First Memo to AKRSP staff in MAy 2003

To: AKRSP staff

From: Izhar Hunzai

Subject: Renewal of AKRSP, a Partnership Approach

Date: May 10, 2003

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Dear friends and colleagues,

First of all, let me thank you all for your messages of congratulations on my appointment as the new General Manager of AKRSP, which I have received from many of you. After several years of working outside Pakistan, I am delighted to return to AKRSP where, like many of you I started my professional career under the guidance of great teachers and mentors like Shoiab Sultan Khan and late Hussian Wali Khan. As you all know, AKRSP is a great institution of learning and good practice. Apart from introducing an innovative approach to development in our program area, AKRSP has created enormous technical, managerial and organizational capacities in the area. I see this appointment as a great personal honour and an opportunity for all of us to build further on a great tradition of dedicated work based on dialogue, participation and partnership for local development.

It is clear that the challenge of sustainable development is an on-going one. For AKRSP to retain its dynamism and creative edge, it has to review and revise its strategy from time to time. You all know that we are at such a critical stage at the moment. My hope is that we will be able to work as a unified team and renew and reinvigorate AKRSP so that we can serve the people of our resource-poor area more effectively.

My message as the new team leader is that we will practice and uphold highest principles of professionalism, merit, equal opportunity and transparency in all our decisions. We will always keep the larger interest of the region that we serve before our individual interests. Without a strong personal commitment from all of you, we will not be able to tackle the difficult challenges that are before us. Within a short period of orientation, I will start my first tour of the program area and hold open dialogues with staff members, rural communities and other stakeholders. I hope that we will be able to chart our way forward through dialogue and consultation and if we work together in a cooperative spirit, we will not only find acceptable solutions to existing issues, but can also renew AKRSP for the future challenges. I invite all of you to join me in this mission to take AKRSP to new heights.

With best regards

Izhar Hunzai