Working Paper # 166

Capacity Development Challenges in the way

of SDGs implementation in Pakistan

By

Ammad Javed Khan and Wajid Ali

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A publication of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

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development.

First edition: February 2019

© 2019 by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute

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ABSTRACT
Capacity building interventions in major public service domains are inevitable to expedite the prospects
for a welfare and egalitarian society. In the field of education, some primary organizational capacity
building gaps relate to managerial capacity coupled with lack of experience especially in matters related
to policy formulation, planning and management of educational programmes. However, capacity
challenges are acute in the area of climate change, health, economic growth, poverty, gender, etc. Owing
to limited technical and intellectual capacity of the institutions related to women empowerment, planned
development programmes and manifestos have failed to address gender issues.
The study underlines the fact that coordinated and well-planned efforts are essential to improvise the
policy agendas of capacity building initiatives that are rational to some extent and viable for Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The study identifies and examines the challenges of capacity building
which are coming in the way of materializing SDGs in Pakistan.

Keywords: Capacity Building, SDGs, education, health, environment, poverty, gender

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 2
3. Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................... 2
3.1. SDGs and the case of Pakistan ................................................................................................ 2
3.2. Education ................................................................................................................................ 3
3.3. Health ...................................................................................................................................... 3
3.4. Eliminating poverty, inequality, and hunger: .......................................................................... 4
3.5. Gender Equality ...................................................................................................................... 5
3.6. Economic Growth, Energy Security, Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization.................. 5
3.7. Climate Change ....................................................................................................................... 6
4. Conclusion and Recommendations ................................................................................................. 6
5. References: ...................................................................................................................................... 8
1. INTRODUCTION
During the last two centuries, the world has progressed immensely and witnessed industrial and
agricultural revolutions, complex societal networks, matchless institutional frameworks like the United
Nations, and state-of-the-art global trade and transport regimes. Though these trends heralded a new
epoch in the history of human civilization, they also created numerous sustenance challenges. The
nature of these challenges is diverse such as: climate change, environmental insecurity, population
explosion, massive poverty, unplanned urbanization, class stratifications, poor demographic transitions
and rise of dictatorial and autocratic regimes across the globe (Szombatfalv 2010; World Trade
Organization 2009).

Unfortunately, Pakistan, a country blessed with enormous natural and human resources, is also
confronted with sustainability-related issues. The country’s potential of natural and human resources
has not been harnessed properly and successive generations continue to live a miserablelife. With
economic growth being plummeted and developmental projects running at a snail’s pace, social
indicators present a gloomy picture of the country’s economy. Poverty has increased rapidly and the
population bomb is ticking. Quality of life of people has deteriorated to a considerable extent. When it
comes to Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), Pakistan is ranked 122 out of 157 in the global index.
Even the score of Pakistan (55.6) is lower than the regional average (63.3) and the peer group, including
Bangladesh (56.2) and India (58.1) in 2017.

In sustainable development, capacity building is a critical component of policy choices and

implementation frameworks. It is a process to strengthen the management and governance of an
organization so that it can effectively achieve its objectives and fulfil its mission (Beesley et al. 2010;
Connolly & York 2002). To achieve this goal, there is a need to acquire capacity building at all levels
besides a willingness to make the required changes (Milen 2001). This will also help establish a
responsible, efficient and accountable government (Imam 2011). To this end, capacity building of
individuals, institutions, think tanks and civil society organizations, as well as federal & provincial
governments is indispensable to achieve the SDGs. In many developing countries,people require
technical support for the implementation of SDGs. Moreoevr, the means of implementaion, i.e statistical
capacity and tools to formulate, implement and monitor the SDGs agenda at local and sectoral level is
also insuffcient rather absent in some of the countries. Building strong institutions, boosting relevant
skills and inter-ministerial coordination are also the major capacity building challenges as there are few
policy-reveiw and evaluation processes in place. The issues of capacity building are found in almost all
the departments (i.e. education,health,environment, and infrastructure)which are pivotal to SDGs
achievementin the developing countries.

