MIRPURKHAS: Sami Foundation and Sindh Community Foundation in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on Tuesday, held a dialogue on prioritisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – 2030 agenda.
The dialogue was aimed to identify key development issues of Umerkot district with regard to SDGs.
Representatives from the government departments, including education, livestock, Ombudsman office, population, youth groups, and civil society activists, participated in the event.
During the dialogue, absence of prior consultations and institutional setup, highly centralised approach, inadequate progress measurement, and monitoring mechanism were described as key factors affecting the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The discussion highlighted that the district’s 56 percent area is desert and is prone to severe droughts due to uneven rainfall pattern and deforestation. It was also discussed that 70 percent people have no proper sanitation facilities and defecate openly.
Speaking at the occasion, Centre for Environment and Development Executive Director Nasir Ali Panhwar said that the area was prone to droughts due to no or very or very little rainfall.
Umerkot faces at least one drought for one or more seasons every decade.
He further said that livelihoods of the people were not sustainable as the region could not cope with and recover from stress and shocks after natural disasters. As a result, poor people get poorer and fall under the poverty line, he added.
Sindh Community Foundation Executive Director Javed Soz, while stressing on a long term disaster management plan, said that people lacked health and educational facilities.
Sami Foundation’s Mustafa Khoso, while stressing on the need of clean drinking water, said that acute shortage of safe drinking water in the far-flung areas and the presence of fluoride, arsenic and high TDS in water are the key problems of Umerkot.
Mir Hasan Arisar, writer and social activist said that despite a lot of efforts in the education sector the district still lagged behind because of an isolated approach.
Participants prioritised education followed by health, water and sanitation, and law and order situation for reducing poverty in the region.