Institutional Development Specialist (International)

Institutional Development Specialist (International) - Master’s degree in Business Management/Administration, Project Management, or in a related field with minimum 15 years of experience related to devising and implementation of institutional development programs.

Project Background: Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Pakistan) has been bestowed with the Indus system of rivers which is one of the largest river systems in the world. The average annual runoff of the Indus system of rivers flowing into Pakistan is equivalent to 145 million acre-feet (178 billion cubic-meter). Almost 70% of the surface water available as runoff of the Indus system of rivers is utilised for irrigating vast fertile lands of around 45 million acres (18 million hectares) in the four provinces of Pakistan.

In order to ensure equitable distribution of water, Government of Pakistan in consultation with all the four provinces and achieving a consensus among all the federating units at the level of Council of Common Interests, signed an accord in 1991 which is known as Water Apportionment Accord, 1991 (the Accord or the Water Accord). This Accord inter alia provides seasonal water allocations for all the four provinces of Pakistan and guidelines for distribution of water among provinces.

The implementation of Water Accord in itself is an important and sensitive matter which requires high degree of technical understanding of the intricate dynamics of the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) in terms of, inter alia, accurate prediction of water availability before the start of every cropping season, its distribution precisely in accordance with the allocations apportioned to the Provinces in the Accord and ensuring transparent distribution among the provinces and policies spelt out at various nodes in the system duly taking into account the system losses or gains among other factors as well.

Over the years, ever since Indus River System Authority (IRSA) was founded in 1992, on one hand several technological advancements have come, and on the other hand, available water resources in the country are diminishing owed to phenomenal increase in population and reportedly changing climatic conditions, the situation warrants assessment of the present capacity and performance of the Authority as an institution to tackle with the issue on scientific grounds and to take pertinent measures to improve its institutional capacity for more effective and efficient implementation of Water Accord in order to avoid any potential conflict among the provinces on account of water allocation and distribution.