Report by Nawaz Arain, Karachi Pakistan. www.asiacommune.org
=>> A consultation on Voluntary National Review (VNR) through Peoples Scorecard was organized jointly by Awaz CDS and Takhleeq Foundation (TF). This consultation was part of the series of consultations which will be organized country wide to gather information from informed civil society about the performance of government on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Around 25 members from civil society organizations participated in the consultations deliberations, mostly from organization led by women, youth, trans gender, people living with disabilities and minority groups. The consultation was supported by Sightsavers Pakistan, VSO and A4SD.
Mr. Yaqoob Mohammad CEO, TF, thanked and warmly welcomed the participants for their participation in the consultation. He hoped for productive session followed by valuable findings of SDGs on ground. Mr. Zia Ur Rehman,Awaz CDS gave a detail orientation about the event’s objectives and deliberations. Mr. Zia informed the participants AwazCDS and Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA), on behalf of civil society is in the process of developing a spotlight report on SDGs parallel to government’s official VNR report which it intends to present in high level political forum at the UN. Similarly, the spotlight report which will be developed through gathering information from people and depicting real, on ground situation with regard to performance and progress of Pakistan on SDGs at the same forum. He also apprised the audience that the process of data collection was a two pronged activity, an online survey which has been uploaded on PDA website and series of consultations in provincial capitals and regions i.e. AJK and GB. He shared that Awaz wishes to engage with Civil Society through people’s scorecard to reach out to informed citizens who are unable to contribute to national or official VNR report process. The spotlight report will collect voices of citizen’s to achieving SDGs whereas official process relies on secondary data.
He gave a quick rundown of the online survey and the indicators which would be used to assess specific goals CSOs are working on. He shared the link and requested the audience to fill up online survey as well.
The participants were divided into 4 groups as per their area of work relevant to goal were Evaluated (Goal- 4 Education) (Goal- 3 Health an well being) (Goal-16 Rule of law & justice) and (Goal-5 Gender an Equality).
An hour long group work was followed by presentations by the group leaders who shared groups’ findings, views and assessment about respective SDGs discussed during the group works. Overall they depicted dismal picture of performance of the government on SDGs they are working on. They highlighted and discussed bottlenecks, lacunas and challenges in the budgets, policies, strategies and implementation. The information gathered in this consultation will be combined with findings of planned consultations and consolidated spotlight report will be developed.
Mr. Muhamma Yaqub from Takhleeq Foundation wrapped up the session and thanked Home Net for organization of consultation and participants for their time, valuable inputs for evaluating SDGs related to their work and being part of consultative process.
