ISLAMABAD – The Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) Tuesday organised the Governance Compass Dialogue (GCD). The conference was organised to deal with key governance challenges and opportunities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, especially in light of the increased importance and investments being made by key international donor and development organisations in partnerships with the KP and Fata government institutions. The goal of the conference was to identify individual and joint actions that can set the right direction for improved governance in FATA with inputs from the representatives of the government, donor community, and the civil society.Conference delegates and participants consisted of senior representatives of the KP and Fata government, international donors (representing UNDP, USAID, ADB, GIZ and The Asia Foundation) civil society organisations and implementing partners. These key stakeholders are involved in the governance and development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Fata and the GCD conference provided a common platform where these stakeholders discussed key pressing issues that have lessened governance impacts and generated ideas and suggestion for the way forward to set the governance compass aright.These issues and proposed remedial measures were discussed in four panel sessions. These sessions discussed the governance demand and supply side gaps as well as opportunities for donor programs integration for greater results, government-civil society implementation and coordination issues, as well as how various donor projects can be made more sustainable by embedding them with government plans. The upcoming elections and the associated challenges and opportunities were also discussed. The need for greater communication with all political parties to obtain buy in was identified by the panel members. It was acknowledged that proactively preparing for the transition has the potential to significantly improve government/civil society/donor outcomes. As this is virtually the first time such a democratic transition is taking place in Pakistan, exploring ideas on transition and program management is incumbent upon the stakeholders. The distinguished participants included Mr. Daniyal Aziz, Chairman DTCE, BOD & Former Chairman NRB,, Mr.Nadeem-ul Haq, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission,Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi, Senator (FATA), Chairman IPO ,Mr.Omar Ayub, Former Federal Minister of State for Finance, Mr.Sardar Wazir Ahmed Jogezai, Former Deputy Speaker National Assembly, Mr. Farid Rehman, Former Finance Minister, NWFP , Richard Albright Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance, US Embassy,( isb) , Mr.Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmati, Speaker Provincial Assembly (KP) , Timo Pakkala, Resident Coordinator, UNDP (TBC) , Haroon Bashir Bilour, Advisor to Chief Minister on Local Government and Rural Development , Dr. Detlef Barth, Principal Advisor Administrative Reform, Governance Programme, GIZ , Gareth Aicken, Country Representative, the Asia Foundation (TBC) , Dr. Werner Liepach, Country Director, Asian Development Bank, Nick Marinacci, Country Representative for USAID/Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) , Aazar Ayaz, Executive Director, The Researchers ,Dr. Fakhr-e-Alam, Commissioner, Malakand Division (TBC) , Azhar Saeed Malik, Assistant Country Director, UNDP, Liaqat Ali Khan, Additional Inspector General, KP , Mukhtar Ahmed Ali, CoP, Citizens’ Voice Project.