Media Update: United Nations Pakistan, 11 February 2022

UNDP

PRESS RELEASE

In Chief Minister's meeting with UNDP Pakistan, Government of Sindh reaffirms prioritization of SDGs

Karachi, February 11, 2022—A UNDP Pakistan mission to Karachi, led by UNDP Resident Representative Mr. Knut Ostby, began with a series of discussions on existing development priorities and future collaboration between UNDP and the Government of Sindh. These discussions focused on Sustainable Development Goals and the region’s progress and needs.

Aligned with the commitment to further promote sustainable development in the province of Sindh, Mr. Ostby met with Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, and the Convener of Sindh’s Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs, Pir Mujeeb-Ul-Haq. Mr. Ostby reiterated UNDP’s strong commitment with the Government of Sindh towards policy advocacy, support, and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the ‘Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support’ (MAPS) approach which is being implemented in Pakistan at both federal and provincial levels.

The meeting provided an opportunity for UNDP’s senior leadership and Sindh’s political leadership to exchange views on development issues critical to Sindh, including urban development challenges, disaster risk management, socio-economic uplift measures, importance of blue economy, role of the private sector towards accelerating progress on SDGs, and the crucial role of Sindh’s parliament for supportive legislation on key development and human rights issues.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Sindh, Mr. Murad Ali Shah, emphasized the Government’s key priority areas, including the Sustainable Development Goals, youth empowerment, blue economy, and HIV prevention and awareness. He also stressed on the importance of creating public private partnerships to amplify progress towards Agenda 2030.

The UNDP mission lauded the Government of Sindh’s efforts in enhancing service delivery to its population through promoting people-centric policy initiatives and programs, as well as its efforts to align its budgetary allocations with SDG priorities.

“UNDP welcomes a wider partnership with the Government of Sindh to co-finance key development activities and engaging the private sector in development. We are fully committed to working with the government to make a lasting contribution to provincial development priorities, and to take forward the principle of Leaving No One Behind”, said Mr. Ostby.

The UNDP mission also met with the Administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Barrister Murtaza Wahab. Mr. Ostby briefed KMC on recent initiatives to strengthen urban resilience and development in informal settlements in Karachi, and highlighted UNDP’s on-going technical support towards Karachi’s development master-planning exercise. The mission also shared UNDP’s engagements with several other city administrations across Pakistan, such as with the Rawalpindi Development Authority and Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad, to support developing urban resilience strategies and piloting interventions on urban greening and water recycling and conservation.

Other notable participants from the mission included Ms. Ammara Durrani, Assistant Resident Representative, Development Policy Unit, UNDP Pakistan; Mr. Umer Akhlaq Malik, Policy Analyst, Development Policy Unit, UNDP Pakistan; and Mr. Sajjad Gilani, Social Policy Analyst, Sindh SDGs Support Unit.

For additional information, please contact Ayesha Babar at ayesha.babar@undp.org  or +92 (51) 835 5650