Pakistan and UAE Discuss Food Security Initiatives for Vulnerable Populations

Pakistan and UAE Discuss Food Security Initiatives for Vulnerable Populations

Minister of State and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Public Communication and Digital Platforms, Fahd Haroon, meets with UAE Consul General in Karachi, H.E. Bakheet Al Romaithi to discuss the importance of public communication and UAE's food program for Pakistan.

 

The Minister of State and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Public Communication and Digital Platforms, Fahd Haroon, met with H.E. Bakheet Al Romaithi, United Arab Emirates Consul General in Karachi. They both discussed the importance of public communication in raising awareness about food security and the impacts of climate change. The meeting centered around the UAE food program for Pakistan, initiated by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

During the meeting, Mr. Haroon also informed a visiting media delegation from the UAE about the initiatives taken by Pakistan, particularly in the Sindh province, to combat food insecurity. The Consul General expressed satisfaction with the cooperation between the government of Sindh and UAE on the ‘Emirates Humanitarian’ medical campaign in Pakistan's southern Sindh province to provide health facilities to the poor.

 

Pakistan and UAE have a long history of friendly relations, with the UAE serving as a trusted ally for Pakistan. The UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE-PAP) reflects His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan's love for the people of Pakistan. The program has provided assistance in various social and humanitarian fields, including health, poverty alleviation, education, and disaster relief.

 

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Acute Malnutrition analysis, acute malnutrition is at a Critical level in eight districts in Sindh and at a Serious level in one district. The UAE's food assistance program aims to address this pressing issue. As per the data, the overall malnutrition prevalence in Pakistan is 38.3%, with 17.7 million stunted and 9.7 million wasted children under five years of age.

 

In the past, UAE has executed several humanitarian assistance programs in Pakistan, including the UAE Polio Vaccination Campaign, which vaccinated over 86 million Pakistani children under the age of five between 2014 and December 2020. UAE's assistance in the healthcare sector has helped Pakistan combat various diseases and increase life expectancy.

 

Pakistan and the UAE share a strong trade relationship with a significant Pakistani population residing in the UAE. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan received $531.4 million in remittances from the UAE in 2022. The UAE is Pakistan's biggest trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa region, with exports from the UAE to Pakistan amounting to $7.13 billion in 2021. The main products exported from the UAE to Pakistan were refined petroleum, crude petroleum, and scrap iron. During the last 18 years, exports of the UAE to Pakistan have increased at an annualized rate of 9.57%, from $1.38 billion in 2003 to $7.13 billion in 2021.

Pakistan exported $1.28 billion worth of products to the UAE in 2021, with refined petroleum, bovine meat, and rice being the primary products. The exports of Pakistan to the UAE have increased at an annualized rate of 0.74%, from $1.12 billion in 2003 to $1.28 billion in 2021.

 

The meeting between Mr. Haroon and the Consul General reflects the shared commitment of Pakistan and UAE to address food insecurity and improve the well-being of vulnerable populations. The UAE's food assistance program, along with Pakistan's initiatives in the Sindh province, will help address the issue of malnutrition in Pakistan.

Mishal Launches Smart Fellowship Program on Eliminating Hidden Hunger and Malnutrition for Journalists in Sindh.

The program on Eliminating Hidden Hunger and Malnutrition to build media’s capacity to improve accountability mechanisms for Nutrition related development and public spending. 

23 May 2017 – Karachi, PK – Mishal Pakistan, the Country Partner Institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum has launched a media development initiative to build the capacity of the journalists reporting on Nutrition in Sindh. The Fellowship program is focusing on enhancing media’s role to act as public watchdog on policy makers. The initiative, Eliminating Hidden Hunger is working with more than 1200 health journalists across SIndh to improve public perception, opinion and datasets on Nutrition and other related issues contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2.  

Mishal is already working with the Sindh Assembly and its relevant standing committee on Health for “Smart Policy Making”. The cooperation has delivered a high level training initiative for the parliamentarians in Sindh, where the parliamentarians shared their views on the importance of media’s role to shape public policy according to people’s needs and requirements.

