Thursday, February 01, 2007

Serious efforts on in Pakistan to end poverty : Maleeha Lodhi

The Daily India

London, Pakistan's envoy to Britain, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, has said that strong economic growth and a people-centred development strategy have enabled the country to launch a serious attack on poverty.

Participating in a debate organized by Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) in Birmingham, Lodhi said that the combination of high growth, structural reforms, enhanced spending on the social sector and poverty alleviation programmes has begun to yield robust early results.

This, she said, is evidenced by the improvement in social indicators and poverty figures.

Dr. Lodhi flagged five areas of improvement. They included the decline in overall poverty from over a third of the population in 2001 to less than a quarter in 2005, rise in literacy rates, rise in per capita income, and improvements in overall access to sanitation and immunization coverage of women and children.

The DFID event was also addressed by Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn who spoke about DFID's programme in Pakistan, as well as by Yusuf Samiullah who heads the office in Islamabad. The purpose of the meeting was to invite suggestions from a cross section of Birmingham's Pakistani community about what they would like to see the UK doing in Pakistan.

Benn told the audience that included NGOs and Councillors that Pakistan is set to become of the biggest recipients of direct UK aid, which will help to support the government in improving healthcare, getting 8 million children, mostly girls into school and make sure everyone has clean drinking water. He also said that "Pakistan is making great progress in tackling poverty and is becoming increasingly prosperous with a growing economy".

Dr. Lodhi described the consultations with the Pakistani diaspora as an excellent and timely initiative. She said that as the 60th anniversary of Pakistan's independence approaches this milestone will be marked both by celebrating what has been achieved and reflecting and debating on the challenges that still lie ahead.

She said that the high growth trajectory and transformative reforms have set off a strong economic rebound in Pakistan, but there is no room for complacency. Sustaining growth and poverty reduction over the long run is tough. But, she stressed, it can be done. Explaining why Pakistan's development partnership with the UK is so important, she said that DFID's support for the reform process and the country's strategic priorities has been immensely valuable, especially the budgetary support provided for poverty reduction expenditures. But it is the fact that DFID's interventions are embedded in Pakistan's priorities that makes it a unique development partner.

Dr. Lodhi emphasized that DFID's strong engagement in health, education, population welfare, governance reforms and its role in capacity building especially to improve the efficiency of public service delivery to the poor, are all areas of high priority for the government of Pakistan.he also stressed that many challenges lie ahead and what has been attained so far is only a start, although it has been a strong start.

She said that the critical lesson learnt from recent experience is how critical holistic, home grown reforms are, designed and implemented by Pakistanis themselves.

She thanked Minister Benn and his department for the assistance being provided to Pakistan adding that the magnitude of the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requires sustained support from development partners.

The audience in Birmingham was also shown a short film about DFID's work and projects in Pakistan and a lively discussion followed, in which MP Khalid Mahmud also participated.

According to The Nation, Hilary Benn invited the audience to come forward with ideas on how best the UK can target its support to ensure that British aid is delivered in the right way and tackles the right issues.

Members of the community appreciated the process of consulting them on issues of development in Pakistan.

Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn in his speech kicked-off a series of nationwide debates on how the UK can best fight poverty in Pakistan. He asked Muslim leaders, NGOs, councillors and a cross section of Birmingham's Pakistani community about what they would like to see the UK doing in Pakistan.

"Pakistan is making great progress in tackling poverty and is becoming increasingly prosperous with a growing economy. But with nearly a quarter of the population living on less than 50 pence a day and 1 in 10 children dying before their fifth birthday, big challenges still remain," Benn said.

"Pakistan is set to become one of the biggest recipients of direct UK aid, which will help us support the Government in improving healthcare, getting 8 million children, mostly girls, into school and make sure everyone has clean drinking water. We want people's ideas on how best we can target our support to ensure UK aid is delivered in the right way and tackles the right issues," she added. (ANI)

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