Pakistan National Conservation Strategy - Research Paper Example

About SDPI The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) is an independent, public interest think tank that provides advice to public, private and voluntary organizations and undertakes policy-oriented research and advocacy. Mission Statement To catalyze the transition towards sustainable development defined as the enhancement of peace, social justice and well-being, within and across generations. Brief History SDPI was founded in August 1992 on the recommendation of the Pakistan National Conservation Strategy (NCS), also called Pakistan's Agenda 21. The NCS placed Pakistan's socio-economic development within the context of a national environmental plan. This highly acclaimed document, approved by the Federal Cabinet in March 1992, outlined the need for an independent non-profit organization to serve as a source of expertise for policy analysis and development, policy intervention, and policy and program advisory services in support of NCS implementation. The design of the Institute was initiated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature-Pakistan (IUCN-P) with significant support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), gratefully acknowledged as the Institute's key source of institutional support. The committee formulated for the constitution of SDPI consulted government officials, academics, intellectuals, NGOs and journalists while formulating the by-laws and identifying the first Board of Governors. During eleven years of SDPI's existence, there have been six changes in government. SDPI, as a policy-oriented research institute, has had to re-establish relationships with government each time the administration has changed. Despite this relatively unstable political environment, SDPI has, and intends to continue to produce quality policy research and advocate democratic governance and pro-people initiatives. Mandate To become the center of excellence on sustainable development in Pakistan conduct policy advice, policy oriented research and advocacy from a broad multi-disciplinary perspective promote the implementation of policies, programs, laws and regulations based on sustainable development strengthen civil society and facilitate civil society-government interaction through collaboration with other organizations and activist networks disseminate research findings and public education through the media, conferences, seminars, lectures, publications contribute to building up national research capacity and infrastructure. Goals The following goals reflect the main axes of our work- the means through which we effect change: to catalyze the transition towards sustainable and just development in Pakistan to serve as a source of expertise and advisory services for the government, private sector, and non-governmental initiatives supporting the implementation of Pakistan's National Conservation Strategy to conduct policy-oriented research on sustainable development from a broad multi-disciplinary perspective to provide policy advice on matters relating to the mission of the Institute to contribute to strengthening the social and physical infrastructure for research in Pakistan including the construction and dissemination of databases and research indices and the improvement of library systems to initiate, establish and participate in collaborative advocacy and other activities with like-minded organizations in and outside the country. Organizational Strategies There has been little amendment to the existing mandate and goals of the Institute. However, there has been a process of clarification and prioritization. We are keen to retain the strengths that have made SDPI the highly respected Institute it is. We are also aware that a process of restructuring and changing priorities is essential to maximize our comparative advantage and ensure we continue to improve our effectiveness. The strategies below reflect these needs and desires: strengthen linkages between policy, research, advocacy and training maintain the transparent, participatory, 'moral community' culture for which SDPI is respected devolve partial responsibility for the financial viability of projects to researchers preserve SDPI's broad mandate, whilst maintaining the highest research standard achievable be realistic about workload vis--vis institutional/staff capacity seek out new, creative fundraising strategies to secure our financial base in the medium term; maximize returns on existing opportunities such as the training program consolidate, and possibly expand, the organizational infrastructure including securing our own premises ensure greater policy effectiveness of research continue to foster multi-disciplinary research on sustainable development engage with governments to support democratic governance and pro-people initiatives take stock of SDPI's contribution to the first phase of the NCS and, based on that assessment, ensure effective support for the implementation of the, more recent, government's National Environment Action Plan (NEAP). Approach SDPI produces knowledge-knowledge that can enhance the capacity of government to make informed policy decisions and to engage civil society on issues of public interest. The Institute acts as both a generator of original research on sustainable development issues and as an information resource for concerned individuals and institutions. SDPI's function is thus two-fold: an advisory role fulfilled through research, policy advice and advocacy; and an enabling role realized through providing other individuals and organizations with resource materials to undertake NCS related activities. The research program at SDPI is intended to drive the three main activities of policy advice, advocacy and