UNDP offers collaboration with Sindh govt for Karachi’s development

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has offered to become a partner with the Sindh government to improve the master plan of Karachi and help resettle the people displaced due to the ongoing drive to revamp storm water drains in the city.

The offer to this effect was made as a delegation of the UNDP met Sindh Local Government Secretary Syed Najam Ahmed Shah at his office on Monday.

The delegation discussed the possibility of joining hands with the Sindh government to construct civic infrastructure and carry out other development projects in the province, especially Karachi.

The local government secretary said on the occasion that a number of development initiatives had been launched by the Sindh government in collaboration with global donor and development agencies to ensure welfare and progress of the people of Sindh.

He said the Sindh government had made sure every time it launched a development project that its benefits, after completion of the scheme, were passed on to the masses to the maximum possible extent.

The delegation told the local government secretary that the UNDP had been working in other provinces of the country with their respective provincial governments for different development projects.

They said it would be an honour for the UNDP to join hands with the Sindh local government department for development works in the province. It was said that the UNDP desired to develop Karachi in accordance with the guidelines of the Sindh government by improving the Karachi’s master plan and helping resettle the people displaced due to the project to revamp storm water drains in the city.

Shah expressed his gratitude to the UNDP delegation for their offer, saying that the Sindh local government department had been carrying out a number of development projects including the drive to remove physical encroachments from the land of storm water drains and to ensure resettlement of the people displaced due to this anti-encroachment campaign.

He also asked the delegation to meet the managing director of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board to get more awareness about the development works of the Sindh government at the grass-roots level.

The local government secretary welcomed the offer of the UNDP to become a partner in the development of Karachi and said such partnerships should be forged to develop all the districts and tehsils.

Shah claimed that the interest shown by the global donor and development agencies in the Sindh government’s projects endorsed the efforts of the provincial government to serve the people of Sindh. He hoped that soon Karachi would be counted among the most developed and advanced cities of the world.

The delegation comprised UNDP Programme and Policy Specialist Umer Malik, SDGs Support Unit Sindh Project Manager Mumtaz Ali, SDGs Support Unit Sindh Social Policy Analyst Sajjad Gilani and UNDP Pakistan’s Ammara Durrani.