At the recent meeting of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum in Dubai some of the top issues in the global risk landscape and their possible mitigates were highlights. Ironically, a few of us from Pakistan could relate to most systemic risks as being endemic to our sovereign environment, each of them […]
Case of the vanishing ministry
The Implementation Commission of the 18th Constitutional Amendment is due to present its final recommendations to the Parliament for approval next week. Statements issued in the run up to that have already indicated that subsequent to abolishing the Concurrent Legislative List, a number of subjects, inclusive of health, education, rural development, population planning, social welfare, […]
The PDF premise
Pakistan Development Forum (PDF) 2010 was convened at a time of unparalleled challenges—with several macroeconomic issues, a grinding fiscal crunch, competing priorities for resource allocations, an energy crisis, ongoing war, relentless insurgency, and an unprecedented need for resources in the aftermath of the worst disaster on this planet in recent history, characterizing the country’s needs. […]
Dengue: misplaced fears
The recent outbreak of Dengue, which is commanding widespread attention, is an important insight into several health and overarching governance issues. Before those are alluded to, a brief comment is offered on the current situation. It is indeed a sign of progressive attention to welfare that hotlines, round the clock media coverage, front paper trackers […]
The budget process
Drawing attention to the budget process during the month of October may appear a little out of step specially when there are so many other governance-related storms whipping. A closer look however indicates otherwise. The budget process for a fiscal year starts in the month of October with the Ministry of Finance issuing budget calls […]
Flood and Disaster Observatory
In the last eight weeks, ‘coordination’ has come to be viewed as the epitome of flood relief, and the lack thereof, a major failure of stewardship agencies. The emphasis on coordination in the given context is not without reason. The massive need for response that the flood has generated, coupled with grinding fiscal constraints, create […]
Flood Financing and innovative means
Financial constraints, which parallel the unprecedented need for financing to rebuild and rehabilitate in the aftermath of the recent floods are calling for efforts to mobilize resources to bridge a huge gap. Currently, several conventional channels are being utilized and explored further to achieve that objective. There have been public pronouncements to the effect that […]
Disaster governance
Disasters are a true litmus test of governance. Many attributes of governance interplay in disasters, before, during and after a situation. This comment flags five governance lessons, evidenced by the response to the recent catastrophic floods. The first attribute relates to strategic planning, which raises an important question: was it possible to predict the […]
Child protection legislation
The Khyber Pakhtunkwa Child Protection and Welfare Ordinance 2010 is due to be presented to the Provincial Assembly any time now. The Ordinance is meant to be an improvement on the previous legislative enactments. However, a recent review circulated on a virtual civil society network by an NGO working in the area of child protection […]
Friends, dialogues, poverty and pragmatism
Some of the statements in wake of the recent meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan and strategic dialogues aimed at defining areas of priority for the use of incoming bilateral assistance from Untied States have been positive and encouraging, including the bold admission by Secretary of State “we have not done a good job of […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- …
- 14
- Next Page »