Meeting the challenge of the MDGs
By Sultan Ahmed
PRIME MINISTER Shaukat Aziz has reaffirmed that Pakistan would achieve the eight UN millennium development goals (MDGs) by the end of 2015 -- almost 9 years from now. Out of these eight, we have problems with five or six, although some progress has been made in each of these sectors, but compared to the need, the progress achieved has been small. Many countries have done better than Pakistan.
âWe have a long way to go and undertake reforms in every sector of societyâ, he told a two-day conference last week in Islamabad. He wants every sector of society to own up these goals and participate in making them a success. But the problem in a country like ours is that in the rural areas it is the feudal lord or the tribal chief who matters -- and now, in addition to that, in some areas it is the religious extremists whose word carries weight. Danial Aziz, chairman of the national reconstruction bureau, says the local bodies are ideally suited to implement the MDGs and he is right. But will the feudal lords and tribal chiefs allow the local bodies which control, promote the cause of universal primary education, gender equality and girls education.
The people should own these schemes and make a success of them as they are for the betterment of the have-nots, says the prime minister. It is an issue of political leadership to pass on the management of such schemes to the people who are to benefit by them.
It is an issue of governance â governance for what and by whom? And who will decide if the governance is in the right mode and moving in the right direction. Almost everywhere we hit the rock of the feudal lords and tribal chiefs, and not only in the feudal areas. Such obstruction has to be overcome if the millennium goals are to be owned up by its beneficiaries and made a success of.
Despite the challenge to his data, Shaukat Aziz has reaffirmed that acute poverty in Pakistan has come down from 34.5 per cent in 7 years to 24 percent. He asserts that urban poverty has come down from 20 to 15 per cent and rural poverty from 39 to 28 per cent. He maintains that as a whole 13 million of the 160 million people have come out of acute poverty.
The disagreement between him and his critics springs from the different yardsticks they use for determining the extent of acute poverty. While the prime minister uses the low yardstick of income in rupees, the others go by the international standard of a dollar a day. Hence the gap between them is wide. In fact, the whole argument has become less relevant as the new scale of measuring poverty is two dollars a day according to which 75 per cent of the people are poor.
But he has good news for the better income groups. Per capita income in Pakistan will reach next year 1,000 dollars, having crossed 950 dollars this year, he says. That is the average of the income of the richest man and the poorest put together. Anyway he admits 25 per cent of the 160 million of the people are acutely poor and that comes to about 40 million people as 25 per cent of the population and they are not amused by the projection of a sustained 10 per cent annual growth soon.
He says while the rich countries are facing the problem of an increasing number of old age people, we have a hundred million of the young throbbing with life, ready to enter jobs and make all the difference to our economy. So our future is very bright if we continue with the current policies.
Out of the hundred million young people, 50 per cent are women who have a low participation in the economy as we do not give them enough opportunities. Some of the brightest among the young migrate to other countries or seek employment elsewhere and make those countries richer.
The fact is the young in Pakistan have always been much more than the old people whose number is increasing now as they live longer. But much of the youth have not been well educated or technically trained, hence their overall production has been small and the value added in their output has been insignificant. Not much is being done in that direction now except in a limited number of institutions. There ought to be a tremendous increase in the training facilities and vast improvement in the quality of training provided.
And we have to make good use of our womenâs potential, particularly the educated ones, and impart technical training to a large number of them. But gender equality which is one of the UN development goals faces greater challenge than before. The religious extremists oppose that and want to confine women to limited areas. In some areas they do not want them to go to schools, and certainly not for co-education. They do not want women to take up office jobs or seek employment where they come across men at work.
We need more lady doctors, nurses, women in the medical field. We must discover ways to get them in such a restricted environment which forces them to waste their costly training and education and our investment in training them. Universal primary education, gender equality and reduction in child mortality which the UN goals seek will make small headway in such a sterile environment.
While we talk of gender equality, Karo-kari murders are on the rise and not all of them are reported in the newspapers. If the police cannot prevent such murders they are not able to arrest them after their crime. The courts are often helpless in such a sterile environment.