Dr. Sohrab Sarki, Chairman Standing Committee on Health of the Sindh Assembly said, “We see media as one of the most important players in the Smart Policy making framework, whereby media reflects the grass root realities of citizen’s needs, while making the policy makers accountable to the public for transparency and efficiency. Media is a crucial partner in knowledge creation and influencing the collective consciousness of the society. We need to bring media on board for Smart Policy making.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, said, “The current state of health in Pakistan is alarming. About 46.8 million people in Pakistan are malnourished. Through this initiative we are prioritizing development agendas by ensuring policy making through data and real time feedback through media. The program on Eliminating Hidden Hunger and Malnutrition will improve service delivery to the citizens and contribute further to improving Pakistan’s competitiveness on global footing, while improving accountability through media.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian High Commission (Australian Aid) reached out to Mishal, earlier this year, to partner and launch a nationwide program to create knowledge resources on Nutrition challenges in Pakistan. The program will address the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Goal No. 2 ‘Zero Hunger’”.

Nida Karim, Program Specialist Eliminating Hidden Hunger at Mishal Pakistan, said, “The program focuses on increasing the capacity of media on Sustainable Development Goal no. 2 and enhance media’s role to be more proactive on public scrutiny of the policy makers on issues related to food security, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture practices. Through this initiative Mishal is also launching a nutrition specific information management system for the journalists and policy makers.”

Mishal Pakistan, the Country Partner Institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum, is closely working with the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Primary and Secondary Health. The initiative by Mishal has launched the program to improve the narrative building on Nutrition by engaging various stakeholders including press clubs, journalism associations, policy making institutes and academia across Pakistan.

Mishal is also working with the National University of Modern Languages on research projects to create new vocabulary on Nutrition related issues in the leading languages being spoken in the country. Mishal through its flagship media development program, “AGAHI Awards”, has introduced multiple new categories on Nutrition, to encourage more public debate to be brought by media on this issue.

An estimated 2 billion people — over 30 percent of the world’s population suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals. “Hidden hunger” is how health experts often refer to micronutrient deficiencies because most people affected do not show the visible physical symptoms and hence may not be aware of their condition. Hidden Hunger’s effects can be devastating, leading to mental impairment, poor health, low productivity, and even death. Its adverse effects on child health and survival are particularly acute, especially within the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, from conception to the age of two, resulting in serious physical and cognitive consequences.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children and the more vulnerable – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. Zero Hunger is one of 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Please visit Pakistan’s first infographic on “Eliminating Hidden Hunger” information and data at:

http://eliminatinghiddenhunger.com/index.php/infographic/

40,000 Ghost Teachers and 5200 Ghost Schools remain unaddressed in Sindh despite Rs. 145 Billion budget.

40,000 Ghost Teachers and 5,200 Ghost Schools remain unaddressed in Sindh despite Rs. 145 Billion budget.

60% schools remain without drinking water facility, 40% without electricity, and 35% without any boundary walls. Over 40,000 ghost teachers and 5,229 ghost schools loiter unaddressed in Sindh despite allocation of Rs. 145.02 billion budget for education.

The Provincial Meeting on Education Governance convened in Karachi today to discuss the current state of education in Sindh. The roundtable discussion took place among the key stakeholders of in the education sector. The participants highlighted the importance of government and media partnership to enhance accountability. The meeting was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with ILM Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).

The objective of ILM-o-AGAHI initiative is to improve accountability and media coverage of priority education issues and build consensus on education policies by engaging stakeholders, including media and policy makers.

Fazlullah Pechuho, Secretary Education to the Government of Sindh, Aamir Latif, President Press Club Karachi, and representatives of the non-governmental organizations and the journalist community attended the roundtable dialogue.

Puruesh Chaudhary, Director Mishal Pakistan, facilitating the group discussion said that, “education is a neglected theme in Pakistan, while the government has not given education sector a priority, media has also failed to safeguard the rights of the citizen to universal education”. Education reporting lacks the accountability perspective, she further said.

