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Friday March 29, 2024

Pakistan ranked 151st out of 153 in gender inequality

By Rasheed Khalid
October 07, 2021

Islamabad : Lubna Naz from IBA, Karachi, has said that gender equality should be of the highest priority for Pakistan as it is the fifth goal and global priority in SDGs while Pakistan ranks at 151st out of 153 countries in gender inequality.

Ms. Naz was speaking at a web-based panel discussion on “Pakistan and SDGs Targets” organised here by the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS). The discussion was moderated by Dr. Neelum Nigar,

Ms Naz was of the view that there is an increased need to engage men in the country and educating them to prevent violence against women as it was one of the major components of the SDGs.

Social policy advisor Nadeem Ahmed observed that the current SDG framework provided enormous opportunities to various sectors to participate in the development of Pakistan and move forward. Under the current government, the SDG task force and support units were established at the Federal as well as at provincial levels for effective implementation of the devised policies.

Amir Hussain from ISS pointed out that Pakistan spends only 2.3 per cent of GDP on education and 40 per cent of children under five are stunted which shows that more resources are required to achieve the set targets by 2030.

Concluding the panel discussion, Chairman Board of Governors, Khalid Mahmood, said that the international community regardless of difference was making great efforts in mobilising resources to shape public opinion to achieve socio-economic progress. He opined that our government was lacking in its implementation due to limited resources and capacity.

Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Director-General, ISS, said that there is no dearth of political will and ownership in Pakistan regarding the implementation of the SDGs as it is part of Pakistan’s Vision 2025. However, he said, more is needed to be done on the implementation side adding that as geo-economics is becoming a priority of the government of Pakistan, focusing on traditional as well as non-traditional security issues automatically makes SDGs as part of the overarching policy priority.