The report is based on INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN THE SOCIAL SECTOR of Pakistan, in context to all provinces. In this report the reader will find the causes of the issue and the recommeded objectives to over come the issues.
1. INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN THE SOCIAL
SECTOR
Submitted by:
Pawan Kumar (17537)
Submitted to:
Mr. M Zubair
Program
Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA)
Spring 2016
Institute of Business Management, Karachi
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background:.................................................................................................................................... 2
Impact on Third World Governments............................................................................................. 2
Impact on Pakistan ..................................................................................................................... 3
Reason for Partial Failure ......................................................................................................... 3
THE SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAMME (SAP) ........................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................................. 3
1. Primary education ............................................................................................................ 4
2. Primary health care........................................................................................................... 4
3. Rural water supply and sanitation .................................................................................... 4
Government..................................................................................................................................... 6
Government and Development of Pakistan .................................................................................... 7
Pakistan: Economic Challenges 2012-13........................................................................................ 7
Education ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Pakistan and the Millennium Development Goals.......................................................................... 7
A few facts about Pakistan.............................................................................................................. 8
NGO STATEMENT: PAKISTAN ................................................................................................. 8
Institutional Mechanisms (policy and enforcement):.................................................................. 8
Legal Framework (laws and customary practices):..................................................................... 9
Representation of women (political/legislative, administrative and judicial) .............................. 10
Violence against Women (policy framework and enforcement): ............................................. 11
Pakistan NGO Forum.................................................................................................................... 11
Code of Conduct for NGOs and CBOs ..................................................................................... 11
Preamble.....................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Objectives: .................................................................................................................................... 12
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BACKGROUND:
The cliché- ridden New World Order is said to have had its beginnings in the mid- 1980s
following Michael Gorbachev’s perestroika in the Soviet Union, finding its crystallization with
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. We are told that this is the triumph of the West and the End of
History; the New Age is one of the free man and woman, unencumbered by the state; and
freedom of choice and action are now set to dominate economic and political thinking. This is
the era where the neo-liberal synthesis has found its expression in economics and politics.
Market-friendliness, privatization, deregulation, devolution and democracy are now the key
clichés that form the mixture (and fix) for societies which were hitherto deviant from the norm
adhered to in the west.
With the breakdown of the command economies of the former Soviet regime and its allies,
devolution of control and power has been seen as a particular means of increasing participation,
and hence, progress. The new thinking has shifted away from the central and federal
government’s role in developing the economy and society, and has begun to incorporate the
private sector and non- governmental organizations as important key actors in development
strategies.
Not only has there been a move away from government control; there has also has been a
noticeable shift within government structures. Furthermore, the concept of government itself has
changed. The control economies of Eastern Europe, and the military governments in much of the
Third World, have been replaced by some form of democratic regime. The controlling
federal/central state has been forced to extend more powers to smaller units at the provincial
level, so as to enable these units to play an active role in providing welfare to the people. More
autonomy has been granted to provincial and state governments, and local municipal government
has also been expected to play an increasingly prominent role.
IMPACT ON THIRD WORLD GOVERNMENTS
Many Third World governments find themselves in dire financial straits and are forced to reduce
public expenditure to cut the budget deficit, and to restructure their economies. The term
‘structural adjustment’ acts as a metaphor for the state of the economy in most underdeveloped
countries. Budget cuts- an essential ingredient of any structural adjustment program have meant
that central/federal governments have had fewer funds to available to lower echelons in the
hierarchy. It is dual shift- a resource constraint faced by the federal government, and the belief
that more participation and devolution of power and control leads to better, more effective, and
sustainable development- that has brought local governments, the private sector, and non-
governmental organizations into the foray of development planning.
