KARACHI, June 19: Though Sindh lags behind in most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there are ample opportunities in the province to accelerate progress.

This was stated by UNDP’s Country Director on Wednesday at the launch of the first Millennium Development Goals Report.

Franche said that four drivers are critical to the achievement of MDGs and include enhancing investment geared towards empowering women and girls; increasing energy and sanitation access for the poor; improved governance; and capacity development of key national institutions.

The report, a collaboration between Sindh government and UNDP, aims at tracking progress toward the achievement of MDGs at the provincial level and compares progress across districts.

The MDGs are a set of eight goals adopted by 189 countries, including Pakistan in 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015.

The MDGs provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.

At the launching of the report, Nisar Ahmed Khoro appreciated the support of UNDP to the Sindh Government for the preparation of MDG report.

He underlined the need for joint collaboration between different partners to enhance social development outcomes. The province now has more resources through the NFC award, and, therefore, it should be able to make a quantum leap towards the achievement of MDGs, he said.

Win Some, Lose Some

According to the MDG Report, Sindh lags behind on a number of indicators which measure progress towards MDGs.

Reducing poverty and hunger by 2015 are unlikely to be met.

The proportion of children under the age of 5, who are under-weight, was estimated at 40pc in 2004/2005, 2pc above the national average and 27pc above the MDG Target of 13pc.

On MDG-2, Achieving Universal Primary Education, the Net Primary Enrollment Ratio (NER) for 2010-11 was 53pc against the target of 100pc. The literacy rate is at 59pc against the target of 88pc.Targets related to gender parity in primary and secondary education are likely to be achieved in certain districts and at provincial level if the current level of performance is maintained.

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for primary education was 0.77 for Sindh in 2009-10.

District-wise performance has, however, been questionable. Kashmore held a GPI for primary education of only 0.48 whereas Karachi stood at 0.94.

MDG-4, Reducing Child Mortality, is unlikely to be achieved in its entirety. The Under 5 Mortality Rate is as high as 100 deaths per 1000 live births against a target of 52. The proportion of underweight children under 5 years was 43pc in 2005-06.

Targets for MDG 5, Improving Maternal Health, are similarly not expected to be met. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) which should be brought down to 140 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births was last recorded at between 354 and 350 in 2008-09. Contraceptive prevalence rates were generally low in the province, estimated at 22pc overall in 2006-07.

On MDG 6, data is not available for all the indicators. Hepatitis B prevalence averaged 2.9pc in the province, while the prevalence of Hepatitis C was estimated at 5.2pc. Khairpur was the most affected district for Hepatitis B and Ghotki for Hepatitis-C.

On MDG-7, Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, according to 2010-11 figure for the indicator of the proportion of population with access to an improved source of drinking water, the target of 93pc has been met, however with sharp variations between districts.

By contrast Sindh’s performance on sanitation facilities at 55pc in 2007-2008 remains far below the target of 90pc.