisation and which must gain the approval of the cabinet;

Reform of the management and planning organisation to make it more streamlined and efficient, improve national budget allocation, facilitate cooperation with the non-governmental sector; the reform is to be based on a draft executive bylaw from the Management and Planning Organisation which must be approved by the cabinet;

The councils of planning and development of the provinces are responsible for creating opportunities for civil society organisations (including the Islamic Councils) in decision-making, monitoring and co-operation of development projects at the provincial level; the Management and Planning Organisation and the Ministry of Interior are responsible for finding the mechanisms for operationalising this;

Management of national affairs should move from an institutionally-driven system to a system driven by plans and goals and by adopting less hierarchical procedures;

In order to support social capital and expand civil society, the government, within the first year of the 4th development plan, has to: assess the level of social capital; give annual reports and analysis on the state of social capital; adopt projects and programmes to increase social capital; conduct annual opinion polls on the level of public satisfaction with the government and publish the results in the government’s annual reports; outline and implement a comprehensive national plan for capacity-building, gender equity and women’s rights; outline a comprehensive national plan for participation and monitoring by the public, NGOs and the Islamic Councils regarding sustainable development; and, adopt policies to encourage quantitative and qualitative improvement of civil society organisations

Calls explicitly for the participation of civil society in some areas, such as caring for orphans, but disaster management is not one of these. NGOs have been quite active and vocal in the area of children’s rights recently so maybe they have won the recognition from the government, but not yet in the field of disaster management.

Recommendations

The plan should call for explicit mechanisms for the participation of civil society in the drafting and monitoring of the 5 year development plans;

The drafting of executive bylaws on the following issues by the Management and Planning Organisation should be done through consultation with civil society groups: new mechanisms for the cooperation of governmental organisations and the non-governmental sector; reform of the Management and Planning Organisation; and mechanisms for civil society involvement in the councils of planning and development of the provinces;

The plans for operationalising the shift from institutionally-driven management systems to a system driven by plans and goals should be made explicit (who is responsible for what? What is the timeline? etc.);

The plans to support social capital and expand civil society should be detailed (who is responsible for what? What is the timeline? etc.);

An independent assessment should be conducted of the government’s capacity to fulfil these obligations in order to identify capacity-building needs;

The plan seems extremely ambitious and should therefore include a system for prioritising its activities to ensure that the most important ones are achieved;

The plan should include an explicit definition of the “non-governmental sector” and “civil society”; and,

An independent assessment should be conducted to see whether these plans are in contradiction with any other government laws or policies.

Other plans and programmes related to drought

A project proposal has been submitted to FAO (for TCP funds) to prepare a national strategy and action plan on drought management and mitigation for the agricultural sector. Since this proposal was developed before the adoption of the Comprehensive National Plan for Relief and Rescue it is important to revisit the proposal before its implementation to ensure that it works with and not against the new plan. The proposal should also ensure that all stakeholders, including NGOs and community-based organisations, are included in any capacity building and planning activities foreseen in the project.