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IMPACT ON PAKISTAN
Pakistan, too, has been influenced by these changes in thinking and perception taking place at the
global level. While the structural adjustment program, with its multifaceted emphasis on
privatization, deregulation, and liberalization, has been accepted wholesale by different
governments in Pakistan, often without enquiry about the possible repercussions, the institutional
and governance issues have yet to be tackled- and for obvious reasons.
REASON FOR PARTIAL FAILURE
There is a general belief that social development has been poor, not because facilities have been
inadequate in number, but because organizational and managerial issues, and issues of delivery,
have ensured poor progress. At present, there is growing recognition of a need for change in the
way social development is delivered. Even official government documents have started playing
lip- service to the need for administrative reforms: ‘the effectiveness of planning and
administration has progressively been eroded by the growing inability of government to
effectively implement its policies’.
Moreover, the government believes that ‘effective reform of local government institutions has to
be at the core of any development strategy aimed at the alleviation of poverty or the development
of the social sectors’.
THE SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAMME (SAP)
INTRODUCTION
In response to the relative failure of the development of the social sector, compared to the
somewhat buoyant economic growth in recent decades, the government of Pakistan, on the
initiative of the World Bank, launched an extensive Social Action Program to address the
imbalances of the earlier years.
In year 1993/94 and 1995/96, was estimated to coat about US$4 billion (development and
recurrent costs). About $3 billion (76 percent) was expected to be contributed by the government
of Pakistan, with the remainder being provided by donors.
In identifying the need to look at the social sector in a different way and to focus on existing
problems with new alternative solutions, the World Bank highlighted a number of weaknesses in
basic social services in Pakistan. The following basic identified weaknesses are:
1. Primary education
2. Primary health care 3. Rural water supply and sanitation
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1. Primary education
With regard to the primary education, the World Bank identified the following problems:
1. Objectives are unrealistic
2. Resource requirements are inadequately projected
3. Critical paths and monitor able indicators are unclear
4. Too little emphasis on quality with insufficient budgeting for books
5. Cultural requirements
6. Development budgets are released late so the implementation is also delayed
7. Irregularities in construction
On these grounds, ‘primary education is often inefficient, of poor quality and incentive to local
views on what should be taught and how.
2. Primary health care
The problems with primary health care are quite similar to those of primary education.
Basic Health Units (BHUs) and other lower- tired health facilities were considered to
‘seldom work efficiency’. The problems were as follows:
Most health deliver poor quality basic care and do not reach most communities;
poorly furnished, without medicines; non availability of staff especially at BHU
level; a dearth of female trained health workers; inefficient structure of primary
health care; duplicative and centralized structures; inadequate planning and
budgeting; delay in release of funds and excessive staff turnover.
In the primary health sector, as in much of the social sector, ‘as communities are too little
involved in the design or delivery of such services, their preferences are not adequately
considered. Thus, many local health facilities are underused or abandoned, because they fail to
meet users’ needs’.
3. Rural water supply and sanitation
Rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) are the two others areas which were focused
on by the SAP. The main problems I rural water supply are that half of the population has
access to water, and for areas that do receive water, the quality is also not particularly
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good, indeed it is often below a minimum acceptable standard. Problems of availability
of sanitation are even worse. The World Bank feels that:
RWSS systems would be more effective and more affordable if they involved
community- based approaches using simpler and less costly technology that could
be operated and maintained at the local level, with communities covering the
costs of operation and maintenance
…… Communities and users have been too little involved in the design,
operation, and management of RWSS systems, with the result that they feel little
ownership and so contribute little.
