Progress report: Survey shows improvement on most social indicators, says planning secretary

Speaker says survey results should be used to formulate plans.

LAHORE: Planning and Development Board Chairman Muhammad Irfan Elahi said on Saturday that the Punjab Growth Strategy had been formulated in collaboration with several departments and government agencies to steer the reform and public investment agenda in the province till 2018.

Elahi was speaking at a ceremony organised to unveil the Punjab Growth Strategy 2018 at the office of the chief minister. He said the government had also sought the assistance of a group of economists and sector specialists to formulate the strategy. Elahi said the strategy called for institutional reforms and investment in rural areas to revamp the agriculture and livestock sector. He said this would improve crop yields, facilitate the transition to value-added agricultural produce and improve livestock breeds. Elahi said the strategy emphasised the importance of a good road network enabling the farm-to-market transportation of produce as pivotal for rural development.

Planning and Development Secretary Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry shared the findings of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Punjab 2014 on the occasion. He said the survey had been conducted by the department and the Board of Statistics with the technical assistance of the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Chaudhry said the survey was the fourth-of-its-kind to be conducted in the province. He said the data collected under the initiative contained information on socioeconomic indicators on women and children especially. Chaudhry said the data was collected from over 41,000 households on this account.

He said the methodology employed to conduct the survey covered 125 socioeconomic indicators. Chaudhry said out of these 100 indicators had been covered in the preceding MICS survey in 2011 while the other 25 represented additions.

He said 92 of the indicators covered in the surveys could be used to make a comparison.

Chaudhry said the data showed that most indicators had improved in the Punjab. The UNICEF country representative also spoke on the occasion. She informed those present on the occasion about how the results of the survey could be employed to formulate evidence-based plans and policies in the Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.