Pakistan, as part of endeavours to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), has introduced environmental monitoring system through stationary and mobile labs to monitor pollution levels in air, surface, ground water and soils.
Promoting environment friendly technologies with special focus on clean energy and study of general environmental issues to suggest rectification and mitigation are among the numerous steps taken to strengthen existing programmes for achieving or reaching close to MDGs by 2018.
Pakistan is a signatory of the global commitment signed regarding MDGs, covering targets pertaining to poverty, health, education and living conditions. The time period for achieving MDGs was between 1990 and 2015.
Sources at Development and Reforms Division said that Pakistan adopted 16 targets and 41 indicators, against which progress towards achieving eight goals and 34 indicators of the MDGs is measured for Pakistan. The data until 2013 showed that for 10 of these indicators, Pakistan is on track, whereas its progress on 24 indicators is off-track.
The sources said that Pakistan‘s performance on MDGs remained less satisfactory as compared to other countries in the region and added that Pakistan has been facing multifaceted challenges related to resource constraints, localisation and ownership issues for MDGs, lack of coordination, political instability, security and back to back natural disasters that have adversely hampered the development efforts.
Therefore, they said that the government had taken steps which included provincial agreement on MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) on education, comprehensive Plan of Action for each province to implement the MAF commitments, enhancing capacity of the people and improved access to clean water and sanitation and gender mainstreaming initiatives.
Provision of productive assets including micro-finance at individual level and Prime Minister Youth Loan Scheme and moving towards a comprehensive social safety net to protect the vulnerable and those suffering from natural or manmade disasters were some of the other steps taken for the purpose.
Other measures for reforming and strengthening institutions for better delivery of public services to people include improving access and quality of education services, improving access and quality of health services and micro-health insurance programme of the prime minister.
Moreover, the sources said that the government had also allocated Rs 20 billion for MDGs and Community Development and increased allocations for HEC in recent years (Rs 14 billion in 2011-12 to Rs 27 billion in 2014-15).
Besides, the sources said, campuses/sub-campuses of public sector universities were opened in every district headquarter to enhance access to higher education. National Endowment Scholarship for Talent (NEST), establishment of National Curriculum Council for uniformity of educational and curriculum standards across the country, modernisation and standardisation of examination system, scaling up nutrition (SUN) movement to improve nutritional situation, science talent farming scheme (STFS) for 300 students per annum from all over Pakistan, holding of national games to explore young sporting talent and establishment of cancer hospital in Islamabad were some of the other initiatives towards achieving MDGs or reaching close, the sources said.