The SAP was supposed to take an “umbrella” approach to improving basic social services and
areas of the country. All SAP components- primary education, primary health care, rural water
supply, and sanitation- were said to suffer from the following:
1. Poor planning and budgeting
2. Bureaucratic delays in the release of budgeted funds to line departments and
executing agencies
3. Lack of trained staff to meet rapidly expanding needs, made worse by recruitment
bans imposed by the Govt. on all programs to promote fiscal discipline, without
exemptions for priority needs
4. Faulty construction
5. Absenteeism and excessive or improper transfers or staff- managers as well as
front- line workers, including teacher and health worker
6. Inadequate and unreliable supplies of key inputs needed to maintain service
quality
7. Locating schools and health units within communities with too little attention to
the location of most potential users
8. Excessively centralized management of dispersed front- line services, which
could be more effectively run through decentralized systems with flatter
‘organizational pyramids’
9. Weak monitoring and bureaucratic obstacles to mid- course correction
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With these systematic problems pervasive in the social sector and in the four areas that
constituted the SAP, in order to achieve any success in the programme, the World Bank felt that
it was essential to make the following improvements:
1. Implementation needs to be strengthened by improving planning, budgeting and
operational efficiency.
2. The design of services should focus on quality and access with particular
emphasis on women and girls.
3. There is a need to improve on the level effort in projects, on govt. funding, and on
community responsibility.
4. There has to be an improvement in political will.
The key elements of the SAP framework were as follows:
1. A decentralized structure, to clarify responsibilities for implementation of
programs in each of the four social service, province by province
2. Performance- based annual agreements, with detail operational plans and
measurable targets, to determine funding
3. Mechanism for continuing policy dialogue, coordination and monitoring which
reach from front- line ministries and departments through to the highest levels of
Govt.
4. A Participatory Development Programme to encourage community participation
and experimentation through NGO’s and private institutions
An evaluation of the first phase of the SAP by the World Bank, two years into its three- year
duration, argued that ‘considerable progress has been achieved under the SAP, but the
achievements are fragile and are not yet institutionalized’.
Finally, the Govt. of Pakistan felt that the role of SAP in ensuring effective development in the
social sectors has been phenomenal.
GOVERNMENT
Pakistanhasa parliamentaryformgovernment,itconsistsof twohouses,the senate (upper house) and
the national assembly(lowerhouse).The senate consistsof 100 membersandthe national assembly has
a total of 342 electedmembers(272general seats,60 women,and10 Non-Muslimseats).The President
MUST be Muslim.
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Moreover, only the National Assembly can approve federal budget and finance bills. The Senate and
National Assembly can initiate and pass legislation. Each province has a governor, and a council of
ministers headed by a chief minister appointed by the governor and a provincial assembly.
GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN
From 1947-85 only one free and fair general election was held. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto democracy would
hardly be termed a model of good governance.
Three yearperiod(1985-88) withMohammadKhan Junejoasprime minister can be considered to have
provided better government and governance.
General PervezMusharraf’scoupinOctober(1999) putan endto the elevenyear process of democracy
in Pakistan. He has also followed the Zia’s footsteps by becoming president of Pakistan, while he
remains chief of the Army Staff.
It isgenerallybelievedthatthe mainobstacle tothe achievementof the comprehensivedevelopmentin
the Pakistanhasbeenthe crisisof governance. Growing corruption of large sections of the civil service
and arbitrary procedures are causing a severe crisis of legitimacy of government institutions.
PAKISTAN: ECONOMIC CHALLENGES 2015-16
Business Environment: Deteriorating.
Foreign Investment: Declining.
Exchange Rate: Depreciating.
Inflationary Pressure: Building Up
Electricity and Gas Shortages: Aggravating.
Relation with International Financial Institutions including IMF: Deteriorating.
Export Growth: Turning Negative.
Mysterious Growth in Remittance: Continuing
EDUCATION
Education in Pakistan is very poor.
The government only sets aside 3%of the annual budget for education.
There are three types of schools: Private for the wealthy, Public which is government run, and
Religious schools.
The government run schools do not teach English and many of them exist only on paper.
Many poor families try to send their children to Private schools for the public ones are so
terrible.
The Pakistani government estimates the literacy rate of Pakistan to be at 47% but outside
spectators beg to differ claiming the rate must be around 20%.
