Multifaceted issues: Govt admits failure to achieve MDGs

Planning minister says Pakistan behind regional countries

ISLAMABAD: The government has for the first time admitted its failure in achieving its targets until 2015 for the UN-initiated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Pakistan’s performance on MDGs remains less satisfactory as compared to other countries in the region,” said Federal Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal in a handout issued on Thursday. However, he had a number of reasons to blame for the failure.

He said Pakistan was facing multifaceted issues related to resource security, localisation and ownership for MDGs, lack of coordination, political instability, security and back-to-back natural disasters. These issues adversely hampered the development efforts, he added.

“Besides these constraints, governance and weak institutions have played a major role in not achieving the MDGs,” Ahsan reasoned.

The time period set by the UN for achieving the MDGs was between 1990 and 2015. Pakistan had adopted 16 targets and 41 indicators, against which progress towards achieving the eight goals and 34 indicators of the MDGs is measured for Pakistan.

According to the planning, development and reforms ministry, data until 2013 showed that for 10 of these indicators, Pakistan was on track.

Its progress on 24 indicators was however off-track.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2015.