ISLAMABAD, April 5: The United States has pledged $510 million for earthquake relief and long-term reconstruction, the new mission director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Pakistan, Jonathan Addleton, said here on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the ‘Learning Forum’ of institutional management and certification programme (IMCP) organized by Aga Khan Foundation at a local hotel.

Mr Addleton said that the USAID had already provided about $2 billion in development assistance in areas for education, health, governance and economic growth.

The IMCP, funded by the USAID and Aga Khan Foundation, USA, was being implemented by NGO Resource Centre of AKF and had focused on strengthening management capacity and promoting management standards within Pakistan’s NGO sector.

Mr Addleton said the project had addressed one of the most important challenges faced by the civil society, which was the professional management capacity of the NGOs.

He also considered this process to be a step towards self- regulation and self-improvement. He said the USAID’s areas of activities in Pakistan were based on a series of strategic objectives reflecting a joint agreement between the Government of Pakistan and the USAID.

The USAID was embarking on a strategy formulation process that would further shape our programmes in Pakistan over the next several years, he said. As always, he added, the strategy would be developed and implemented in conjunction with the partner organizations, including in the civil society sector.

Mr Addleton said he was very happy to come to Pakistan after more than 15 years. “My initial briefings on arriving in Pakistan this week had highlighted the importance of strengthening civil society,” he said.

He also heard views of representatives of NGOs from Sindh, Punjab, NWFP-Islamabad and Balochistan and said good governance and good management practice was important not only to the USAID but also to the development institutions anywhere.

Earlier, the chairman of Aga Khan Foundation, Kamal Chinoy, said that the AKDN Pakistan and USAID had been partners in development for almost two decades now, mainly in the areas of early child education, civil society strengthening and community empowerment.

He also highlighted various activities of AKF and AKDN. Representatives of more than 50 civil society organizations attended the Learning Forum from across the country.

Mission Controller of USAID Michael Bradley, Director Programmes Aga Khan Foundation, USA, Patricia Scheid, CEO Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan) Nashir Jamal; Team Leader Civil Society Programme Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan), Kamran Sadiq from SEBCON and representatives of NGOs also spoke on the occasion.

The USAID mission director distributed certificates among the NGOs that successfully met the management standards.

The Aga Khan Foundation is working for provision of quality education and best health facilities to people, specially in the rural areas, said the AKF chairman Kamal Chinoy in his presidential remarks at the forum.

He said the AKF was supporting non-government organizations under its project NGO Resource Centre.

He said the project aimed at strengthening management capacity of NGOs and building their capacity to better serve the people through provision of good education and health facilities.

Mr Chinoy said the IMCP was initiated by the AKF in 2003.