How aid from the UK helps Pakistan

By 2015 UK will support 4 million children in school, recruit, train 90,000 teachers, provide 6 million text books.

The UK and Pakistan are working more closely together than ever before. Yet not many people know about the connections that form our unbreakable partnership. The British High Commission has launched a campaign to promote some of the stories that demonstrate the strong links between the UK and Pakistan. UKaid from the Department for International Development plays an important role in this partnership.

A key focus of our work is education. We know how important giving their children a good education is for so many people in Pakistan. Education is the single most important factor which can transform Pakistan’s future. It boosts the economy, broadens outlooks, and offers a brighter future for children who may otherwise be on the streets. That’s why education is UK’s top priority for Pakistan.

Pakistan faces an education emergency. More than 17 million children are not in school. That is half the adult population, and the population is expected to increase by more than half again in less than 40 years. Two thirds of women cannot read or write. Pakistan is way off track from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education.

By 2015, the UK will support more than four million children in school, recruit and train an additional 90,000 teachers, provide more than six million school text book sets, and work with the Government of Pakistan and society to further build commitment to improve the education system in Pakistan. We are working with the Government of Pakistan at federal and provincial level to deliver better quality and more widely available schools, and to improve management and accountability in the education sector.

And linked to this is nutrition. Children can’t learn well if they are too hungry to pay attention, or have been impaired by prolonged and repeated malnourishment. So improving nutrition will be a central part of our work. The UK is expanding basic health services at the community level focusing on family planning, nutrition, and healthcare for women and children. We aim to prevent half a million children becoming under-nourished in the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa regions.

There is a real sense of excitement in our office about the programmes we are working on, which will make a real difference to the lives of the people in Pakistan. By 2015, thousands of children in Pakistan will be going to school and learning how to read and write for the first time. I have no doubt that Pakistan has the potential to meet the needs of all its citizens and UKaid will help Pakistan to unleash its potential.

So, there is much to celebrate about our partnership. To find out more about UKaid please visit our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and share your personal stories on the connections between our two nations.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2012.