close
Thursday March 28, 2024

UN calls for addressing socio-economic concerns

By Riaz Khan Daudzai
April 10, 2016

Sustainable Developmental Goals

PESHAWAR: United Nations Assistant Secretary General Jens Wandel has said the environmental, social and economic concerns need to be addressed together to achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs).

The UN Assistant Secretary General was in KP to have a series of meetings with the provincial leadership and Planning and Development Department officials and take up the initiatives being executed under “One UN Programme” in the province and tribal areas.

Jens Wandel at his meeting with Senior Minister for Local Government, Elections and Rural Development (LGE & RDD) Inayatullah Khan said the UN was trying to integrate the development sectors.

UNDP Country Director Marc Andre Franche, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa UNDP office head Jakhongir Khaydarov and Hyder Yahya, national technical advisor to UNDP Pakistan, also accompanied the UN assistant secretary general. Secretary LGE & RDD Syed Jamaluddin Shah assisted the senior minister at the meeting.

Jens Wandel, who is also director UNDP’s Bureau for Management Services, said there was an enormous shift in the global discussion towards the SDGs.

He added that development interventions were a vital platform to address the social, environmental and economic concerns together to achieve the global SDGs.

Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan said the provincial government was working on four-year development roadmap to strengthen the local governance institutions and elevate the standard of living in KP.

He also underlined the need for long-term partnership with the UNDP to strengthen the fledgling local bodies in the province.

He said the provincial government has worked out the four-year project to strengthen the local governance and the project would be shared with UNDP so that it could garner the donors’ support.

It would be a project of Rs2 billion encompassing every sector of the local governance in terms of capacity-building, human resources and institutional development. The minister also stressed the need for an area development project and sought UNDP’s support for it on long-term basis.

Marc Andre Franche briefed the meeting on the support the UNDP was providing in various sectors to the provincial government.

He said KP stood as an example to other areas in the country in several interventions in local development and strengthening the local governance institutions.

He informed the participants of the meeting that an elaborate project had been designed to raise the capacity of the councillors of the lower tiers of the local government such as village and neighbourhood councils.

The secretary LGE & RDD gave briefing on the interactions and coordination with the UNDP at various sectors of the department. He said the technical support by the UN Development Agency during the last local government elections was exceptional.