Participatory Development Initiative [PDI] is a youth-led not for profit and non-governmental organization. Launched on 24th June 2004 by a group of young community development professionals, human rights activists, trade unionists, researchers, media professionals and concerned citizens, PDI is registered under Societies Act 1860.
The organization is engaged in advocacy, campaigning, community awareness, mass mobilization, participatory community development, participatory research, and networking on the local, national as well as global issues negatively affecting the lives and the livelihoods of the poor communities especially women.

OBJECTIVES

• Mobilizing and organizing the local communities to empower them to take initiatives for their equal and active participation in the development process
• Building the capacities of the local communities/ Community organizations especially women to develop their organizational strength and leadership skills
• Finding and implementing participatory solutions towards eradicating negative tribal customs
• Providing awareness raising and mass mobilization for the rights of local communities
• Promoting sustainable livelihoods, community based natural resource management, disaster management and mitigation, education and health through community awareness and community based development processes
• Engaging in awareness, mobilization and policy advocacy on the local, national and international issues affecting the poor communities, their lives and livelihoods
• Conducting community based participatory research, information / knowledge sharing and engaging in networking to strengthen the civil society partnerships and alliance building for participatory and sustainable development

VISION
PDI envisions a participatory development process with the active involvement of all the stakeholders’ right from the conceptualization to planning and implementation phases, making the development process people oriented, people centered, and gender sensitive.

MISSION
Promoting participatory, pro-poor, and sustainable, environment friendly and gender balanced development, for creating equal opportunities and benefits for all.

Community Mobilization & Development [CMD]
PDI team is engaged in the formation of the village groups and their capacity building using step by step approach. In this connection following individual and collective familiarization meetings, planning meetings for the formation of village group/ CBO/CCB are held. Social mapping, village poverty profile is completed and collective meetings are held for the preparation of village development plans after the formation of village groups. Having conducted the training need assessment of the village group, PDI team facilitates the capacity building, resource mobilization as well as coordination and networking of the village groups/ CBOs/CCBs

Natural Resource Management & Sustainable Development [NRMSD]
PDI is working with the local communities to build their capacities in properly managing their natural livelihood resources. Under this program the local communities are organized and their skills are developed in natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods including introducing modern and appropriate technologies, strengthening indigenous environment- friendly technologies and practices as well as building the capacities of the local communities in alternative livelihoods.

Disaster Management & Emergency Relief [DMER]
PDI DMER is engaged in developing the capacities of the local communities to manage the disasters. The communities are organized; their disaster prevention and management capacities are built and local level disaster management plans are prepared and linked with the district and provincial disaster management plans and strategies. DMER team plays key role in emergency relief and rehabilitation activities in the disaster prone areas and also in policy advocacy on disaster related issues.
Land for Women Program [LWP]

Health Water & Sanitation [HWS]
PDI Health, Water & Sanitation Program is engaged in organizing local communities, creating awareness among them on the issues of health, safe drinking water and sanitation through community meetings, seminars and workshops. PDI HWS Program team is playing key role in creating awareness about the water born diseases in the rural as well as urban areas informing and educating the local communities about the water contamination and other water and health related issues. PDI team is also engaged in facilitating the local communities in the implementation of community based projects in health, drinking water and sanitation in Balochistan.

Women Education and Literacy Program [WEL]
PDI team is engaged in the awareness of the local communities about the importance of the education including boys’ and girls’ education. Besides the program team also has been managing a number of education and community literacy centers. The team has also been engaged in advocacy with the local, provincial and the federal government for improving the educational system and standards. The program team works towards improving the educational quality of the existing schools and also setting up quality educational institutions and adult literacy centers.

Community Physical Infrastructure Development [ CPID]
PDI Community Physical Infrastructure Development Program seeks to involve the local communities in the development of local level infrastructure important for the socio economic uplift of the communities. The communities are encouraged to prepare local level infrastructure development projects and plans with the technical support of PDI CPID team. The communities collect local level contribution for the certain community share of project cost as to ensure their ownership in the project; the remaining cost is made available through grants from the donors or local governments.

Human Resource & Institutional Development [HRID]
PDI Human Resource & Institutional Development Program team is engaged in the development of the organizational and management skills of the individuals and organizations. For that purpose PDI Human Development Center has been established. The center has a pool of experienced facilitators / trainers and training facilities etc. The trainings conducted by the team of the PDI HDC include: communication skills, organizational management, organizational development, project proposal development, project management, leadership development, social mobilization and advocacy skills, community based research skills, monitoring and evaluation etc.

Gender & Youth Development [ GYD]
PDI Gender & Youth Development Program has been actively mobilizing and organizing women and youth through the formation of women and youth groups and building the capacities of those groups. To address the lack of women empowerment, women skill and enterprise development centers especially women embroidery centers have been established. Similarly, women literacy centers have also been established to empower the local women through education. Similarly, English teaching centers and Computer centers have been established to develop the educational and intellectuals skills of the youth. Besides, PDI Cricket Clubs and PDI Theater groups are active to give space to the youth to groom their talents.

Governance & Supportive Devolution [GSD]
PDI supportive devolution and local governance program has been strengthening the capacities of the elected representatives of the local government systems. For that purpose, a training program for the Nazims, Naib Nazims and councilors is undergoing to develop their understanding about the local government system. Besides, creating awareness about the CCBs, facilitating the formation of CCBs and organizational management, leadership and project cycle management training to the office bearers of CCBs is also one of the key activities of this program.

Policy Advocacy [PA]
The socio economic issues of common people usually receive little policy attention. Resultantly, the communities suffer and country faces political problems and socio-economic crisis. PDI being a responsible civil society institution has initiated a policy advocacy program to seek the attention of the policy makers on different issues of community important. Under this program, PDI has been organizing workshops, seminars and conferences on the issues of local as well as national importance.

Civil Society Networking & Alliance Building [ CNAB]
Networking and alliance building is key to the success of community and civil society endeavors. Networking provides opportunities for learning from each other besides being an important mechanism of joint support to any cause. PDI has been actively engaged in developing networks among the communities, networking and linkages of the communities with the government authorities and line departments as well as with other civil society organizations. PDI is active member of a number of local, provincial, national and international networks and also endeavors to develop and strengthen more and more local level networks.

Monitoring, Research & Information Dissemination [ MRID]
PDI team is actively engaged in participatory research in identifying the problems and issues confronted to the local communities and also preparing suggestions for solution to such problems. PDI is also actively engaged in participatory monitoring and evaluation to analyze the impact of programs / projects on the lives and livelihoods of the local communities. These reports are widely disseminated to share the experiences and learning.