PAKISTAN AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Here is the progress Pakistan has made in reaching the Millennium Development Goals:
Nearly 1.4 million children have been enrolled in primary school.
9,121 community based schools have been established.
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1.4 millionWomenhave beentrained different techniques to save children from dehydration.
300,000 women and children have received vaccinations.
9,000 adult literacy centers have been established.
Volunteers from more than 30,000 villages have been enlisted to help support human
development at the grassroots level.
A FEW FACTS ABOUT PAKISTAN
Founded by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan emerged as an independent sovereign state on August 14th
1947.
Capital City: Islamabad
Total Area: 796,095 sq. km
Population: 167,421,000
Language: Urdu (National) English (official)
Pakistan relies on its network of canals to run its agricultural economy.
Major Crops: Wheat, cotton, rice, millet, sugar canes.
Major Fruits: mangos, oranges, bananas, apples
Main Resources: natural gas, coal, salt & iron.
Cotton, textiles, sugar, cement & chemicals play an important role in the economy.
NGO STATEMENT:PAKISTAN
We would like to bring to your attention the following critical issues.
INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS (POLICY AND ENFORCEMENT):
The Ministry of Women’s Development, the national machinery on women in Pakistan,
is marginalized within the national bureaucracy. It ostensibly has a policy-making role,
but its mandate is extremely restrictive at present. It has no influence in carrying out it its
legislative agenda through the Parliament; all positive provisions in the Ministry’s initial
draft bills for Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2004 (relating to ‘honor’ killings) and
Protection of Women Act, 2006 (amendments in the Hudood Ordinances), were dropped
or drastically changed by the law ministry and later by the federal cabinet.
The ministry is extremely constrained both in financial and human resources; it lacks will
as well as capacity to follow-up and implement the National Plan of Action, 1998, the
National Policy for Advancement and Empowerment of Women, 2002, and the CEDAW.
It also has patriarchal environment and preferences – several key positions in the ministry
are held by men from civil service and retired military men, who have no track record of
any contribution to women’s cause.
The National Commission on the Status of Women, with a watchdog role, does not enjoy
independence and/or any influence to make it incumbent upon the government to respond
to its recommendations on major issues, e.g. for the repeal of the Hudood Ordinances in
2003; amendment in the Citizenship Act and legislation recommended on home-based
women workers. The NCSW also lack resources and capacity to perform its duties under
its mandated constitutional role.
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There does not exists any mechanism to promote cross- sectoral, inter-ministerial
ownership and an enabling environment for implementing and monitoring the provisions
of CEDAW.
The government is not clear about the timeframe for further action to bring about equality
of law and withdraw its general declaration on CEDAW; neither does it have any
inclination or time-line in mind for the ratification of the Option Protocol on CEDAW.
The planning and mechanisms do not exist to collect gender disaggregated data in all
social and economic sectors to change operational definitions of ‘work’ and economic
productivity to accurately assess women’s economic contributions in labour force; no
steps have also been taken to maintain gender disaggregated data of voter turn-out of
women to gauge the level of their participation in political and electoral processes.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK (LAWS AND CUSTOMARY PRACTICES):
There exist a number of laws and legal provisions discriminatory to women, undermining the
equality of their legal status in three types of laws (Islamic laws, such as the Hudood Ordinances,
Law of Evidence and Qisas and Diyat provisions of the PPC1; the common law, such as the PPC
and; the customary law practiced by the parallel legal and quasi-legal systems in rural areas, such
as panchayats and jirgas). Some of these are discussed here briefly:
The Citizenship Act, 1951, continues to harbour discrimination towards female citizens,
whose foreign spouses are not entitled to Pakistani citizenship.
The Law of Evidence, 1984, is discriminatory to women in two respects. Firstly, it has
left it to the courts to decide the competence of a witness in accordance with the
qualifications prescribed by the injunctions of Islam and, secondly, it has halved the
value of women’s testimony in the case of financial transactions, if these are reduced to
writing.
