Govt proposes Rs437m SDGs Unit despite no UNDP funding

• Past SDGs funding model questioned.
• Federal govt paid larger earlier share.
• Renewed UNDP role draws scrutiny.

ISLAMABAD: The government has proposed setting up a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Support Unit with an allocation of Rs437.3 million from the national exchequer, with no financial contribution from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The News reported.

There is also a need to establish how the SDGs Support Unit, set up in 2016 with an allocation of Rs1 billion over five years, has performed.

At the time, the understanding was that the federal government would contribute Rs500 million, while the UNDP would provide the remaining equivalent amount on a cost-sharing basis.

The government, on its part, contributed Rs430 million during the five years, whereas the entire UN system was able to contribute Rs221 million. The share of the federal government was 66.2% against the UN share of 33.8%.

There was a tug of war between the Planning Commission and UNDP, as the latter never took the Planning Commission (PC) into confidence about spending decisions. The former deputy chairman Planning Commission, Sartaj Aziz, had raised many objections over such faulty arrangements undertaken with the UNDP and official files could be seen and read in this regard.

Then the PC decided to fund the SDGs Support Unit from its own resources and approved its own SDG Support Unit in 2022, and recruitment was initiated. 

However, due to a change in government, this programme was also stalled following the floods of 2022. Pakistan was the only country in the world which handed over administration of SDGs to the UNDP in 2016 and now reverted this decision in 2026.

Now the planning minister has decided to hand over management back to the UNDP. The planning ministry has decided to get approval of a concept paper seeking approval of a project with an estimated cost of Rs437.256 million without a penny of support from the UNDP. 

Once this project is approved, there will be no scrutiny of the project and millions of rupees in funds might be utilised for providing perks and privileges to already hired staff, TADA and all other heads who had nothing to do with the achievement of SDGs goals.

According to the prepared concept paper for getting approval of the SDGs programme, the SDGs section is an SDGs Secretariat and an international focal point for SDGs. 

For SDGs implementation, there have been efforts to improve the institutional structures for better horizontal and vertical coordination; improvement in the collection and reporting of data; advocacy and awareness campaigns; oversight committees and mechanisms; capacity building initiatives; and stakeholder engagement. There has been an improvement in data collection and indicator reporting.

Policy support is provided by engaging different think tanks and academia through the establishment of SDGs research and resource centre. Furthermore, a dashboard will be created that contains all research consists of their objectives, mapped with exclusive SDGs targets and action points inferred from the results.

The SDGs Support and Research Lab project will catalyse and integrate all the government measures to reduce poverty and inequality in the country and foster the pace of economic growth and development. The project will stir human development and environmental protection aspects in the economic growth and development measures.

The projects would further assist in evidence-based policy making, which would not only accelerate the implementation of SDGs in Pakistan but also make sure that policies are pragmatic. Moreover, the project would also be the knowledge hub with research providing the best practices, information on past initiatives and other relevant information to improve the national performance on SDGs.

The project would accelerate the implementation of SDGs in Pakistan, building upon the work that has been previously done and coming up with a pragmatic plan of action for the next eight years. 

These include exploring additional SDGs indicators from administrative data by strengthening and collating the information received from different departments.