Unavailability of authentic socioeconomic data in Balochistan can be termed as the biggest barrier standing before socioeconomic development in the province. However, missing important data is not the only problem that inhibits development; rather there are many other issues that contribute to wastage of billions of rupees annually allocated from public treasury for the ‘cause’ of development. Similarly, the non-government sector or the non-state welfare sector, especially UN, INGOs and international donor agencies, provides no fewer amounts to the provincial development needs. Despite all the more-than-enough money in the provincial kitty for development and all the technical help from the international agencies, the trend of stagnancy continues to everyone’s surprise.
There is no denying that development in Balochistan needs direction. Poverty, for instance, should have been the topmost priority of development in Balochistan, but the government has never shown any interest in poverty reduction. Never has the government felt a need to scan the level and extent of poverty in the province, nor has it ever realized the need to chalk out a strategy to meet the challenge of poverty. From the aforementioned facts, it is evident that the government neither knows the number of the poor, nor does it possess any will or capacity to respond to poverty issue. Similarly, health, education, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation should have been the other development priorities that have continuously been ignored in the annual development plans of the government at the cost of soaring number of diseased, illiterate and unemployed people. In contrary to the ground realities, the government invests development funds on all other sectors except human resources.
The vacuum of socioeconomic development, which has been created by the myopic or absent policy framework of the government, has been filled by the non-state welfare agencies deriving affiliation with both national and international origins. These development organizations pull most of the foreign assistance in grant and invest in their organizational priority thematic and geographical areas of the province. These organizations have also failed to contribute to socioeconomic change in the province. According to SPDI 2014 report “Balochistan tops the rank with 52 percent people living below the line of poverty.”
There are plenty of non-state welfare organizations that have been working in Balochistan for decades in the fields of rural development and poverty alleviation. Even some local based NGOs’ annual budgets normally exceed billions of rupees. These NGOs claim to be leaders in the rural development or poverty reduction domains. But the question arises that despite all the foreign financial and technical assistance that is available for the local NGOs, the situation on the ground is even bleaker when it comes to estimate the extent of poverty in the province. In this backdrop, it seems that something goes fundamentally wrong in terms of development paradigm in the province.
More worrying is the lack of impact data that the organizations do not or cannot generate for planners and policymakers in the province. The organizations have never provided authentic third party evidence showing that poverty reduced from such to such extent or standard of life improved in such and such district or UC after spending billions of rupees in grant or after implementing multiyear development programs and projects. In the absence of evidence, the question arises as to what value and positive impact these organizations are creating at the cost of billions of rupees received in the name of development for the province. These organizations have also never realized the need to get their performances audited, documented and disseminated through internationally recognized audit and evaluation firms. Hence nobody knows how and where the billions of rupees invested and with what tangible results.
Education and health are the sectors that have consumed greater aid money after the poverty and rural development issues. Most of the funds were spent through government departments and nongovernment organizations. Despite all the generous spending in the two sectors, the province continue to reflect the worst ever education, health and nutrition indicators. Almost all the latest studies and data available show stagnancy or degradation trends.
Unfortunately, neither have the donors nor the government of Balochistan ever demanded any evidence from these and many other non-profit organizations or government departments to justify the spending of billions of rupees with a view to ascertain the value and impact of the aid money. The donor agencies are prone to consume as many statistics as provided by the recipient organizations. High level third party performance audits of the organizations are neither undertaken by the donor agencies nor by the government as a regulatory body.
After the 18th Amendment the subject of development has been devolved to the provinces. The provincial government must immediately chalk out a coherent and realistic development and social welfare strategy that ensures that for every sector both mid and long term development priorities are set, funding conduits are effectively regulated and monitoring of the non-state development, humanitarian and welfare organizations is undertaken in a constructive manner.
Writer is a featured columnist for Balochistan Voices. Read more articles from this author.
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