ISLAMABAD, July 2: Pakistan National Human Development Report- 2003 which was unveiled here on Wednesday called upon the government to restructure economic growth and adopt direct attack approach for poverty alleviation in an effective manner.

The report “poverty growth and governance” was written by an economist Dr Akmal Hussain.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Pakistan has sponsored the publication of the report.

Dr Akmal Hussain unveiled his report in an well attended gathering where a galaxy of economic experts and critics were also present.

Later the participants of the ceremony put various questions to the author which he responded.

The report, he said, an economic strategy to achieve growth with greater poverty alleviation. The government should adopt a strategy to restructure economic growth process that would not only enable a faster GDP growth but enhance poverty alleviation for given GDP growth rates.

He said direct attack on poverty would empower the poor by enabling them to organize themselves at the local level, to increase their productivity, incomes, savings and investment is also equally important.

Thus the poor could achieve not only a sustainable increase in their incomes but in so doing also contribute to a faster and more equitable GDP growth rate, Akmal said in his report.

The strategy of a faster and restructured growth is four- pronged which addresses the main structural features of the economy, the report said. These features have been identified as being the major factors underlying both the slow doing in GDP growth during the 1990s as well as its reduced ability to alleviate poverty, the report added.

The report said it is also aimed at to accelerate the growth rate of exports and to enable a shift of the labour force from low skill, low productivity sectors to higher skilled and higher productivity sectors in order to achieve a faster increase in incomes of the lower income groups.

The report said in consideration of these strategic parameters the proposed four-pronged growth strategy focuses on rehabilitation of canal irrigation system so as to reduce transportation losses of irrigation water and provide more water at the root zone of the crops. This would not only generate faster employment the report said but also help farmers to increase their yield per acre.

Secondly, the report called for developing the ability to produce and export milk, marine fisheries and high value-added agriculture products such as fruits, vegetables and flowers. It added that increased production and export of these products would not only put more income into the hands of the small agricultural producers and fishermen, but also accelerate export growth, the report said.

To the extent that this is achieved, it would not only enhance the ability of local governments to work for the poor but also broaden the basis of power and decisions related to resource allocation and resource use, the report said.

The current government programme of devolution appears to have considerable potential in terms of enabling greater participation of women and the poor in governance, the report said.

However, the report said if it is to succeed in this objective four policy issues may be relevant which are a distinction between decentralization of administrative function and devolution of power to the people.

To enable the latter, the report said specific norms have to be created in the local government structure for an institutionalized relationship with autonomous organizations of the poor with respect to selection, design and implementation of development projects.

The second issue the report said is putting into place specific and verifiable procedures to ensure that women councillors are in practice involved in decisions within local government structures.

In this context the report said, it may be worth considering the institution of women ombudsmen at the tehsil level to whom women councillors can take their complaints in case they are discriminated against in the process of governance decisions.

The third issue it said specifying clearly the domains of authority of local government personnel at each tier.—APP

Our Staff Reporter adds: The report said the extreme poverty in Pakistan is now well over 30 per cent and it continues to rise as poor people finance their food and health needs through borrowing and sale of assets.

Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, deputy chairman, Planning Commission, however, challenged the figure saying it had no supporting data and suggested the extreme poverty should not be more than 20pc, although even the term itself was new for him.

The report termed the poverty in Pakistan “The National Crisis.”

In the poor category, the annual total household income of Rs40,566 is sufficient to fulfil the food consumption requirement, although not enough to fulfil the total consumption requirements (excluding durables) of Rs41,092.

It said the highest level of poverty is observed in Lahore Urban and Khuzdar where 93.5 per cent and 91.3 per cent, respectively, of the household were poor, and the minimum in Lahore rural where 66.9 per cent of the household were poor.

There is considerable variation across provinces with respect to literacy rates, which vary from 51 per cent in Sindh to 36 per cent in Balochistan.