The study examines the challenges of capacity building to materialize the SDGs in Pakistan
emphasizing the government to proactively engage itself in the formulation and implementation of
tactical agendas like SDGs. It may be mentioned that different capacity building issues are
interdependent, and the redressal of one challenge may positively influence the outcome of more than
one Sustainable Development Goal.

The study also outlines the capacity building challenges faced by those departments which are pivotal
to sustainable development in the country.

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2. METHODOLOGY
This research is secondary in nature, as the data has been collected from different research papers,
government documents, statistical databases, and historical records. Systemic review has been
conducted to analyze the nature of capacity building gaps and their influence on the Sustainable
Development Goals in Pakistan.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. SDGs and the case of Pakistan
Given the grim picture of Pakistan’s socio-economic indicators, it is necessary to take true measures to
carry out the capacity building of the departments concerned to achieve the SDGs. The table below
compares some of the SDGs with the social, economic, developmental and environmental realities of
Pakistan besides revealing a perplexed situation of social indicators. Unfortunately, these realities are
badly impacting the lives of people, may it be SDG 1 (No poverty) or SDG 2 (No hunger).

Table 1: SDGs and the country’s baseline

SDGs Description Pakistan Baseline

SDG1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere 21.04% population below poverty line $1.25,
60.19% population below poverty line $2
SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and 58.1% of food insecure households
improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
SDG3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well- 88< 5y mortality rate (per 1000 livelihoods)
being for all at all ages 170 maternal mortality ratio (per 100k live
births)
SDG4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality 58% overall literacy rate
education and promote life-long 25.02 million children (5-16) are not in school
learning
SDG5 Achieve gender equality and empower 144 rank on women economic participation
all women and girls 132 rank on women education attainment
Source: (Leadership for Environment and Development [LEAD]2016).

Skewed mechanisms coupled with half-hearted efforts dampen the prospects for the achievement of
SDGs. The problem with Pakistan is that a political elite of feudal and tribal stock has accommodated
a section of the wealthy urban groups and as a whole, these privileged classes have opposed reforms,
which would have been good for the country but adverse to their personal or corporate interests —be
they land reforms or tax reforms needed for implementing social welfare policies and an efficient pro-
people governance (Racine 2011). These kinds of attitudes reflect endearment for the status quo. The
plant of capacity building cannot grow in the sweltering weather of the status quo.

SDGs underpin and cut across almost all the fields of national development ranging from ending poverty
to reducing gender gaps, tackling climate change to the sustainable use of natural resources, and good
governance to peace and justice. These goals can prove a watershed moment for Pakistan. Although,
Pakistan was able to produce regular data for 33 of the 60 MDG indicators, yet the task for SDGs is
proving difficult because SDGs have 231indicators. A preliminary exercise to assess the data gap for

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the SDGs shows that data are available for 125 indicators at the national level, 71 at the provincial level
and 27 at the district level. An initial assessment portrays a dismal picture of the availability of data at
federal level for SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and
production), SDG 14 (life below water), SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong
institutions). However, they can rejuvenate our development discourses and can prove miraculous in
transforming the state of Pakistan, if resources (both financial and human) are sincerely committed to
achieving these goals. In the proceeding part of the study, the SDGs related challenges will be discussed
in the backdrop of capacity building requirements.

