Dr Shamshad launches Data Reporting Gaps Study, website

ISLAMABAD, July 9 (APP):Caretaker Minister for Finance, Planning, Development and Reform, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar Monday formally launched the Data Reporting Gaps Study and a comprehensive website on Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).
The study and website was launched in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a press statement issued here by the ministry said.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said the study would significantly facilitate the national and provincial governments in their decision-making process, and for generating and using data for various functions.
The minister congratulated the core team of the Ministry of Planning Development and Reform, and the concerned officers and Federal SDGs Support Unit and SDGs Section on achieving the milestone.
She maintained that the contextualization of SDGs has a significant role to play and that the
sector needs much focus, the statement added.
Dr Shamshad Akhtar emphasized that Pakistan must step forward by developing a knowledge base and emphasized the ministry to serve as a knowledge hub and maintain a main body of literature which should have an integrated approach to study different sectors like energy, water, agriculture etc.
She further stated that although the government had already worked upon developing and strengthening horizontal and vertical linkages, however these needed to be fast tracked through engaging
private sector, youth, academia and civil society.
The minister emphasized that there was need to jot down as how the provincial and local
statistical organizations would take forward the enhancement and augmentation
of data itself.
She noted that a significant number of capacity development programs would be required for not only what we have but also to manage the missing information.
Dr Shamshad Akhtar stressed to put strong focus on areas like pollution, climate change, and especially the complexed arena of environmental accounting.
The minister also advised to map out all the short term and long term training programs at different levels and referred the UNESCAP’s Statistical Agency in Shiba, Japan for its qualitative performance that Pakistan must consider while initiating its own training programmes.
She urged to bring across the wide range of secretaries from all critical ministries, to mainstream at the ministerial level for the implementation of SDGs and define their roles and responsibilities.
Addressing on the occasion, Federal Secretary Planning Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, the Data Reporting Gaps Study serves four purposes that is to disseminate the key findings of the data analysis, to discuss various/alternate solutions to fill data gaps, to build consensus with ministries and reporting agencies to monitor and report according to their respective indicators mentioned in the data reporting gaps and the dentification of focal persons from each ministry and their respective departments for
continuous support on data and other SDGs related issues.
On the occasion, Country Director UNDP Pakistan Ignacio Artaza, stated that Data Reporting Gaps Study on indicators provide the stakeholders, the insights for the ongoing work and that it is crucial for timely development of new plans, initiatives and to understand where and when resources are required.
He highlighted that UNDP and Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform were also
collaborating with Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to support data collection and
aligning national surveys with the SDGs. He mentioned that the launched website
aims to develop a data portal for all users to extract information on SDGs
progress in Pakistan.
Chief and Project Director SDGs, Zafar
ul Hassan, Economic Policy Advisor; SDGs Support Unit, M Ali Kemal, and
Executive Director Peace Justice Network Initiative Pakistan, Raza Ali also
addressed the audience.
Earlier Zafar ul Hassan, Chief
SDGs, Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform briefly presented key
outcomes of the Data Reporting Gaps study.
He shared that three major objectives
of this report are; to examine whether data is available, to examine the level
of disaggregation of this available data, and to develop a fact sheet for each
indicator at the disaggregated level.