The PACS Programme, completing almost four years of implementation, is now poised to move from the growth phase into strengthening and consolidating the outputs of the sustenance mechanisms over the next three remaining years of the programme. While the number of sanctioned projects has gone up to 126, the projects already under implementation are an impressive mass of 90 with 334 CSO partners.

As per the recently concluded Third Annual Review, "the PACS programme has made its inroads into remote areas in states where it has been operative. It has reached the poor, women, scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes who have been on the margins of society. It has made its presence felt in the civil society organisations!" The review findings also state that "PACS has now paved the path for impacting the larger civil society and strengthening it. At the grassroots level, community level organizations and self-help initiatives are leading to stronger community level organizations. One also notices that the raised level of awareness is getting translated into a noticeable increase in demand by poor people for their entitlements".

The monitoring ,evaluation and learning (MEAL) system as the programme’s flagship is already yielding impressive learnings to substantiate the need for investing in capacity building of civil society organisations if we are to achieve the development goals. This investment is expected to keep the partners in good stead for many years to come and pay rich dividends in the long run. MEAL implementation teams (MITS) and State Core Groups (SCG) for the target states are now functional and the MEAL implementation processes are under way in all the six states. MEAL calendars are available and a comprehensive MEAL Tracker has also been developed. The reconstituted national MEAL Core Group (MCG) met in December and planned its calendar for the next one year, assigning itself the responsibility of synthesis of the MEAL Reports coming in from all the states. A Report of the MEAL interventions till December is available on the website of PACS.

Other horizontal support systems like communications, advocacy and networking for building partnerships are closely linked to all capacity building initiatives and they are being rapidly strengthened under the programme. National and state based communication agencies have been identified for executing the communication strategies at the national and state level. Capacity building calendar for the year 2004-2005 has been already developed for addressing the CB needs of the CSOs.Operationalisation of the project of VANI will significantly contribute to the policy advocacy goals of the programme for realizing the entitlements of the poor.

The PACS programme through MEAL, continues to explore ways of increasing the programme reach in every possible direction. The local resource organisations are specially advised to identify gaps in geographic coverage, encouraging existing as well as potential partners to set up interventions in areas as yet not reached. Nevertheless, in the remaining period of the PACS programme, our endeavour shall be to strengthen areas where the programme coverage already exists and not necessarily spread itself thin across the 108 poorest districts. The focus will clearly be on cluster intensification for impact multoplication.