Programme Approach

Recent programmes of the WWF and partners highlight the need for supportive policies and institutional arrangements as essential ingredients for environmental protection and poverty reduction. Lapses in the past approaches of not addressing field-policy dynamics has led to the development of the 3M approach. Developed by WWF’s Macroeconomic Programme Office, the 3M approach links changes at the local level (micro) with changes at the sub-national (meso) and national levels (macro) in an effort to synchronise field-scale lessons and community aspirations with policy-level decisions. Implementation of the Indus for All Programme will also follow the 3M Approach. Development in Pakistan is staggered due to conflicting perceptions and interests of a diverse range of stakeholders. The 3M approach helps tackle this complexity and minimizes the political economic and institutional disconnects that exist between the micro, meso and macro levels. WWF-Pakistan has customised the 3M approach according to the local context for implementation of the Indus for All Programme. At micro level the programme intends to address stakeholders at village and union council level; at meso the stakeholders at district and provincial level and at macro the stakeholders at national and international level.

The four basic principles of the 3M Approach that guide implementation of the Indus for All Programme are summarized as follows:

• Social, Ecological and Institutional analysis carried out at micro, meso and macro levels are necessary precursors to bringing about change in poverty-environment dynamics

• Addressing obstacles at the local level that prevent the empowerment of the poor and limit their involvement in economic and political processes is an essential starting point for changing poverty-environment dynamics

• Political and institutional structures and processes that allow for changes from the local level (bottom-up as opposed to top-down) require synchronisation at local, sub-national and national levels

• Partnerships amongst stakeholders at all three levels is required to bring about necessary changes to the existing political and institutional framework