Planning Commission announces forming Population Resource Centre

ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission announced the establishment of a Population Resource Centre (PRC) for improving the quality and reliability of population related data base. According to official announcement here on Saturday, there is a growing recognition on part of the government on the need as well as the importance of timely availability of quality and reliable data for guiding the planning process.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his recent policy statement, called for a “National Strategy for the Development of Statistics” so that the government can have access to accurate, reliable and timely statistics and have a solid and credible base of evidence, which is critical to supporting the design and evaluation of policies.

In line with the vision of its chairman, PM Imran Khan, who is actively being pursued by the Minister MoPD&R, Mr Khusro Bakhtiar and Secretary MoPD&R Zafar Hassan, the Planning Commission announced the establishment of a population resource centre which is expected to serve as a hub, strengthening the timely availability of demographic and population statistics and improving the quality and reliability of population related data base and information for evidence guided decision making and policy reviews.

A high-level consultative forum has been called at the Planning Commission next week inviting national ministry of health service regulation and coordination, secretaries from provincial department of health, population welfare departments, planning and development as well as senior technocrats for an interactive dialogue and discussing the modalities for the same.

The Planning Commission being an apex planning and coordination body is cognisant of the vital importance and magnitude of the population challenge as well as its collective responsibility towards taking measures for addressing the same.

Establishment of the Population Resource Centre is expected to strengthen the existing mechanisms and processes for evidence guided planning, monitoring and evaluation of population projects; identifying bottlenecks for initiation of timely remedial action; continuously evaluating the population landscape; and coordinating forums for generating debate on population policies and frameworks.

Dedicated resources have already been allocated in the PSDP 2019-20. National and international expertise will be engaged for its design and development. Member Social Sector, Dr Shabnum Sarfraz, informed that the Population Resource Centre is expected to enter into active partnership with the public and private sector universities for establishing population policy research units. These units would undertake valuable research in population priority areas, strengthening the evidence base for population programme planning and policy reviews.