home>about ic>who we are

Who we are

Intercooperation was founded in 1982 in Switzerland. IC in Bern is registered as a Foundation governed by 21 organizations, representing the development community, civil society and the private sector. In Pakistan IC operates since its genesis with its inception in the development scene with Kalam Integrated Development Project (KIDP). IC in Pakistan is registered as an International NGO with the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Government of Pakistan. Our country office is based in Peshawar (Pakistan). In its 25 years of history, IC has implemented several programmes and projects mostly mandated by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which is IC’s main donor at global level.

IC believes in empowering partners and enabling them to access and manage (human, financial, natural and other) resources. We do this by developing and enhancing capacities of partners and by promoting a wider understanding on rights and obligations of the different types of stakeholders.

IC Pakistan fosters approaches which are aimed at enhancing self-esteem and self sufficiency amongst rural communities, thereby empowering and engaging them as successful implementation partners and citizens rather than merely as beneficiaries.

We proactively promote methodologies that are based on partners' potentials and priorities, as well as on ground realities. We are an organization that capitalizes on our attitude to perpetually learn and seed all initiatives and are committed to ensuring that the rural communities remain at the centre of all development interventions, through rights based and people centered approaches.

We draw our strength from working with multiplicity of partners. We have inculcated, committed and lasting work relationships, with Government Line Agencies (particularly with Forest, Agriculture and Planning & Development Departments), NGOs (including large national and meso level NGOs) and with the private sector. We support and manage our projects in collaboration with grass root NGOs to effectively reach out to remote communities and build capacity at local level.


Areas of Expertise:

The 25 years in Pakistan has enabled us to acquire valuable experience in the interface of natural resource management with the other two domains of IC namely Local Governance & Civil Society and Rural Economy. The strength of Intercooperation Pakistan lies in the combination of thematic and process competences. All project/programme teams are staffed by dedicated, committed and compassionate professionals. Our project teams are led by proficient people who draw on vast practical experiences, state-of-the-art knowledge and a variety of personal and professional networks.

Thematic expertise: Our in-house thematic competences and partnerships enable IC Pakistan to list the following expertise on its portfolio of achievements in our priority development areas:
- Horticulture
- Collaborative forestry management and linking with other NRM actors (Integrated NRM)
- Dryland management
- Value chain promotion in non timber forest produce
- Farm forestry with an enterprise orientation in rain-fed areas
- Water management for agriculture
- Livestock

Process Management Capability: It is our hall-mark partner support and the careful attention to essential processes that ensures pragmatic deployment of thematic and technical expertise. For deployment needs in fields not directly covered by Intercooperation Pakistan, we rely on specialized partner organizations and panel of experts. We prioritize process competence, methodological expertise and cross-cutting themes in the areas listed below:
- Rural development and livelihoods.
- Capacity to analyze systems and to identify critical areas for intervention (e.g. value chains or farming systems).
- Linking local experiences from micro-level (households, enterprises, community-groups) to the meso level (institutions) and macro level (policies).
- Gender-balanced development
- Farmer centered approaches
- Development of participatory and pragmatic planning, monitoring and evaluation methods
- Human and institutional development at individual, organizational and system levels.
- Knowledge Management, combining indigenous knowledge with innovation promotion.
- Institutional strengthening and backstopping of partner organizations.




 


SDC, IC and Govt. of NWFP Launch Livelihood Programme in NWFP, Click here to see the details
                                              
                                                    ©2007intercooperation(IC)Pakistan all rights reserved