Backdrop
On the request of district government of Abbottabd , Sungi arranged a one-day pre-budget consultation workshop for CCBs in District Council hall on May 05, 2009. Total 67 participants including, EDOs, members CCBs, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), media and elected Local Government representatives, ladies councilors attended this consultation workshop.

The prime objective of the consultation was to provide a platform to the registered CCBs of district Abbottabd to gather at one place to discuss and provide justification on their development proposals sent to District Planning Officer (DPO).

Consultation started with the introduction of participants, followed by the welcome note and opening remarks by Niaz Mohammad Khan DO social welfare. Waseem Inayatlluah EDO Finance stated the objectives of the consultation, that were to bring together the entire stakeholders in order to discuss the projects and sectors in which various proposals have been submitted to district government for approval and implementation . He emphasized on the CCBs representatives and especially the CSOs to prepare need based projects that support those segments of community which are neglected in LG system. He thanked Sungi for facilitating the workshop.

On the request of EDO Finance, Mukhtar Javed , Manager Human & Democratic Rights Programme Sungi facilitated ‘budget literacy session’ of one and half hour on “pro-poor and gender sensitive budget”. During his one and half hour facilitation a wide range of budget related topics such as budget cycle, politics of budget, importance of budget, taxation and gender sensitive budget came under discussion. The participants especially the women took keen interest in sensitization session and asked question about “budget game”. The women promised to give women focused proposals to CCBs. They also promised to take part actively in forthcoming budget session of their respective assemblies.

After the session, participants did group work on identifying, prioritizing and handing over of a list of needs of their area’s to District Planning Officers for final allocation of schemes to CCBs.