NCHD endeavouring to ensure socio-economic uplift: Nasim
By Uzma Zafar

ISLAMABAD—“National Commission for Human Development; NCHD, has been endeavouring to ensure socio-economic development and behavioral change by seeking the sprit of volunteerism and community participation to ensure sustainability of it’s programs, while providing a support role for district education, health and community development department along with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).” These views were expressed by Dr.Nasim Ashraf; Chairman NCHD, while addressing at a local hotel, here this Tuesday.
Stating further he said, “NCHD's human development endeavors are supported by a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the government, the private sector and the international donor, community. The Government of Pakistan showed its commitment to operationalize NCHD's programs by creating an initial trust fund of Its. 2 billion (US$ 32 million). Further support of US$ 2.3 million was provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). To complement these efforts, 25 eminent local and expatriate Pakistanis showed their resolve for social Change in Pakistan by donating US$2.5 million by a contribution of US$ 100,000 each as seed capital.”
“To ensure sustainability and to abide by stringent rules of governance, this tripartite funding arrangement between the Government of Pakistan, UNDP and the private sector was formalized by the creation of an independent funding agency called the Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF), registered under the Companies Ordinance, 1984. It functions under the patronage of the President of Pakistan, and a 31-member team representing the PHDF Board of Directors, monitors and evaluates NCHD's progress, and acts as a custodian of funds”, he said.
About volunteerism, he held, “The Volunteerism for Community Development (VCD) Program is a cross cutting program for other NCHD interventions - education and health, and focuses on creating awareness about volunteering through campaigning and advocacy, and directing it towards human development activities at the grassroots level. Pakistan is the first country in the developing world to establish a National Volunteer Corps to coordinate volunteers' activities for an organized voluntary action by creating a corps of 228,514 identified volunteers out of which, over 130,924 hove been trained in UPE and ORS campaign, besides creating community participation and mobilization.”
Speaking on literacy initiatives of NCHD, he disclosed, “To achieve 86% literacy rate by 2015, NCHD has evolved a two prong strategy; Universalization of Primary Education (UPE) and Adult Literacy Program. First and foremost, NCHD is working to improve primary education with 100% primary enrollment and a reduction in drop out to less than 20%. To prevent school dropouts, community participation through teachers, parents, volunteers and influential people is ensured, and NCHD has established Feeder schools in areas where schools are missing, overcrowded or there is lack of qualified teaching personnel.”
“For adult Illiterates between 11-45 years of age, with a special emphasis on female literacy, there is a comprehensive Adult Literacy Program. After studying 180 hours in an Adult Literacy Center, one can read newspapers, write 7-10 sentences about the immediate environment and can manipulate three digit addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The Literacy Program is operational in 122 districts. There are 71,828 Adult Literacy Centers in these districts that have made 1,480,528 (1.4 million) people literate. NCHD has also received the International Literacy Award from UNESCO as recognition of one of the best practices in the field of Adult Literacy”, he said.
Talking about the health initiatives of NCHD, he said, “Another initiative of NCHD is its Primary Health Care (PHC) program for which it has established a cadre of trained community based health workers Family Health Workers (FHW) to provide basic health services to communities. This program is active in 13 districts all over Pakistan. The Capacity Development Program (CDP) is NCHD's youngest program. It has been introduced at the district level in line with the transformation of the administrative, financial, development and electoral authority to the district level under the Devolution Plan, i.e., Local Government Ordinance, 2001.”
“In view of its achievements, NCHD's innovative strategy as a role model to deal with the challenges of human development in Pakistan can be termed as success. With the government's recognition, along with administrative and financial support, NCHD's multi-sectoral/holistic development model is being replicated all over the country as well as internationally”, he said. “President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have lauded the commendable efforts of NCHD's Chairman, Dr. Nasim Ashraf, whose exemplary leadership and visionary guidance have enabled NCHD'to grow as an organization and move from the margins of national development activities to full national coverage. Dr. Ashraf, a community activist who has been involved in development work at the grass roots level for more than 30 years, has not only played an important role in terms of mainstreaming participatory development policies and strategies, he is turning the vision of a progressive Pakistan into a reality”, he expressed.
It is pertinent to mention here that NCHD was set up as an autonomous body by the President of Pakistan. on 19th July, 2002 under Ordinance;XXIX of 2002, NCHD is a fast track initiative to improve social sector outcomes at the grassroots level. It was mandated with the role of orchestrating human development efforts in Pakistan to helps achieve the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education, health and poverty alleviation by 2015. Based on a holistic development model, NCHD aims to enlarge the scale and scope of the government's efforts in ensuring the effective provision of services. This holistic approach is multi-sectoral, focusing on the needs of the people at the grassroots level. NCHD believes in the importance of community ownership in all its projects where decision rights are provided to all stakeholders. To improve the delivery and quality of social services, NCHD felt the imperative need to instill capacity through training and advocacy to harness the potential of the volunteerism community. A sustainable development approach was embraced to build the capacity of the communities at the grassroots level by providing support to the Government Line Department.