The age of adulthood for girls has been defined differently in various laws. It is still
discriminatory in the Hudood Ordinances where the adult culpability starts at 18 for
males and 16 or puberty for females. This provision of puberty conflicts with other laws
such as the Child Marriage Restraint Act and the Majority Act which disregard puberty.
This is also in conflict with the Child Rights Convention to which Pakistan is a State
Party.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2004 (relating to ‘honor’ killings) has failed to
remove main legal lacunas responsible for ‘honor’ crimes, i.e. the perpetrators still enjoy
immunity through the waiver of retribution (qisas) and/or payment of compensation
(diyat) by the heirs (wali) who are usually common descendant in the family, where most
of the ‘honor’ crimes are committed.
The Protection of Women Act, 2006, has amended two of the Hudood Ordinances (the
Zina and Qazf Ordinances) with some positive amendments, such as shifting the offence
of rape from the Hudood Ordinances to Pakistan Penal Code, where it could be proved
through any circumstantial evidence. However, the law has not touched the two other
Hudood Ordinances (the offences of property and drinking) and has also failed to remove
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several discriminatory provisions in the ordinances it amended. These are: i) the age of
adulthood in the Zina Ordinance remains “18 years for a male or 16 years for a female or
puberty”; ii) testimony of female and non-Muslim citizens remains absent. This means
that women cannot be eye-witnesses in the cases of zina (fornication) liable to Hadd, and
non-Muslims can only be witnesses if the accused is non-Muslim; iii) non-Muslim cannot
be presiding officer of the court if the accused is Muslim and; iv) the Hudood Ordinances
are applicable on religious minorities which is a discrimination on the basis of religion.
The proposed ‘Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Bill,
2006, is a private members bill moved in the National Assembly by the head of the ruling
party, seeking to eliminate anti-women customary practices. This is an extremely weak
piece of legislation, mitigating already available punishments for some offences, for
example, the three to ten years rigorous imprisonment for settling disputes by marrying
off girls and women in the existing provision (310A) in the PPC has been lowered to up
to three years imprisonment in the proposed bill.
The Human Trafficking Ordinance, 2002, deals with external human smuggling only, and
has failed to address the issue of internal trafficking of women particularly carried under
the cover of customary practice of bride price and its link with the external trafficking of
women.
Inadequate registration of births and marriages leads families to marry off under age
daughters despite legal prohibitions against child marriages.
There do not exist any initiatives or mechanisms to review and revise the personal laws
of religious minorities to ensure women’s legal rights.
REPRESENTATIONOF WOMEN (POLITICAL/LEGISLATIVE,
ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL)
Reservation of seats for women (33 percent at the local level and 17 percent for the
national and provincial legislatures) is encouraging, however, the modality for electing
women for the national and provincial legislatures is through PR system (party lists). This
system deprives women of the opportunity of dealing directly with the electorate and
developing their own constituencies. The nomination system also allows complete
control over selection to political party leadership, opening the door to nepotism on the
basis of relationship or influence rather than merit.
There is also a gender imbalance of 21% in the possession of national identity card
(NIC). NIC is a requirement for voting and all government schemes. Almost half of all
Pakistani women are deprived of their right to vote and of access to other schemes and
resources.
The increase in women’s share in public services to 10% has not been implemented as
yet; there had been some public pronouncements at the high level about it, but there had
been no cabinet approval, legislative action or notification issued in this regard so far.
There had been no appointments of women as judges of the higher courts since 1994; all
women appointed then have already retired; recently, some appointments had been made
at the lower judiciary level recently.
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VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (POLICY FRAMEWORK AND ENFORCEMENT):
There is no holistic and independent policy for elimination of VAW and the issue is not
recognized by the government as a ‘national priority issue of public safety’.
