March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 19: The government, with the assistance of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), has embarked upon preparation of a the second National Plan of Action for Children (NPA) that will constitute its major policy commitments towards children’s welfare and development over the next decade.

This was disclosed at a two-day technical meeting organized by the National Committee on Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) which commenced here on Wednesday.

The meeting, attended by experts from various related fields in the government and NGOs, aims to use a new approach whereby the new NPA will be formulated through elaborate consultations at the regional, provincial and district levels.

But the planners, while conceptualizing the NPA for the new millennium are conscious of the sobering experience with the first plan, which was to be implemented in 1990s.

As the ‘end of decade review report’ (EDR) of the UN Secretary-General candidly observed, the process of its formulation was quite limited as it was prepared without much consultation.

The policy planners, the EDR noted, drafted it not as a special additional programme of action with the provincial participation being virtually nil. Moreover, the NPA was not rights-based. As a result, “rights based approach has still to take root in Pakistan,” it remarked.

The statistical indices in the report demonstrate that Pakistan’s progress “falls significantly short of the targets”.

Except for access to the potable water (coverage close to 83 per cent), “all the indicators lag substantially behind the NPA targets and those set out in the World Summit Conference, 1990 (WSC) and are unlikely to be met in the next several decades at the current rate of development,” it remarked.

To ensure that the new NPA fully rectifies the earlier shortcomings, it must elicit participation of the new players including district governments, TMA and civil society and initial plans need to be attempted in all provinces and some districts, the report stressed.

Unicef is providing technical support and consultants to assist the provincial social welfare departments.

In a parallel development, the NCCWD director, Mohammad Hassan Mangi, told the meeting that the NPA was being dovetailed to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), which too are being prepared by the provincial and federal governments and would reflect major policy commitments for economic development in the medium term (3 to 5 years).

APP ADDS: The purpose of the seminar is to discuss and agree on a process and methodology for the provincial and district planning workshops ensuring that these are focused, participatory, objective and outcome driven and task oriented.

The meeting would also discuss and agree on guidelines for child participation in the planning process for development plans of action for children. It would take up linkages of the national and provincial plans of actions with provincial and national PRSP documents.

The participants would also discuss plan of action for children and put forward their recommendations to the authorities concerned for the implementation of the programme for the welfare of children in the country.

The process of preparing the national, provincial and district plans for children is underway.

The plans of action are to be major policy commitments of the government which would lead the action for children’s welfare and development over the next decades.

The workshop would conclude on Thursday.