3.2. Education
SDG 4 ensures inclusive and equitable quality education for all without any discrimination. However,
the menace of illiteracy has fully gripped and plagued the education system of Pakistan. In the field of
education, change usually involves developing four types of capacities, i.e. human, organizational,
structural, and material (Century 1999). Unfortunately, in Pakistan, institutions responsible for
delivering quality education suffer from all the above capacity challenges. Organizational capacity
challenges in education sector include: inefficient managerial capacity-coupled with lack of experience
especially in matters related to policy formulation, planning and management of education programmes
(UNESCO 2017); Human and structural capacity challenges include poor leadership and governance,
institutional imbalances and the lack of political consensus (Anwar 2015; Ashfaque 2016; Haider 2013;
Lall 2009); material capacity constraints include low budgetary allocation for education, i.e. 2.1 % of
GDP, which is very low as compared to other countries of the region as shown in the Table 2 below:

Table 2: Comparison of public sector spending on education

Country Public sector spending (As % of GDP) Literacy rate in (%)

Bangladesh 2.6 55.0
China - 93.7
India 3.3 -
Indonesia 3.5 -
Iran 5.2 -
Malaysia 4.7 92.1
Nepal 3.2 57.9
Pakistan 2.1 57.0
Sri-Lanka - 90.6
Thailand 4.5 -
Vietnam 5.3 92.5
Source: Ministry of Finance 2017-18, Government of Pakistan

Pakistan has to mobilize all the necessary resources to diminish the impact of these capacity challenges
which are inflicting heavy damages to quality of education being imparted to our posterity so as to
ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary
education (SDG 4.2) and ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical,
vocational and tertiary education, including university (SDG 4.3).

3.3. Health
SDG 3 and 4 focus on achieving improved nutrition, healthy lives, promoting well-being for all at all
ages, availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. These goals stress

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on improving the health of people by ensuring basic necessities of life. However, related capacities to
achieve these goals by 2030 are lacking in Pakistan. Most acute challenge in this context is shortage of
human capacity, i.e. public sector is inadequately staffed (Bhutta & Hafeez 2015) and 40 out of 100
rural health facilities had a sanctioned post for lady doctor but only three of these could be filled (Rizvi
& Nishtar 2008) and owing to this fact, many people would bypass the first level health facilities
(Shaikh, Kadir & Pappas2007).This reflects gloomy circumstances prevailing in our basic health
facilities where a majority of underprivileged and downtrodden go for medical treatment.

The second capacity issue for health-related SDGs is the unavailability of basic facilities and a limited
stock of essential medicines (World Health Organization 2004). Pakistan’s spending on health is far
less than that of the WHO’s recommended figure of US$ 34(per capita on health) for low and middle-
income countries (Nishtar 2010). Pakistan is spending only 0.6pc of the GDP on its health sector.

Institutional and structural capacity gaps are also looming large for achieving health SDGs in Pakistan.
Adequate health policy framework, which set norms and standards, has been the missing link in the
health system of Pakistan (Malik et al., 2012). In Post 18th amendment, there is the absence of federal
regulatory authority for the regulation and coordination of health-related subjects such as international
relational ships, national health information and reporting mechanisms, financial forecasting and donor
coordination(Ali & Khan 2011). These hurdles mentioned above have made it very difficult for the state
apparatus to improve the lives of people and their basic rights.

3.4. Eliminating poverty, inequality, and hunger:

Sustainable Development Goal 1, 2, 10 and 12overwhelmingly focus on eliminating poverty, inequality,
and hunger by 2030. Unfortunately, poverty and food insecurity are rampant in Pakistan. The state has
succumbed to the vagaries of poor policy formulation and implementation for the eradication of poverty
and inequality. Poverty rules the roost and almost all the segments of our society are susceptible to it.
Capacity issues to address poverty and inequality includeweak institutional capacity to devise and
implement poverty reduction strategies (Khan et al. 2015); government devoid of the ability to
formulate pragmatic policies will always fail to cater to the needs of masses, including food security
and basic necessities of life. Similarly, capacity for agricultural data gathering and analysis is poor,
which further undermines agricultural policymaking and implementation (Kugelman& Hathaway
2010).

