29 July, 2019 A conference was held on ‘Governance and Service Delivery in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ by University of California, Berkeley, USA in collaboration with Provincial Assembly where researchers presented papers on Making Academia Relevant to Policy Makers, Women Participation in Politics, Giving Voice to Voters, Politics at Grassroots and Motivating Government Workers. Various sessions were chaired by the Assembly Secretary, Finance Minister, LG Minister, Advisor to Chief Minister on Education and Deputy Secretary of the Assembly, respectively. Each session had a presentation, panel discussion with questions and answers by the participants from media, public sector experts, academia, civil society and development partners. The sessions were moderated by Mr. Musharraf Zaidi and Muhammad Yasir Khan, respectively.
Discussion theme of the last session was ‘Mission driven motivation and performance of lady health workers (LHWs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’. Dr. Yasir Khan of Berkeley University presented his field research findings on the issue. The session was chaired by Advisor to Chief Minister on Education and the panelists included Provincial Coordinator of the LHW Program and Director Prime Institute of Public Health, Peshawar. Key recommendations of the research were discussed at length and fully supported. The recommendations stressed the need to confine LHWs to their role and functions than burdening them with newer roles every now and then. There was a need to formally share mission of the program with them during training sessions so that they are clear about primacy of those activities as their core job functions. Chair of the session informed the participants that provincial government was working on newer initiatives of Early Childhood Education and School Health in synergy with relevant sector partners.
The conference came to an end in the late afternoon with concluding remarks by the Deputy Speaker. He appreciated the move and assured his full support. He urged stronger bonds between the University of California, local academia, civil society, legislature and governance for evidence based policies and interventions in all sectors.
