‘Local ownership of development necessary for Balochistan’s prosperity’

Islamabad: Balochistan National Party Leader and MPA Sanaullah Baloch said that local ownership of development strategies is necessary to help put Balochistan on the track of prosperity and development.

Mr Sanaullah was speaking at a stakeholder consultation on “Sustainable Development Goals framework for Balochistan” organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund and Planning & Development Department, Government of Balochistan.

Sanaullah said that the federal government must be aware of and understand the needs of people of Balochistan. He encouraged the youth to raise their voices for their rights through effective and positive use of social media. Youth of Balochistan, he said, should be provided opportunities to flourish and to engage in development activities. He stressed the need to do more research on SDGs to help parliamentarians in taking informed decisions.

Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director, SDPI, said that we should learn from our failures in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and plan better towards materialising SDGs. He stressed the need to act early and set targets that reflect people’s priorities for the future. He said that efforts should be made to engage the local people and prioritise the SDGs at district level in Balochistan. For next five years’ comprehensive development strategy, academia, civil society and media of Balochistan should also play their due role in providing inputs. He said that efforts should also be made to better plan how Balochistan can benefit from the resources available under a long term plan. Youth and women-led entrepreneurship programmes should be supported and promoted that can also help reduce poverty in the province, he added.

Zulfiqar Durrani, Provincial Representative of UNDP Pakistan assured that to align future development schemes with SDGs, UNDP will provide support and build capacity of P&D Department of government of Balochistan. He said that UNDP can also provide best practices from other countries and their experiences of implementing SDGs. Muqaddar Shah, Programme & Technical Analyst (Population & Development) of UNFPA, said that Provincial government should establish demographic cell at Planning & Development Department for evidence-based planning.

Dr Sajid Amin from SDPI said that social sector policiesof the province should be aligned with national and provincial commitments under SDGs. He stressed the need to expedite the process of prioritising and localisation of SDGs, so that district administrations can become a partner in long term implementation.

Development financing should also be aligned with SDGs framework in the province, he added. Dr Abdul Salam Lodhi, from Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences said that Higher Education Commission can play a proactive role in introducing various SDG priorities in the curriculum. Furthermore, provincial governments while preparing their SDG implementation plans should actively use capacity of researchers available in public sector universities, he concluded.