training: Research and Policy Advice SDPI's research and policy is multi-disciplinary and problem-oriented. It is focused around the core program areas of the (National Conservation Strategy) NCS/ National Environment Acton Plan (NEAP). It is an iterative and flexible program that evolves and changes with policy needs, research capacity and interest. SDPI's Current Research Program A. Environment 1. Hazardous Waste Management 2. Sustainable Industrial Development 3. Renewable Energy/Clean Fuels 4. Trade and Environment 5. Water B. Globalization and Rural Livelihoods C. Governance D. Human Development: Social Sectors 1. Labor 2. Gender and Globalization 3. Gender 4. Poverty 5. Peace 6. Education 7. Health E. Information and Communications Global prospectus SDPI continued to retain its unique identity as a Pakistani NGO with Pakistani perspective - donor friendly but neither donor dependent nor donor driven. It has already established a reputation in presenting a Pakistani perspective of an extremely sensitive issue - Gender, thus far regarded as an imported agenda item. SDPI continued to advocate, incorporate and ensure community partnership in its ongoing activities and programs. Thus taking community participation one step forward. Since its establishment, SDPI has been striving to bridge the gap between the actual and perceived needs - involving and listening to the communities for identifying and understanding their needs. However its interaction with the global community at a very early stage revealed a pressing need for basic health care to save the children dying of diarrhoea and women suffering from anemia. SDPI modified its project to meet the immediate needs of the community, accordingly reallocating its resources for providing basic health care through provision of a free clinic. Future Vision Youth of any country is indisputably a top priority investment area for nation building and an important human resource for socio-economic development. SDPI recognizing the value of this important input has planned an International Conference on "Youth & Human Development", Investing in Future, a Communication Project under Training Program. This conference aims to provide a meeting ground for youth activists, youth leaders, professionals, scholars, civic entrepreneurs, policy makers and researchers to share and exchange knowledge, experiences and insights. SDPI envisions the sustainability and expansion of its existing services in its thematic areas of Health, Education, Poverty Alleviation cum Income Generation (PACIG) and Training with improved quality rather than looking just for quantity, which comes through increased number of beneficiaries. Our goal is to expand the services all over Pakistan. This would be done through a large number of SDPI 's volunteers across Pakistan helping SDPI in its mission of promoting human development. PACIG Program of SDPI also anticipates expanding its services to the entire Pakistan in order to help eliminate poverty by enabling disadvantaged communities to develop their own enterprises. A healthy Pakistani society is what SDPI 's Health Program envisions. Health being the priority program area of SDPI, in the coming year it envisions allocating sizeable resources to its health program. SDPI is looking forward to establish an E-based virtual office under its Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Development Initiative to facilitate inter organizational communication, to ensure an effective and efficient Management Information System. SDPI is also looking forward to replicate its campaign Fight Against Dowry-FAD in its efforts towards the realization of the existence of this social evil in our society through FAD network. Media reports The Daily Times April 03, 2004 By Abbas Rashid There is little doubt that our curricula and textbooks have helped to create a mindset that is a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution. Our schools and universities should be a defence gainst dissension within, and not locations where our children learn to internalise a discriminatory framework. The initiative taken by the SDPI report, The Subtle Subversion, on curricula and state of textbooks in Pakistan is not entirely unexpected. It is par for the course when it comes to almost any attempt at reforming Pakistan's education system that resembles nothing as much as complete shambles at this stage. One could differ on the details, but it is difficult to argue with the essential thrust of the report regarding the need to provide material to children that promotes tolerance, harmony and peace rather than hate, militarism and exclusivity. The report highlights historical distortions contained in textbooks, the systemic flaws in the procedures and structures governing their production and the manner in which they reinforce negative stereotypes rather than encouraging critical thinking. They are unimaginatively written and the content is presented in ways that is not The compilers of the report, A H Nayyar and Ahmed Salim, have built on, and credited, the work of other scholars such as the eminent historian K K Aziz. Of course Dr Nayyar himself wrote on the subject as far back as 1985 in a book published by the Zed Press. Anyhow, as is often the case when such issues are raised in Pakistan, the debate over the report has been deftly narrowed by the detractors to a contest over who is the better Muslim and who the greater patriot. So, it should come as no great surprise that instead of debating the pros and cons of the report in academic terms while conceding the obvious need for much better textbooks, the issue has been turned into a battle for safeguarding Islam and the ideology of Pakistan. More than half a century later the practice continues unabated. The SDPI report's