Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms has announced to establish a Population Resource Centre to improve the quality and reliability of population-related data and information.
The Planning Commission made this announcement under the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Secretary Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform Zafar Hassan said that the Centre is expected to serve as a hub, strengthening the timely availability of demographic and population statistics and improving the quality and reliability of population related data base and information for evidence-guided decision-making and policy reviews.
He said that the PM in his recent policy statement called for a "National Strategy for the Development of Statistics" so that the government can have access to accurate, reliable, and timely statistics and have a solid and credible base of evidence, which is critical to supporting the design and evaluation of policies.
He said that a high-level consultative forum has been called at the Planning Commission next week inviting National Ministry of Health Service, Regulation and Coordination, secretaries from provincial departments of health, population welfare, planning and development as well as senior technocrats for an interactive dialogue and discussing the modalities for this Centre.
The secretary said that the Planning Commission being an apex planning and coordination body is cognizant of the vital importance and magnitude of the population challenge as well as its collective responsibility towards taking measures for addressing the same.
He said that establishment of the Population Resource Centre is expected to strengthen the existing mechanisms and processes for evidence-guided planning, monitoring and evaluation of population projects; identifying bottlenecks for initiation of timely remedial action; continuously evaluating the population landscape, and coordinating forums for generating debate on population policies and frameworks.
He said that dedicated resources have already been allocated in the PSDP 2019-20. He added that national and international expertise will be engaged for its design and development.
Member Social Sector, Dr Shabnum Sarfraz said that that the Population Resource Centre is expected to enter into active partnership with the public and private sector universities for establishing population policy research units. These units would undertake valuable research in population priority areas, strengthening the evidence base for population programme, planning and policy reviews, he said.
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