ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Empowerment of the poor protected by civil and political rights can be more effective in pressing governments for formulating policies that create social and economic opportunities.

This was stated by minister of state and chairman National Commission for Human Development Dr Nasim Ashraf at the inaugural session of a two-week training course on poverty alleviation through human resource development here on Monday.

The training programme, organized by the Saarc Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC), will be attended by 25 participants from Saarc countries.

Dr Ashraf said lack of political empowerment of the poor in Saarc countries had been one of the major hurdles in the way of sustained development as without their active participation in the decision-making process, chances of pro-poor policies remained dim.

“We clearly need to have a pro-poor growth link approach that focuses on the resources which the countries need to address constraints on vital poverty-reducing expenditures,” said the minister.

Empowerment is a key outcome as well as an instrument for alleviating more generally through better understanding of priorities and monitoring, he maintained.

Measures to enhance empowerment include programmes to promote girls’ education and combat discrimination, working with the poor directly and with organizations of the poor and supporting governmental reforms to strengthen links to such organizations making them more responsive.

He said education was the most important factor that distinguished the poor from the non-poor — the proportion of literate household heads in poor households was almost half of that in the non-poor households.

“Pakistan doesn’t come out too badly in comparison with other South Asian countries in term of health facilities but the education index for the country is lowest in the region,” he said.

The fact that the education index in Nepal and Bangladesh, two countries with significant lower per capita incomes than Pakistan, is 10 to 20 per cent higher than Pakistan is a clear indication of the low priority accorded to education in Pakistan.

“Pakistan today has 41 million adult illiterate and more are being added to the list every year. Less than 50 per cent of girls in the 10 to 14 years age group in the rural areas are in schools and over 30 per cent of all children will never go to schools, he added.

He said the incidence of poverty was highest among household heads with occupation such as day labouring in agriculture, construction, transport sectors. Similarly, the same situation prevails among self-employed households which included street vendors in urban areas and sharecroppers in the rural areas.

Course coordinator Syed Ijaz Ali Wasti said human resource development was a critical mean to accelerate economic growth, poverty reduction and enhance quality of life.

Acting director SHRDC Dr M. Jahangir Kabir said the objective of the course was to strengthen the ability of the participants to formulate policies and design programmes to alleviate poverty in their countries by enhancing their knowledge on different aspects of poverty.