suggestions have been termed by some critics as being pro-India and anti-Pakistan. Sustainable peace does require that we take a more balanced view of our neighbours and review the element of demonising the people, rather than criticising the governments, that has become part of our textbooks. Indeed, many in India too continue to protest vociferously against the saffronisation of texts under the BJP government. But, as in their case, so in ours, encouraging intolerance and exclusion has far more profound implications for the kind of society that we create for ourselves than the admittedly important issue of our relationship with key neighbours. There are all kinds of reasons why sectarianism and an extremist ethos has developed in Pakistan over recent years. But, there is little doubt that our curricula and textbooks have helped to create a mindset that is a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution. Our schools and universities should be a defence against dissension within, and not locations where our children learn to internalise a discriminatory framework that encourages them to relegate minorities to the category of second-class citizens, denotes women as inferior beings or treats a growing number of sects even among Muslims as being outside the pale of Islam. Clearly, this serves neither Islam nor, by any stretch of imagination, does it make Pakistan stronger. Those opposing change, whether in textbooks or otherwise, have picked on the US government's focus on madrassa education in Pakistan. Clearly, reform is needed here as elsewhere but the reason is that it is our society that cannot afford further fracturing and not because premium is to be placed on some US agenda. In the education sector, reform is crucially needed in the areas of teacher education and training, textbooks and examinations. Reform is a process and even in the best of educational systems its specifics can and should be continually discussed, debated and refined. Insistence on preserving without change an education system that has all but collapsed is hardly a serious option for us. ------------------------------------------------------ Abbas Rashid is a freelance journalist and political analyst whose career has included editorial positions in various Pakistani newspapers REPORT 2 Ahmed Salim THE NEWS Two years ago, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute released a report on textbooks from the perspective of correcting the fallacies, prejudices, and historical falsehood in them. The subjects selected for the report were Pakistan/Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English, taught in first to twelfth grades. After 15 months of hard work, education experts - from all over Pakistan and SDPI - launched the report. It was thought that the Ministry of Education, educational circles and media would evaluate the report after healthy and positive debate and help in forwarding the SDPI's work, ultimately correcting the shortcomings in the textbooks. However, instead of looking at the contents of the report, it was criticized for elements which were not part of the report. The National Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education formed a committee to review the report. The majority of the committee members approved the report's recommendations with few changes. But the ministry announced that the report had not been approved. A portion of the media was also negative about report, but a large number of people, including educational circles and concerned citizens, expressed their concern over the revelations made in the report. In the last one year, some parliamentarians and sections of the national and international media want to know if the hate material, prejudice and historical falsehood in the textbooks - documented in the report - have been taken out or not. New Research Project On the other hand, after the arrival of the new education minister, there has been visible seriousness in correcting the textbooks' content. There have been number of encouraging government measures in this direction. For quite sometime, the president and the new education minister have been hinting at making the textbooks content balanced, positive and religiously tolerant. Keeping in view these developments, the SDPI thought it fit to have a review of the four subjects - Pakistan/Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English - to see what changes have been made. The old team at SDPI again shouldered the responsibility. The first phase was to collect the textbooks that have been published in 2005, to compare the changes made in the textbooks published in 2002-03. The keenness to update our own work was natural, especially when the government also seemed serious in bringing changes in the textbooks. The Ministry of Education has a Curriculum Wing, under which a National Review Committee works. The committee approves the textbooks of the four provinces. No provincial textbook board can publish any textbook without the approval of the review committee. Therefore, every province prepares separate books for every subject, but they are written in the light of the Ministry of Education's instructions and they cannot be published without the approval of the National Review Committee. The basis of our research are the textbooks of the four provinces. Their study will explain the changes made in the last three years. But we are not only relying on the textbooks. We are trying to contact and solicit views of the subject specialists of the four textbook boards, current and former heads of these boards, experts of textbooks, primary and intermediate teachers, parents and education experts. We visited the provincial textbook boards' offices, and acquired new and old textbooks. According to initial