'During Pervez Musharraf's tenure schools used to be constructed without any need assessment, this has resulted in an uneven distribution of institutions across the province', said Dr. Fazlullah Pechehu, Secretary Education, Government of Sindh. He also stressed on the importance of constructive role of journalism in monitoring government's work in the education sector. He further added that the system of accountability is there but it is defective. He also said that the merit-based recruitment of teachers is essential to improve the education sector. He also informed that his department has got the approval of the cabinet for public and private partnership for schools in Sindh.

Aamir Latif, senior journalist, while moderating the discussion highlighted that in past, the most incompetent individuals used to join police department or the teaching sector, which has led to the current state of education in Sindh. 

Mishal Pakistan with academicians and researchers produced a literature review in 2014 assessing an overarching complexity and trivial underlying causes that has subjugated the communities to an idealistic narrative on education. The study witnesses “Education Governance and Accountability” as the most underreported area in media. While the literature reviewed does speak volume of increasing public spending on education little does it discuss the possible Educational Governance models. This underreporting further positions the growing need for a dialogue to essentially build mechanisms that streamlines the transparency and utility of existing budgetary allocation for primary and secondary education.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education. Agahi Awards, an annual series of awards for journalism in Pakistan, is another initiative of Mishal Pakistan, developed under the umbrella of the Credibility Lab at Mishal for creating an appreciation methodology for ethical and quality content. The theme of this year's Agahi awards is also going to be 'Education'.

Every 7th school in Sindh is non functional.

Every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional.

Sindh is facing an education emergency: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop.

“Education sector is one of the most neglected area in Sindh, whereas ghost schools are the most crucial issue in Sindh”, this was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop in Karachi today.

According to the recent survey of non functional and ghost schools by Supreme Court of Pakistan, there are at least 6,164 non functional and ghost schools in Sindh, this means every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional. “There is a dire need to address the education emergency in Sindh, as the future of the next generations depend on the quality of education”, this was discussed by renowned speakers from media, academia and civil society while addressing the participants of the workshop. A large number of participants from academia, civil society and media attended the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop.

The ILM-o-AGAHI workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).More than thirty education reporters from leading media entities of print, television, radio and online journalism were selected for this workshop.

According to the Alif Ailaan education data there are 12 million children in Sindh between the age of 5 and 16, of which 6.1 million or 50% are out of school. More than half of the children out of school are girls.

Senior journalist, Mubashir Zaidi, while discussing about the current state of education and role of media, said that the government of Sind spends an estimated Rs. 573 million on schools that exist only on paper. The scope of problem of ghost teachers is crucial as there is no data available on that; however, media reports suggest that many teachers draw salaries from education department without showing up for their jobs. “Education sector is the most neglected area in media, however with the help of civil society, media should play an active role in promoting education” he added. 

While discussing the role of media in policy development, Dr. Tahir Masood, Chairman, Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, said that learning outcome of children is also a big issue and requires the attention of education policy makers. Sindh’s children score poorly in reading and mathematics compared to children with the rest of the country. “59% of class 5 students in Sindh cannot read a story fluently in Urdu or Sindhi”, Dr. Masood said.

Senior journalist and media researcher Afia Salam, while talking on the role of media in a society’s evolution said, “Education plays significant role in development of a society, due to advancement in education sector, developed countries makes progress by leaps and bounds in all segments of life. Pakistan’s media can play an active role in creating a demand for quality education in the country”.

At the workshop, Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, said that, “Education spending in Sindh is not rationalized and resources are not allocated according to the needs. Across Sindh, 77% of government school buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition, almost half of the government schools in Sindh are missing the basic facility of toilet”. He further said, “to encourage journalists to create public debates on education, Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014”.

Adnan Farooqui, senior communication expert, shared his experiences on the art of story-telling through social media. He briefed the participants about how social media is changing trends of journalism across the globe. How digital communication has made the entire news expression in 145 words.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org