To encourage parents to send their daughters to schools in the tribal areas, the foreign aid agency offered 200 rupees to parents as an incentive so that they send their daughters to school. But now that is being objected to and extremists take to violence to enforce their will. Making a law to protect women or ensure their rights is one thing and enforcing it quite another. Women are always at a disadvantage when they are victims of crimes and the offender is an influential local person.
When it comes to environmental protection the ideal institution to ensure that are the local bodies beginning with the municipalities in towns. But the municipalities are in a mess in most places and politically divided and splintered. They have failed in their primary tasks in towns and cities and so are no example to others. Hence, much of the country has become more or less a slum. Most cities have little water and yet the cities have scant facilities.
If the old slums cannot be easily eradicated, there must be a way to resist formation of new slums. Instead new slums are springing up all the time as people take care of their posh homes and not their surroundings.
Creating Kachi Abadis has been a big money game for long. The land mafia has made a phenomenal amount of money through its illegalities. Building a good drainage system though very challenging, is only half the game. Protecting and preserving it is the other, more difficult half. It is time we give maintenance and sustainability as much importance as building a good water distribution or drainage system. Four per cent of the GDP is to be spent on education. That includes the private sectorâs share. How much is that share has not been specified. But what really matters is how well and purposefully that is spent.
More of ghost schools and more ghost teachers will not promote education as the results of the ambitious SAP-1 and SAP-2 have demonstrated. Nor bedroom schools in the private sector and its utterly commercial approach to education can give us good education. The education system and the education budget should be open and transparent and the teachers should have an effective voice in the system.
The same goes for public health system on which at least two to three per cent of the GDP should be spent initially. Too much should not be spent on the absentee doctors and too little on the patients and medicines. The institution of ghost doctors and ghost medical personnel should be brought to an end firmly. Good laws as the one for the protection of womenâs rights are not enough. Far more important is their enforcement and the punishment of the corrupt and criminals.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/03/ed.htm#4
By Sultan Ahmed
PRIME MINISTER Shaukat Aziz has reaffirmed that Pakistan would achieve the eight UN millennium development goals (MDGs) by the end of 2015 -- almost 9 years from now. Out of these eight, we have problems with five or six, although some progress has been made in each of these sectors, but compared to the need, the progress achieved has been small. Many countries have done better than Pakistan.
âWe have a long way to go and undertake reforms in every sector of societyâ, he told a two-day conference last week in Islamabad. He wants every sector of society to own up these goals and participate in making them a success. But the problem in a country like ours is that in the rural areas it is the feudal lord or the tribal chief who matters -- and now, in addition to that, in some areas it is the religious extremists whose word carries weight. Danial Aziz, chairman of the national reconstruction bureau, says the local bodies are ideally suited to implement the MDGs and he is right. But will the feudal lords and tribal chiefs allow the local bodies which control, promote the cause of universal primary education, gender equality and girls education.
The people should own these schemes and make a success of them as they are for the betterment of the have-nots, says the prime minister. It is an issue of political leadership to pass on the management of such schemes to the people who are to benefit by them.
It is an issue of governance â governance for what and by whom? And who will decide if the governance is in the right mode and moving in the right direction. Almost everywhere we hit the rock of the feudal lords and tribal chiefs, and not only in the feudal areas. Such obstruction has to be overcome if the millennium goals are to be owned up by its beneficiaries and made a success of.
Despite the challenge to his data, Shaukat Aziz has reaffirmed that acute poverty in Pakistan has come down from 34.5 per cent in 7 years to 24 percent. He asserts that urban poverty has come down from 20 to 15 per cent and rural poverty from 39 to 28 per cent. He maintains that as a whole 13 million of the 160 million people have come out of acute poverty.
The disagreement between him and his critics springs from the different yardsticks they use for determining the extent of acute poverty. While the prime minister uses the low yardstick of income in rupees, the others go by the international standard of a dollar a day. Hence the gap between them is wide. In fact, the whole argument has become less relevant as the new scale of measuring poverty is two dollars a day according to which 75 per cent of the people are poor.
