Daily Times

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Planning Commission of Pakistan launched a “National Initiative for SDGs,” followed by a more focused project in Provinces titled “Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support for SDGs.” This project was aimed at providing coordination, advisory and management support for the SDGs in the country. In this regard, SDGs Unit issued a latest SDGs Status Report 2021 that shows the performance of Pakistan and other provinces against various indicators. Last month, Op-ed series in the same newspaper discussed about SDG progress with respect to three regions i.e. Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB). This Op-ed series will focus on the efforts of provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and KP towards achievement of SDGs in Pakistan.

Sindh, Balochistan and KP have made efforts to eliminate poverty, end hunger, reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), increase immunisation coverage, improve access to clean drinking water and combat climate change. Some of the key initiatives in this regard include expansion of Sindh’s Peoples Poverty Reduction Program to include six additional districts. Balochistan launched several initiatives to ensure availability of food supplies, including the Nutrition Program for Mothers and Children, Food for Peace initiative and Targeted Supplementary Feeding Program. KP’s Billion Tree Tsunami was a widely-acclaimed initiative to increase forest cover and fight global warming, later it was adopted at the national level as well.

Regarding SDG-1: No Poverty; Proportion of population living below the international poverty line was four per cent in 2015 and increased to over five per cent in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic explains this jump, with over two million people falling below the poverty line during this time. On the national poverty line, Pakistan managed to remove 9.3 million people from poverty, lowering its baseline figure of 29.5 per cent in 2013-14 to 21.9 per cent in 2018-19. Spending on essential services (education, health and social protection) has been a major long-term strategy but has generally remained stagnant at around 24 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-20. Sindh, however, is a notable exception, increasing its spending by 8 per cent compared to other Provinces during this time.

Pakistan’s performance in terms of education leaves much room for improvement.

Regarding SDG-2: Zero hunger; Food insecurity in Pakistan reduced from 2.4 per cent in 2018-19 to 1.8 per cent in 2019-20. Stunting levels in children were also brought down to 31.5 per cent, compared to its baseline level of 44.8 per cent in 2012-13. Punjab, Sindh and KP managed to show improvement on this indicator, but stunting levels actually increased in Balochistan, AJK and GB. Malnutrition among children was reduced from 11 per cent in 2012-13 to 7.1 per cent in 2017-18. All Provinces displayed a downward trend except Balochistan, where there was an increase of 0.3 per cent in malnutrition. National prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 went down from 52 per cent in pregnant women and 51 per cent in non-pregnant women in 2011 to 35.5 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. Sindh and Punjab showed improvement, KP remained stagnant, and figures worsened in Balochistan, AJK and GB.

In case of SDG-3 about Good Health and Well Being; Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) went down from 279 in 2006-07 to 186 in 2019. All Provinces and areas showed a downward trend, especially Balochistan, where the ratio of women dying during pregnancy and live births went down from 785 to 298. Skilled birth attendance increased by 10 per cent at the national level, with no anomalies to the upward trend. Under-five mortality rate declined from 66 per cent to 62 per cent; Sindh and Balochistan were exceptions in this regard, as the figure decreased in those Provinces. Vaccine coverage improved by 22 per cent, with the greatest jump shown by Sindh, which increased its immunization coverage by 20 per cent. Finally, health worker dentist and distribution per 10,000 increased marginally from 9.7 to 10.9 in two years. In line with the WHO recommendations, the Universal health Coverage (UHC) was first introduced in Pakistan in KP province under the name “Sehat Sahulat Programme” (SSP) in 2015. The program was later rolled out to other parts of country.

Regarding SDG-4: Quality Education; Pakistan’s performance in terms of education leaves much room for improvement. Primary completion rate was stagnant at 67 per cent from 2014-15 to 2019-20. There are regional disparities in terms of completion rate, with KP and Punjab at the top (67 per cent), followed by Sindh (56 per cent) and Balochistan (48 per cent). However, what is common between all Provinces is a downward trend on this indicator; primary completion rate declined due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gender gap of nine per cent between primary completion rate of males and females remained stagnant, while proportion of youth and adults with Information & Communications Technology (ICT) skills improved marginally from 31.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 33 per cent in 2019-20 year.

In case of SDG-5 that deals with Gender Equality; Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years or older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence reduced from 18 per cent in 2012-13 to 13.6 per cent. Rural areas reported more cases of physical violence than urban areas. All Provinces and areas showed a downward trend on this indicator, except Balochistan, where this figure increased from 31.3 per cent to 34.6 per cent. Likewise, Pakistan continued to have one woman parliamentarian out of five members. Women in managerial positions increased from 2.7 per cent in 2014-15 to 4.5 per cent in 2018-19, with improvements everywhere except in KP, where the figure went down significantly from seven per cent to 4.1 per cent.

Taking SDG-6: Clean Water and Sanitation into consideration; Pakistan is close to achieving this SDG in the near future. Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services increased from 93% in 2014-15 to 94 per cent in 2019-20. Marked improvement was shown by Balochistan, where an improvement of around 17 per cent was seen in terms of access to clean water. Access to sanitation services (flush facility) and hand-washing facility increased from 73 per cent to 83 per cent during this period, except in GB, where it went down from 86 per cent to 77 per cent. Furthermore, Balochistan showed improvement on this indicator, but its provision remains critically weak overall, barely covering 44 per cent of the population.

(To be continued)

The writers is a freelance columnist and writes on gender, climate and social issues. She can be reached at ghaniausman786@gmail.com