In addition, institutional capacity for ensuring food security and poverty reduction is absent or stagnant;
and there is no output regarding policy interventions to reduce food insecurity and poverty. Pakistan
never had any national food policy except launching a few food security programmes at the regional
levels (Mittal & Sethi 2009), i.e. essential institutional infrastructure to exploit farm and non-farm nexus
is absent (Ahmed & Farooq 2010). Similarly, federal and provincial food departments are poorly
prepared to assess the true picture of poverty and inequality in Pakistan and devise pragmatic strategy
according to it. In many cases, research and development departments are devoid of proper equipment
and facing severe human resource shortages. These trends lead to unsustainable food patterns in a
society where a major portion is unable to meet their food needs and fresh drinking water.

The interconnection between economic growth, poverty reduction, structural reforms and improved
governance is fairly strong in the case of Pakistan; macroeconomic stability and the consequent rapid
economic growth help reduce poverty in conjunction with investment in social sectors, targeted

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interventions and social safety nets (Husain 2010). The nexus between economy and poverty reduction
needs to be comprehended by our policymakers to protect people from poverty and hunger.

3.5. Gender Equality

Goal 5focuses on achieving gender equality and women empowerment. It is a major obstacle in the way
of socio-economic development of the country. Majority of the policies and incentives are skewed in
favour of men. In this context, Goal 5 stresses on achieving gender equality and women empowerment.
It focuses on the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies besides the
promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.

There are several capacity building challenges in the way of women development in Pakistan. The
government capacity is limited (both human and financial) and issues of women are vast and diverse
(Sustainable Development Policy Institute [SDPI] 2008). There are no plans in sight to build the
capacity of units that are engaged in establishing and expanding social security nets for women.
Provincial women departments do not have the capacity to protect the rights of women and equal
opportunities for them in all walks of life.

Similarly, planned development programmes and manifestos have failed to address gender issues due
to following capacity issues: poor implementation, limited technical and intellectual capacity of the
institutions related to women empowerment (Moheyuddin, 2005). Ministry of Women Development)
is the principal institutional mechanism for the advancement of women in Pakistan. However, the
ministry has not been successful in playing its catalytic role to advocate and highlight women concerns
across sectors at all planning levels due to lack of institutional capacity and weak coordination with
other line ministries (Asian Development Bank 2009). There is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity
of federal and provincial governments in terms of gender mainstreaming.

3.6. Economic Growth, Energy Security, Inclusive and Sustainable

Industrialization
Goal 7,8 & 9 focus on sustainable economic growth, peaceful and inclusive societies, energy security,
resilient infrastructure andinclusive and sustainable industrialization. Economic growth of Pakistan is
volatile and mercurial with serious repercussion towards sustainable industrial infrastructure and
employment prospects. Several capacity building challenges have hindered the transition of economy
to a more sustainable path. The most important bottleneck in the way of rapid economic growth and
poverty reduction is lack of capacity of the civil service to function as an effective institution in
implementing the policies and programmes (Hussain 2010). In this context, mainly, poor
implementation of government economic agendas and policies (i.e. enhancing tax net) is due to poor
capacity of civil bureaucracy to perform the assigned task because merit is absent in recruitment,
promotion, performance evaluation, compensation. Bureaucracy needs to shed away its love for the
status quo. Devising innovative and rational policies can pave the way for economic rejuvenation. There
is an urgent need to inculcate the principles of meritocracy and professionalism in our policy
communities. In the wake of remarkable but megaprojects like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC), it is indispensable to upgrade the capacity building of our people and institutions to harness
the dividends. For example, in textile sector there is an acute issue of capacity building of individuals
and use of obsolete technology hence causing reduced productivity (State Bank of Pakistan 2017).

Organizational capacity is at its lowest ebb. Resilient infrastructure requires scientific research, up
gradation of technological capabilities, conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial

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diversification and value addition to commodities, which ultimately gave a boost to sustainable
economic growth and employment opportunities. And these aspects require institutional development
through strong capacity building initiatives to integrate these goals of sustainability and technological
advancement into national programmes and agendas. Unfortunately, institutional development has been
very slow in Pakistan, and more often than not these have been abused by the elite to extract rent
(Hussain 1999). Unless our institutions are eschewed from the rent-seeking mafias, it will be imprudent
to expect novel ideas from the status quo ridden system.

