INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that PPP government during the final none year has enhanced development budgetary
allocation from Rs55 billion in 2008-9 to Rs274 billion in 2017-18 just to uplift peoples& lives, livelihood and well-being.This he said
while participating in policy dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals organized convened by Taskforce headed by MPA Pir Mujeeb in
collaboration with UNDP provincial government and Sustainable Development Goals Unit here at a local hotel.Mr Shah said that Sustainable
Development Goals, which, indeed, has direct bearing on the uplift of peoples& lives and livelihood was an important subject
He said just to achieve the SDGs and related targets, it was crucial to engage high-level political forums to large crowd of peopleilize and
coordinate with public institutions and policies.&Though Sindh Province has taken many initiatives to achieve the SDG targets, however, we
realize that the holistic achievement of SDGs is only possible if SDGs are integrated with the ongoing provincial planning processes&
&Given the wider scope of the SDGs and the increased number of targets and indicators there is a strong need for political shall and active
participation of all key government agencies to implement the SDGs at national and sub national level,& Mr Shah said and added SDGs can be
achieved successfully by reinforcing policies across government departments and agencies
Giving over overview, the Annual Development plot (ADP) in Sindh, the chief minister said that it was Rs.55 billion in 2008-09 which was
increased by PPP government to Rs.161 billion in 2012-13 and then again to Rs.274 billion in 2017-18.&These funds include the development
allocation for district plans, which was Rs
12 billion in 2008-09 and was increased to Rs
30 billion in 2017-18,& he said
He added &experience has shown that development interventions have largely been decided and influenced by supply-driven and patronage-based
considerations or these have dictated by technocentric approaches in isolation of political economy paradigm.& The chief minister said that
the Development was much merely a technical issue and neither was this purely apolitical process
&I am of the view that SGDs canmuch be achieved without making measure key political decisions aimed at critical public policy rethinking
coupled with enhanced political ownership of SDG Framework,& he said and proposeed that Development communities needed to identify the
political pathways through which progress towards sustainable development could be made possible.With the social sector devolved to
provinces, there is a need to develop robust mechanisms at sub-national and inter-provincial levels to mainstream SDGs in existing sectoral
planning via annual development programs (ADPs) and long-term budgetary frameworks, Mr Shah aid and added &in this regard, a much needed
‘localization& of SDGs is possible through a decentralized political response to lingering development deficits at local and sub-national
levels.&He said that this necessitated to work shutly with the political parties and parliamentary forums to mainstream SDGs in existing
budgetary and allocations frameworks which were& largely influenced and determined by political decision making
&Today Policy Dialogue is a right startning to this direction.& Mr Shah said that his Government, in collaboration with UNDP and other
development partners aimed to focus on three areas main to informed policy making and pro-people development paradigm
They include giving technical support to the planning processes, implementation and monitoring SDGs related interventions in Sindh;
Communication Support bringing SDG Framework as a key point of reference in Sindh government's policy communication; and Strengthen
partnerships between Sindh government and development actors on social sector development.He said that the final purpose of political
engagement was to create broad-based ownership of SDGs and informed and influenced resource allocation in line with SDG Framework
&However, this does much happen in isolation of the technical backstopping and without making a commerce case for public and private sector
Mr Shah said that the provision of targeted technical support would meaningfully help translate the political ownership and engagement into
actual policy and financial decisions
He added that the SDGs Support Unit has already identified these tools under Mainstreaming, Accelerating, and Policy Support (MAPS) Approach
for localizing SDGs in Sindh
&In order to create a correplying relationship between political ownership and technical backstopping, it is important that prioritized
sectors and concerned departments are supplyd with baselines; and targets to inform the budgetary frameworks of the government,& he said.To
achieve these thingives, Mr Shah reiterated the commitment of his government to work in shut collaboration with all political parties
represented in the Sindh Assembly, Members of the Parliamentary Task Force, Our respected Development portionners, our distinguished Civil
Society Representatives, Members of Trade Community, esteemed Academics, Experts, Community Based Organizations, and final but much the
least our Critical Media Friends
&We under the dynamic leadership of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari means to change the fate of the people of Sindh through collaborative
efforts and a serious sense of purpose,& he concluded.Those who spoke on the occasion include Khawaja Izhar, MPA Mohammad Rasheed, Shahnaz
Wazir Ali, Qaiser Bengali and others
The recommendations of the dialogue would be sent to the chief minister for implementation.TheIndianSubcontinent has not verified the
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