There is no legislation on ‘domestic violence’ and ‘sexual harassment’ defining them as
criminal offences; (some private members bills for ending domestic violence and
customary practices have been moved in the National Assembly recently; these should be
encouraged, however, since, there are a number of serious loopholes in theses bills, they
must be debated and discussed with all the concerned stakeholders, particularly women’s
rights groups and legal experts).
There had been no let up in incidents of VAW (Pakistan Responses: para 7; page 4) in
recent years despite the enactment of a law relating to ‘honour’ killings; a woman
provincial minister was murdered and there were several cases of rape/gang rape
recently; the government has not taken no concrete measures to check this rising menace
as perpetrators continue to enjoy complete impunity; the impact of the more recently
enacted law (Protection of Women Act, 2006) is yet to be seen:
The establishment and performance of high level ministerial committees (Pakistan
Responses: paras 21 & 22; pages 7 & 8), such as Media Awareness Campaign Committee
comprising federal minister and Members of Parliament to launch media awareness
campaign; Federal Cabinet Committee for monitoring and proper follow-up of violence
cases and; a National Committee on prevention of Violence against Women, headed by
the interior minister, are not known to even informed sections of society.
The inadequate number of shelter homes and women’s police stations with limited human
and financial resources provide negligible service delivery to survivors of violence
against women; only 17 of the 25 Women Crisis Centers are operational in a country of
110 districts offering temporary relief with meager resources, and without any widely
publicized helpline known to public.
The existence of Gender Crime Cell at the National Police Bureau (Pakistan Responses:
para 21; page 7) in the federal capital Islamabad is little known to public even in the city
it is based; it is extremely constrained by human resources and the details of how many
reports it had received and disposed of were never divulged to public.
PAKISTAN NGO FORUM
CODE OF CONDUCT FOR NGOS AND CBOS
Mandated to serve in the public interest, citizen organizations (NGOs) have been active in a
broad assortment of fields across the country, operating for the welfare and uplift of the
marginalized groups and the attainment of civil rights.
Spurred on by voluntary initiatives, these groups function regardless of personal or parochial
interests and seek to organize themselves on the basis of a code of conduct, regulating their
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relationships with each other, with the government, international development agencies as well
as their own staff (volunteers and paid professionals).
It is within such a mechanism of self-regulation that NGOs intend to pursue their objectives.
a) With the aim of establishing a just, responsible and emancipated society, we seek to
strengthen an enabling environment for civil society institutions, public welfare and citizen rights
groups.
b) It is our concerted view that achieving a responsible, just and dynamic society calls for a state
system that is responsible, democratic and sensitive to citizens’ welfare and development. To
make such a system a reality, we earnestly wish to engage in a meaningful and positive dialogue
with the government at all levels. We are eager to pave the way for a genuine partnership
between NGOs and state institutions based on mutual trust and respect and geared towards the
common goal of eradicating poverty and deprivations.
c) In line with our belief that voluntary citizen groups have vital roles to play in the development
process, we would like to see greater collaboration, information and resource sharing and unity
amongst these organizations. We seek to promote transparency and accountability within the
NGO sector, encouraging mutual respect and understanding to put an end to narrow differences
and unhealthy competition.
d) Our relationship with donor organizations should be built around our own priorities and
objectives. It should be based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, transparency and
accountability
OBJECTIVES:
1. To enhance rate of enrollment of girls and boys for getting quality education through formal
and non formal education models
2. The provision of basic rights of the children through awareness program by involving
parents, governments and all related stakeholders.
3. To educate communities from the criminal cultures like as honor killing, deny of girls’
education, health issues, right of vote of females and voice against gender discrimination.
4. To facilitate communities in disaster Management / Emergency Relief
5. To build the capacity of NGOs, CBOs, CCBs, Civil Society Network and Community for the
development of society.
6. Provide Health Facilitation and Awareness regarding the maternal health, Reproductive
health, New Born Child care, HIV/Aids, HBC A B, and Personal Hygienic.etc.
