ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday launched the Data4Pakistan Portal aimed at providing the public with access to poverty estimates for every district along with development and policy indicators.
Addressing the launching ceremony, the prime minister expressed the government’s determination to alleviate poverty as no country can progress if a significant portion of its population lives in poverty.
PM Imran Khan said this is the first step in finding necessary ways and means to fight poverty. He said a civilized society is known by the standard of living of its poor.
He said this portal will help identify the areas which are in most need of funds, besides finding other vital statistics about issues being faced by the local people.
The portal is part of the government’s flagship Ehsaas initiative and has been developed in collaboration with the World Bank.
Lashing at the policies of previous governments, the prime minister highlighted the disparity between Lahore’s development and that of the rest of Punjab, saying that lopsided development was harmful for Pakistan.
The prime minister said ground realities were not considered in budget allocations at that time and more than 55 percent of Punjab budget was being spent on the development of Lahore alone while other cities were ignored.
He said that development funds were distributed on the basis of people’s influence and not on the basis of need, but vowed that the government will focus on equal development of all areas.
PM Imran Khab said Data4Pakistan will also help in policymaking at the higher level as well as allocation of budget. He said the earmarking of the budget will be on need and merit basis, without any political or other influences.
Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar said Data4Pakistan, the first initiative of its kind in the country, provides open and public access to a spatial interactive portal that has poverty estimates for every district in Pakistan, along with over 120 development and policy indicators.
She said the portal currently has six rounds of district poverty and development data, covering the period 2004-2018. The portal will be a very valuable resource for federal, provincial and district level policymakers, for decision making.
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