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Friday March 29, 2024

‘Awareness can help achieve UN targets’

By our correspondents
December 12, 2017

LAHORE: Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairperson Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin has said creating awareness among people is a key to achieving targets of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No 3 (SDG 3), which emphasis on ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all of all ages.

He said this while addressing the inaugural session of a three-day international conference on Health & Wellbeing organised by Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) here on Monday.

Dr Nizam added the SDG 3 called for an integrated approach to progress across multiple goals including alleviating poverty and hunger, commitment to ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases by 2030. “SDG 3 aims to achieve universal health coverage, and provide access to safe and effective medicines and vaccines for all,” he added.

The PHEC chief said: “Our health was affected by many factors such as the environment, existence or absence of a support network, where we live, our finances or lack of them, as well as our lifestyle. Health and well-being are about much more than the absence of disease. It includes a wide spectrum of issues like nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, healthy environment, psychology, public health policy and more.”

Meanwhile, PHEC Commission members have appreciated and accorded an approval to various initiatives taken by PHEC, in its 11th meeting held here on Monday. The meeting was attended by Secretary HED, Barrister Nabeel A Awan, Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, MPA Ms Farhana Afazal, Lt-Gen (retd) Muhammad Akram Khan, Prof Dr Najma Najam, Dr Irfana Marium, Prof Dr Khaliq ur Rehman and others.

During the meeting, Chairperson, PHEC, briefed about various initiatives already taken by the PHEC. The commission members appreciated the faculty development programmes including foreign PhD and foreign post-doctorate, and international travel grants (ITGs) programme for colleges and universities of Punjab.

Dr Nizam shared the future vision and initiatives of PHEC. He presented the proposal of indigenous post-doctoral fellowships, first-ever programme in Pakistan, to locally train faculty members of universities and colleges, to broaden their academics and future career prospects.

He said that PHEC has introduced a Split PhD Programme in collaboration with local universities. “Initially, an MoU has been signed with two universities, University of the Punjab, and Govt College University Lahore; PHEC envisages to extend the programme to all universities of the province”, he added. The commission lauded the vision and granted the approval to Indigenous Post-doctoral programme for universities and college teachers of Punjab.

The commission decided to organise an international conference for higher education roadmap. It was proposed that the conference will be arranged in the first quarter of 2018; international experts and researchers will be invited to participate and deliberate on the various aspects of the roadmap. A policy would be formulated accordingly on the implications/recommendation of the conference.