Training Report: Millennium Development Goals in the SAARC Region

Working Sessions
secondary education or literacy GPI can provide considerable insight into the health of the system, and can be
appropriately considered an indicator. A good education indicator system is expected to provide accurate and
precise information to illuminate the condition of education and contribute to its improvement.
He said that the international community defined Education For All (EFA) at the Dakar Forum in 2000, in
terms of a set of six time bound goals. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) team succeeded in 2003 to
quantify some of these goals through EFA Development Index (EDI); which is a composite of relevant
indicators, providing one way of reflecting progress towards EFA as a whole. The currently agreed four
constituents of EDI and their corresponding indicators are: Net Enrolment Ratio in Primary Education;
(EFAI:6); Adult Literacy: Literacy Rate of the Population Group Aged 15 and Over; (EFAI:17); Quality of
Education: Survival Rate to Grade-5; (EFAI:13); and Gender Parity: Gender Specific EFA Index
(EFAI:18++). Pakistan ranks 119 out of 127 countries with EDI value of 0.656.
He noted that of the eight MDGs, formulated in September 2000, two are directly related to educational
provision. MDG 2 calls for the achievement of universal primary education by 2015, whereby every child will
complete a full course of primary education. MDG 3 calls for the promotion of gender equality and
empowerment of women with specific targets for the elimination of gender disparities at primary and
secondary school levels by 2005 and across all education levels by 2015.
He stressed that education is a powerful driver for poverty reduction and sustainable socio-economic
development. It empowers people with the knowledge and skills they need to increase individual and
household income, to expand employment opportunities and to fight against hunger and malnutrition. Public
spending on education is one of the most beneficial investments, a country can make in its future well-being.
Social change, employment, competitiveness, innovation and long-term prospects for economic growth rely
considerably on the expansion of quality learning opportunities for all. Estimations by the EFA GMR team for
the MDGs summit include that “171 million could be lifted out of poverty, if all students in low-income
countries left school with basic reading skills”.
Brig. (Retd) Amannullah, Director General, National Centre for Rural Development, Islamabad while
speaking on “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan” mentioned that
the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the centrepiece of development efforts of the
Government of Pakistan. The 18 global targets and 48 indicators adopted in 2000 have been translated into 16
national targets and 37 indicators keeping in view Pakistan's specific conditions, priorities, data availability
and institutional capacity. The MDGs have been incorporated into the Government's two important
macroeconomic frameworks including the New Growth Framework which focuses on inclusive growth and
increasing total factor productivity, and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which is a framework for
social and economic policies. Government's key planning document on development, Medium Term
Development Framework (MTDF) 2005-10 also endorsed the MDGs. To date, however, sufficient progress
has only been made on about half of the targeted indicators while others lag behind.
He stated that there is a general agreement that the poverty fell in Pakistan during 2002 to 2006 period, from
34% to 22% largely on account of high growth, greater donor assistance and increased remittances. However,
there are disagreements over what the extent of poverty in Pakistan is at the moment, since 2007 and 2008, the
economy has been under considerable pressure due to domestic and external developments which forced the
government to remove a large number of subsidies and large number of people have fallen into poverty. The
main causes of increase in poverty in Pakistan are: global financial crisis of 2008; deteriorating law and order
situation in the country further aggravated in 2008-09; domestic costs of fighting militancy; and the growing
tide of internally displaced persons. As a result, GDP growth has decelerated. Resource constraints are
manifested in low public sector development spending and adversely affecting the situation of poverty and
employment in the country. He highlighted the challenges in alleviation of poverty which include large
population of about 180 million people, rapidly growing at the rate of 2.5 % annually; highly traditional
society; inadequate social and health services; high military spending; high infant mortality (91 per 1000);
illiteracy rate 50% for men and 76% for women; and problem of extremism and terrorism for the last one
decade.
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