KARACHI: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and the government of Sindh looked at several innovative solutions to strengthening urban resilience and development for informal urban settlements at IBA City Campus on Friday.

For this they had initiated a pilot study on urban resilience for communities of Azam Basti and Rehri Goth.

Migrants, displaced people and others in the communities were asked to provide their input about how they think life can improve for them across four dimensions: livelihoods, participatory urban planning and development, social cohesion, and climate change adaptation. Some had ideas about livelihood opportunities for women, some looked at how they can provide clean water and sanitation to their community people while some focused on dealing with garbage and waste disposal while using it to their advantage such as making money from it or producing biogas, etc.

From Azam Basti, Salwa, Rida and Ramsha wanted to offer beauticians’ courses to girls who would like to earn a living by opening beauty parlours in their homes.

Under pilot study, Azam Basti and Rehri Goth residents asked for quality of life solutions

Parveen, Samar and Saba Zehra wanted to open sewing centres for girls to help them earn living from stitching either by taking in work or by selling clothes online.

Samina Ayub, meanwhile, wanted to open a day-care centre as did Shazia Ayub and Kaushal wanted to start a gym.

From Rehri Goth, which happens to be a fishing village with 95 per cent of its people earning from catching fish, there was Ghulam Hussain who wanted to utilise their 13-room school building to provide computer classes.

He said that that way they would be using an already in-place infrastructure such as building and guards for evening classes. He had written out all the workings of his viable business plan for which he was very much appreciated.

Mohammad Hanif, also from Rehri Goth, spoke about providing IT education to their youth and Mohammad Anwar Khaskheli was also of the same view of opening a computer centre.

Abdul Razzak and Younas Khaskheli from the same community in Rehri Goth had a plan about how to collect garbage and also make some money from scavenging. Also from there, Shafiq Tanoli wanted RO Plants for the communities to have clean water and Fahmida wanted small grants to help her buy things on wholesale and sell them in her village where there are hardly any shops.

Assistant Resident Representative and Chief, Development Policy Unit, UNDP Pakistan Ammara Durrani emphasised the importance of innovation and co-creation in bolstering urban resilience in Pakistan.

The presentation of the plans was followed by a panel discussion. The panel comprised Aqsa Javed of IBA, Zehra Mehdi of K-Electric and Nadeem Sheikh of WWF Pakistan.

The judges’ panel looking to select the best of the plans for grants comprised Policy Analyst, UNDP, Umer Malik; Programme Manager, National Incubation Centre Karachi, Azfar Hussain, Former MNA and social activist Saman Jafri and Hirah Tazmeen, training and partnerships manager at Femprow and leader of Meta's Training #SheMeansBusiness.

Aqsa Javed said that the people in urban settlements were really the ones who were aware of their issues so they should also be the ones to go to when looking for the solutions to their problems.

Zehra Mehdi spoke about corporate social responsibility and involving women in work to build sustainable businesses.

Nadeem Sheikh spoke about the need for sustainable plans. He also said that the people of Rehri Goth knew about fishing. “So they have awareness but are short on resources. There is a training centre for fishermen there but nothing like that for the women there,” he said.

Later, Programme Director, Sindh SDGs Unit by the government of Sindh Ghulam Mohiuddin Asim appreciated the collaboration of UNDP, IBA and government of Sindh on this project.

He said that the government had many projects in the pipeline but with a fast-growing population, the government cannot do everything on its own. “That’s why you have public-private partnerships,” he said.

He also said that he was particularly impressed by community eagerness to do well for their neighbourhoods and their willingness to spend personal time and energy in improving their surroundings.

Highlighting the role of data-driven approaches in development studies and policy initiatives and the important role played by academic institutions to achieve the same, Executive Director, IBA Karachi and Lead Investigator of the UNDP-IBA research study Dr S. Akbar Zaidi said that in this particular instance the idea was to go to the communities to learn. They were asked about their issues and also to come up with the solutions themselves. “Then when these people make such projects successful, others also gain strength from their outcomes and follow suit,” he pointed out.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2022