A student busy in preparing tea at a food stall during cultural program at Begum Nusrat Bhutto Govt. Girls Degree College

By

Khuram Maryam

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Thu, 8 Dec 2022, 5:15 PM

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Japan provides US$ 3.87 mln grant for polio eradication efforts in Pakistan

By

Zaka Ullah Ch

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Thu, 8 Dec 2022, 5:09 PM

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Japan provides US$ 3.87 mln grant for polio eradication efforts in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Dec 08 (APP):The Government of Japan has extended its support to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme by providing more than US$ 3.87 million as a grant.

The grant will be used for the procurement of essential oral polio vaccine, which will reach more than 18.61 million under five years old children in Pakistan living in endemic and outbreak districts.

The notes of the grant were signed and exchanged between the Government of Japan and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and UNICEF.

Minister for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Abdul Qadir Patel and other dignitaries were present during the signing event.

“Pakistan has come a long way in the last 30 years. From thousands of children paralyzed by poliovirus in the 1980s and 1990s, we have managed to reduce the number of cases and affected communities drastically,” said Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel.

Referring to the commitment of the government to polio eradication, the Minister said, “The Programme has successfully restricted virus circulation to endemic districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We are committed and optimistic about eradicating polio by 2023.”

The minister extended his sincere appreciation for the support of the Government of Japan and partners for their unwavering commitment to Polio eradication.

The Government of Japan has been supporting the Polio Eradication Programme in Pakistan since 1996. The long-standing partnerships have helped to reach millions of children with life-saving vaccines over the years.

The grant and loan contribution from the Government of Japan to date has amounted to more than US$ 238.66 million dollars to support the Polio Programme in Pakistan through UNICEF.

WADA Mitsuhiro, Ambassador of Japan commended the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF for their tireless efforts in emergency vaccination campaigns in southern KP and establishing transit points in North Waziristan to limit the spread of Wild Polio Virus.

He also reiterated his continuous support for eradicating poliovirus by saying that “I would like to renew my commitment to achieve the polio-free world.

“Japan will continuously support the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF in this regard. I sincerely hope that the national and sub-national campaigns of the next year will be safe and successful.”

“It is very appreciative that polio program has supported the flood relief efforts in the flood affected districts. Health camps have been opened to provide basic clinical services, treatment of water-borne, vector-borne diseases and immunization for children and women of reproductive age.”

The Government of Pakistan, UNICEF and Japan has a strong target to achieve polio-free in Pakistan by the end of 2023.

“I would appreciate the continuous and unwavering leadership and commitment of the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF, with the highest respect to the frontline workers,” said Kinoshita Yasumitsu, Chief Representative, JICA Pakistan Office.

While polio remains a challenge for Pakistan, the country is facing extraordinary challenges due to recent floods.

“Already these children and families have lost so much, it is imperative that we safeguard them from this deadly disease,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, highlighting the situation of children and families living in endemic and outbreak districts following the devastating recent floods.

“Through the unwavering support and generosity of the people and Government of Japan, more children can now be immunized to prevent the devastation of paralysis and even death. We are now closer to securing a polio-free future for all.”

The programme has made concerted efforts, including working with families at the household level by engaging parents and caregivers and consistently focusing on persistently missed and refusal families.

Over 339,521 trained and dedicated polio front-line workers go door-to-door during every national campaign and inoculate vaccines to eligible children despite challenges.

The Polio Programme has successfully limited the transmission of poliovirus to the endemic region of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which is a substantial gain.

Following the new risk categorisation, the next 13 months are critical for the Programme to sustain the gain and eradicate polio from Pakistan. The timeline for stopping all poliovirus transmission in the current global polio eradication strategic plan is the end 2023.

As a partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, UNICEF has been working with the Government of Pakistan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO and other partners to make sure the national polio eradication and vaccination programmes reach every child in Pakistan.

President for attitudinal shift to water, energy conservation

By

Ishtiaq Rao

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Thu, 8 Dec 2022, 5:02 PM

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 08 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday urged the need to bring about an attitudinal shift from rapid consumption to conserving water and energy enabling Pakistan to minimize its financial and economic difficulties.

The president, addressing the opening plenary of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s (SDPI) 25th Sustainable Development Conference here, said by closing businesses early in the evening, the country could save 3000 to 4000 megawatts of energy.

Similarly, he said, the country could also save precious rain and flood water, and reuse it for agriculture and other purposes by making small and big water reservoirs.

The president said, “Our attitudes should be targeted towards reducing waste reduction and littering our unnecessary desires and wants and striving to live a happy life based upon our cherished religious and Islamic values of love for ourselves, for family, neighbours, humanity, and nation without hating other nations and love for all creations, both living and non-living, and love for Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and Allah Almighty.

He called for bringing meaningful changes in people’s attitudes to overcome the country’s economic and financial issues and lay down a strong foundation for a happy life.

He said now that the floods were over, the country was entering into the rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas and flood victims in most parts of the country.

“We need to adapt ourselves to the expected changes brought about by climate change and create a resilient society, which is capable of adaption to the changes in the environment and successfully coming out of natural disasters induced by climate change and global warming,” he added.

President Alvi, apprising the audience about the various stages of handling crises and issues, said it started by recognizing the issue, creating a baseline, factoring in past experiences, and benchmarking good practices within the country and around the world.

He advised,” We should define our goals, set KPIs and a time-line and then put our minds and resources into the set goal.”

The president said climate change required limiting climate change and global warming.“We need attitudinal change and total commitment to the time-line, which currently the world is not ready to do,” he added.

While talking about population control, he said due to cultural taboos, people were reluctant to approach and buy contraceptives to stop unwanted pregnancies, which were 50% of the total pregnancies of 9 million in a year.

He said the world had entered into an era of abundance of food through the use of high-yielding seeds, highly efficient water conservation techniques, the use of artificial intelligence to provide micronutrients, which had the ability to produce abundance of food even in Pakistan and the hunger could easily be controlled.

President Alvi said Pakistan was able to control the COVID-19 pandemic in a much better and more scientific manner compared to regional countries by repeatedly conveying the message to clean hands, wear masks and observe social distancing.

He said the pandemics were going to spread frequently in the future due to ease of communication and frequent world travelling by people.

SDPI Board of Governors’ Chairman Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel, in his welcome address, said the Institute was offering research-based and evidence-based policy inputs to the government for the formulation of policies.

He said the world should focus on inclusive growth.

Mikkiko Tanaka from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said South and South-west Asia needed to strengthen their partnership for coping with common issues.

SDPI’s Executive Director Abid Sulehri gave a brief overview of the three-day conference. He said the conference discussed recent challenges like COVID-19, Ukraine War, and climate change.

He said that 11 sessions of 38 panels were held pertaining to these issues and delegates from International Organizations also participated in the conference.