The same hypothesis is true about the crunches of energy insecurity in Pakistan. The energy crisis is
the largest single drain on Pakistan’s economy, shaving off up to two percentage points from annual
gross domestic product growth in the country (Ministry of Finance, 2013). The absence of sound
policies from the departments concerned coupled with the absence of capacity building to diagnose the
crisis and rectify them are amongst the major causes of the energy crisis in Pakistan.

3.7. Climate Change

Goal 13, 14 and 15 stress on urgent action to combat climate change and sustainable use of the oceans,
seas and marine resources for sustainable development. These goals also emphasize toprotect, restore
and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and to sustainably manage forests.

Climate change has emerged as one of the biggest threats to the existence of planet earth and Pakistan
is no exception to it. There is an increase in floods, landslides, droughts, and typhoons due to an uptick
in frequency and intensity of extreme events in Pakistan. Severe heat strokes are now a common
phenomenon as experienced in Karachi and Lahore. There are several capacity building challenges to
address climatic woes and unsustainable ecosystems in Pakistan. First, there is no capacity building
mechanism to undertake research and action to reduce climate change impact. Majority of researchers
have failed in accessing high-quality and reliable data; secondly, there exists no plan to train human
resources in specific areas of knowledge; and third, there is a lack ability to access scientific tools for
on-site data recording (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] 2015). An action cannot be
taken unless an extensive research is undertaken to detect the true cause of this malaise. Similarly, our
federal water bodies do not have enough capacity (structural and individual) to assess the implications
of climate change on growing water demand and reduction in our water reserves. Pakistan lacks capacity
in the area of climate change adaptation, as most of the policies are adhoc, extemporaneous and are
generated due to the exegesis of the moment.

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

For the speedy achievement of the global agenda and to overcome the problems in the implementation
of SDGs in the country, capacity building is a must by integrating the trained forces at federal and
provincial level.

In their implementation process, every rupee spent on SDGs needs to be tracked via proper coding
system. Similarly, SDGs related provincial annual development programmes need to be counted against
SDG indicators. Pakistan needs to pick the number of SDGs and targets that can be best carried with
the existing resource capacity and plan to build resource capacity for the rest of the targets and goals.

The government must ensure the integration of capacity building for institutional strengthening to
facilitate the SDGs framework at federal and provincial level by stressing ownership and responsibility.

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There is a need to establish intensive training programmes in commensurate with the needs of
developing countries like Pakistan keeping in view the constraints in resource mobilization and
administrative niches. Resource mobilization is a critical challenge in cash-strapped and crisis hit
countries; the government must be cognizant of its limitations for devising realistic and pragmatic
policies.

It is also imperative to enhance the capacities of national institutions to achieve SDGs by equipping the
executives with latest methods and practices for the timely achievement of SDGs. Moreover, the norms
and rules, which govern federal and provincial institutions should be flexible by addressing the capacity
gaps related to formulation and evaluation of the projects envisaged under SDGs. Policies of the
institutions must be tailored according to their respective SDGs. National policies of different
institutions should be integrated with these goals by preparing implementation and monitoring
frameworks.

The government and relevant international organization should also emphasize on informed decision-
making by policy echelons. The apparent divorce between academia, think tanks and policy makers is
very critical in Pakistan and is a hurdle in the implementation of SDGs agenda whereas it requires
integrated and joint efforts by all segments of society as well as government. In addition, financial
management in public departments needs to be professionalized via capacity development programme.

It is necessary to establish information centres at national and sub-national level so as to release accurate
and credible information. It will help in decision making, and to facilitate information exchange
between different units involved in implementation of SDGs.

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