Inter-provincial meeting on LG system on 17th

LAHORE: An inter-provincial local bodies meeting of all four provinces has been convened on January 17 in Lahore for which Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has given formal approval.

All the Ministers for local bodies and secretaries of the four provinces will attend this meeting in which federation will also represent. The meeting will discuss new system being introduced in Punjab.

Abdul Aleem Khan said for the first time in Punjab concept of Village Councils and Neighbourhood Councils being launched in which masses would be given representation at local level.

He added that the new system of Local Bodies in Punjab would bring a revolution in which especially in all the 25,000 villages developmental work would start simultaneously and one village and one council would work with the maximum participation of the people. He said the meeting would be fruitful as apart from all provinces there would be participation from Federal government as well.

SDGs’ implementation

A joint consultation organised by NGOs network discussed the SDGs implementation by engaging different stakeholders. Addressing the participants, Ume Laila Azhar, an NGO’s Executive Director shared that Pakistan along with all other UN member states gathered at Sustainable Development Summit on 25th September, 2015, to adopt the agenda for 2030 also known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The agenda included a set of 17 SDGs to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. For regular follow-up of SDGs implementation, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encourages member states to conduct regular and inclusive reviews of progress at the national level, which are country-led and later on present in high-level political forum.

Consultation was held at the office of PCSW -Shadman-II, Lahore where representatives of district department education, health, social welfare, labour, environment, local government, media, academia and policymakers discussed the implementation of SDGs in the district and the challenges they had to face during its implementation.

Main purpose of this consultation was to gather provincial and district level information about SDGs processes. Mrs Fauzia Viqar Chairperson PCSW said that a lot needs to be done for the SDGs implementation in Punjab whereas an extensive engagement of CSOs and private sector is still required.