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Mr. Chairman,
My delegation wishes to align itself with the statement made by Morocco on
behalf of G-77 and China.
a) Women in Development
2. We are thankful to the Secretary-General for his report contained in document
A/58/135 entitled women in development - The empowerment of women and
integration of gender perspectives in the promotion of economic growth, poverty
eradication and sustainable development.
3. Empowerment of women and gender equality is an important prerequisite for
achieving sustained economic growth and sustainable development. It is also an
imperative of our time. Cognizant of the fact, all the major United Nations
Conferences and Summits have stressed on the need to mainstream gender
perspective in the work and policies of all the state and non-state entities.
4. Empowerment of women and mainstreaming gender perspective would require a
number of steps to be taken at local, national, regional and global levels. It
would also need to recognize the indivisible links between gender equality and
poverty and ensure equal access of women to health, education and other
opportunities.
5. We, in Pakistan, are fully conscious of this essential reality and have taken
a number of steps aimed at achieving the lofty goals laid out in the Beijing
Declaration. Besides establishing a federal Ministry for Women Development, we
have also established a National Commission on the Status of Women- a high-level
statutory body mandated to review government policies and programmes affecting
women’s development and implementation of the National Action Plan on Women. The
Commission is constituted of four committees which deal with health, education,
the judicial system and violence against women.
6. For the first time in the history of our country, 33% seats have been
allocated for women in local governments as well as in provincial and national
assemblies, which has resulted in the emergence of over 40,000 elected women
councilors and more than 200 women members of the National or Provincial
Assemblies.
b) Human Resource Development
Mr. Chairman,
7. Human resource development is a key factor in the success of any nation.
Behind every success stories, there are skilled, well trained and dedicated
individuals. It is a development process, contributing to poverty eradication
and long term economic growth through improved health, education and capacity
building.
8. The importance of human resource development has been emphasized by all
United Nations Conferences and Summits in the economic and social fields. The
Millennium Declaration has provided a blueprint of action by fixing a set of
goals and targets for halving poverty and hunger, advancing education and health
and achieving key development objectives. These goals and objectives clearly
reflect the centrality of the enhancement of human resources to the development
process.
9. The attainment of the goals set by the Millennium Summit requires heavy
investment in social sector. According to World Bank estimates, the annual price
tag for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals is more than 50 billion
dollars. Regrettably, developing countries lack access to such resources. They
are also denied the necessary tools to develop their human resources. In
addition, the unsustainable debt burdens eat chunk of their meager resources
much needed for their development.
10. In the Monterrey Consensus, our leaders agreed to mobilize the resources
required for achieving human development goals. In this regards, while noting
the importance of ODA for human resource development, we would like to stress on
the equal importance of debt relief, market access, trade expansion and
diversification of commodities for economic growth and development.
Mr. Chairman,
11. The human resource development is the chief anchor of Government of
Pakistan’s economic revival policy, which focuses on health, education and
poverty alleviation. Following areas have been receiving our special attention:
- Introduction of efficient, accountable, transparent and pro-poor governance
system and laws that promote decentralization and participation of the people.
- Eradication of poverty in rural areas where 60-70% of our population resides.
- Promotion of employment opportunities for urban educated and uneducated youth.
- Targeted interventions in the education and health sectors including steps to
raise awareness, informal education and rural health programmes, compulsory
vaccination for children and training of teachers and health workers.
12. In addition, a human development fund has being established to mobilize
resources for social development. We firmly believe that these steps will go a
long way in developing human resource in our country.
c) International Migration and Development
Mr. Chairman,
13. Migration is an upcoming theme getting increased international attention. It
is a global phenomenon. It’s interrelationships with development is complex and
it also has significant implications for international relations.
14. The issue of migration and development must be addressed on the basis of the
common responsibility of all nations, and the imperative of international
cooperation.
15. For the last few years, the General Assembly has been trying to achieve a
consensus on the proposal of holding a United Nations Conference on Migration
and Development. We would have liked to have achieved this consensus at an early
date. However, failure of consensus should not prevent us from considering this
issue in other settings as it affects a number of countries - sending,
transiting or receiving. We therefore hope that the General Assembly would soon
initiate a process in order to formulate an international response to the
important but complex issues attached to this global problem
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.