The scarcity of resources and an annual population growth rate of 2.89 per cent leaves little space for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to make meaningful strides towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).

KP was the last amongst provinces to set up a sustainable development unit (SDU) under the planning and development department in 2018.

The SDU recently prepared its provincial SDG framework that is likely to be presented before the cabinet over the coming weeks for approval. In addition to this, the province has set up a project steering committee and each department has also appointed focal persons to coordinate their activities with the SDU. At the district level, the SDGs advisory committees have been set up to provide institutional arrangements for localisation of the goals.

Under the last government, the province had taken significant steps. For the first time, KP embarked on an ambitious plan to plant 1 billion trees all over the province, which is now being replicated at the federal level.

Furthermore, the KP government’s Sehat Sahulat programme that provided health coverage for underprivileged segments has been extended to the national level. The programme’s coverage is likely to expand from the current 69pc of the population to all parts of the province by the end of this year.

KP has strived to meet the shortage of doctors by recruiting thousands more. Similarly, the appointment of teachers has increased significantly. To reduce poverty, the provincial government launched the Insaf Rozgar Scheme for the merged districts.

The province has pledged to divert 30pc of its annual development outlay to districts. Though the actual transfers were about half of the allocation, it is the first time that districts were provided funds to achieve their own development goals.

However, KP is still lagging behind the other provinces. An official told Dawn that in some of the indicators, KP stood second after Punjab, while in others it was struggling. “Some of the problems we are facing are structural,” the official said, adding that data availability is one of the biggest issues. “Out of over 160 indicators, we have data for only 70.”

Another official was of the view that the entire issue boils down to money. “Wherever you spend money, it results in improvement. However, most of our development outlay is spent pleasing politicians,” he said.

Under the PML-N government, most of the federal public sector development programme’s funds and some of KP’s own development resources went to a couple of politicians from the province. “When it comes to political expediencies, the SDGs become a theoretical issue that one rarely bothers to think about. That is where our dilemma lies,” the official added.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 23rd, 2019