But he has good news for the better income groups. Per capita income in Pakistan will reach next year 1,000 dollars, having crossed 950 dollars this year, he says. That is the average of the income of the richest man and the poorest put together. Anyway he admits 25 per cent of the 160 million of the people are acutely poor and that comes to about 40 million people as 25 per cent of the population and they are not amused by the projection of a sustained 10 per cent annual growth soon.
He says while the rich countries are facing the problem of an increasing number of old age people, we have a hundred million of the young throbbing with life, ready to enter jobs and make all the difference to our economy. So our future is very bright if we continue with the current policies.
Out of the hundred million young people, 50 per cent are women who have a low participation in the economy as we do not give them enough opportunities. Some of the brightest among the young migrate to other countries or seek employment elsewhere and make those countries richer.
The fact is the young in Pakistan have always been much more than the old people whose number is increasing now as they live longer. But much of the youth have not been well educated or technically trained, hence their overall production has been small and the value added in their output has been insignificant. Not much is being done in that direction now except in a limited number of institutions. There ought to be a tremendous increase in the training facilities and vast improvement in the quality of training provided.
And we have to make good use of our womenâs potential, particularly the educated ones, and impart technical training to a large number of them. But gender equality which is one of the UN development goals faces greater challenge than before. The religious extremists oppose that and want to confine women to limited areas. In some areas they do not want them to go to schools, and certainly not for co-education. They do not want women to take up office jobs or seek employment where they come across men at work.
We need more lady doctors, nurses, women in the medical field. We must discover ways to get them in such a restricted environment which forces them to waste their costly training and education and our investment in training them. Universal primary education, gender equality and reduction in child mortality which the UN goals seek will make small headway in such a sterile environment.
While we talk of gender equality, Karo-kari murders are on the rise and not all of them are reported in the newspapers. If the police cannot prevent such murders they are not able to arrest them after their crime. The courts are often helpless in such a sterile environment.
To encourage parents to send their daughters to schools in the tribal areas, the foreign aid agency offered 200 rupees to parents as an incentive so that they send their daughters to school. But now that is being objected to and extremists take to violence to enforce their will. Making a law to protect women or ensure their rights is one thing and enforcing it quite another. Women are always at a disadvantage when they are victims of crimes and the offender is an influential local person.
When it comes to environmental protection the ideal institution to ensure that are the local bodies beginning with the municipalities in towns. But the municipalities are in a mess in most places and politically divided and splintered. They have failed in their primary tasks in towns and cities and so are no example to others. Hence, much of the country has become more or less a slum. Most cities have little water and yet the cities have scant facilities.
If the old slums cannot be easily eradicated, there must be a way to resist formation of new slums. Instead new slums are springing up all the time as people take care of their posh homes and not their surroundings.
Creating Kachi Abadis has been a big money game for long. The land mafia has made a phenomenal amount of money through its illegalities. Building a good drainage system though very challenging, is only half the game. Protecting and preserving it is the other, more difficult half. It is time we give maintenance and sustainability as much importance as building a good water distribution or drainage system. Four per cent of the GDP is to be spent on education. That includes the private sectorâs share. How much is that share has not been specified. But what really matters is how well and purposefully that is spent.
More of ghost schools and more ghost teachers will not promote education as the results of the ambitious SAP-1 and SAP-2 have demonstrated. Nor bedroom schools in the private sector and its utterly commercial approach to education can give us good education. The education system and the education budget should be open and transparent and the teachers should have an effective voice in the system.
The same goes for public health system on which at least two to three per cent of the GDP should be spent initially. Too much should not be spent on the absentee doctors and too little on the patients and medicines. The institution of ghost doctors and ghost medical personnel should be brought to an end firmly. Good laws as the one for the protection of womenâs rights are not enough. Far more important is their enforcement and the punishment of the corrupt and criminals.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/03/ed.htm#4