findings of the project In 2004, the National Textbook Wing changed the Social Studies curriculum for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and also announced the introduction of History and Geography in its place. We have acquired its' text, and it hints at a number of positive changes. But we could not find textbooks of History and Geography, and the staff of the textbook board and the shopkeepers were unaware of any such change. In the market the 2005 editions of Social Studies were available. An official of the Punjab Textbook Board said that the History and Geography books were being written and that they would be introduced in 2006. The text concerning Islam in the textbooks of Pakistan Studies in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades has been reduced, and made part of the Islamiat textbooks. Similarly, the teaching of Pakistan Studies was reduced to one year in the 9th, 10th, and the intermediate grades. Civics is also being taught for one year in the 9th, 10th, and the intermediate grades. Some officers of the Ministry of Education revealed that the current curriculum has been prepared in 2002 under the guidelines of the last government's education policy (1998-2010). However, the old education policy does not allow room for many changes. Keeping in view the current needs, work is being done on another education policy, which is expected to be made public this year. In 2005, the National Curriculum Wing placed a number of advertisements in the newspapers, looking for textbooks experts for two years on attractive remuneration packages to prepare curriculum in harmony with the present times. We do not have the information about the number of consultants recruited for the job, but it hints at the government's seriousness in this regard. Here is an update on our on-going research: In depth study of the textbooks is under way. The findings would be published in the form of a report. The initial findings point towards some positive changes. Our basic and important task is to compare, (after a thorough study of the) current textbooks with the textbooks of 2002-03, and review how many changes have been made. Apart from the SDPI team, friends and some authors of the first report are also part of the team. The research team would also review if, in the presence of National Curriculum Wing's control and a particular mindset, positive changes are possible or not The research team would review if by making the education a provincial matter, any improvement is possible or not. And why efforts should be made to make provincial curriculum wings empowered and effective to get better results. The research team would also look into the possibility of forming an independent National Education Board, which should have members from the Ministry of Education, education experts, teachers, parents and members of the civil society. The board should have main role in the education policy and preparation of curriculum. The training of teachers is vital to bring them out of the old mindset, so that they can teach constructively. Conclusion Health, including sexual and reproductive Health (SDPI), has different cultural perceptions and various determinants. Some crucial determinants of SDPI include information, education, lifestyle, religion, region, law, gender roles, economy and political will. These factors are not only separately related to SDPI but mutually influence each other. we have lost the capacity in this country to conduct a structured and planned atmosphere for working and living and SDPI is the only NGO in Pakistan who is trying so that each and every thing goes in the right direction. What are the reproductive health (RH) issues in Muslim countries The RH issues in Muslim countries should be the same as in the rest of the world. Further and SDPI is supporting this issue all over the world, being the signatory to the ideals of Cairo, the Muslim countries like all other signatories should be following the same solutions and strategies towards the RH issues. SDPI report also give the government of Pakistan awakening call to change the agenda in syllabi correction so that students of Pakistan will free of Rataism .last but not the least It would have been funny if it weren't so tragic to see the inability of the report's critics to mount a decent argument. If an argument is premised on allegations, it clearly cannot even begin to look at an issue on the basis of its intrinsic merits or demerits. The opponents chose to kick the player rather than the ball. There is evidence galore that our education system has failed comprehensively. Corollary: there can be no two opinions about the urgent need to look into the various causes of decline and try to turn the situation around. There is also no doubt in the minds of those who are either non-partisan or are not pining for positions within the establishment that intolerance and bigotry have become the staple in this country. Now if someone chooses to look into this process of degeneration, among other things, in the syllabi that are being taught, should that exercise be debated on any basis other than its innate value Refernces Waqasullah Khan Shinwari, Fahd Ali, A.H.Nayyer(2001) "Identifying Factors That Can Make Electric Power Generation" From Solar Photovoltaic Technology Marketable vol. 25, no. 3, Fall, pp. 439-51, Shafqat Shehzad (2003) "How Can Pakistan Reduce Infant And Child Mortality Rate: A Decomposition Analysis", pp. 154-60. Mohsin Babbar and Ali Abbas Qazilbash (2004)"Unemployment, Poverty And Declining Socio-Economic Status Associated With Increased Suicides Among Pakistani Youth" pp. 69-76. Aneela Sultana and Ali Abbas Qazilbash(2003) pp. 371-400 "Factors Associated With Failure Of Family Planning Methods In Pakistan" Read More