ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Mahtab Ahmad Khan Monday said Monday the government was committed to development and prosperity of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA).
Addressing the launching ceremony of FATA Development Indicator Household Survey (FDIHS, 2013-2014) report here, the governor said unfortunately the FATA had suffered massive material and human losses due to militancy, but the government was determined to turn the same into an opportunity for development.
He said the survey report was brought out at a time when the debate was going on about the status of FATA, focus on governance reforms, improvement in service delivery and initiation of new livelihood opportunities.
The survey has been carried out by the Bureau of Statistics, FATA Secretariat with a tripartite arrangement between, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and the Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, with the financial support of Governance Support Project FATA-Multi Donor Trust Fund.
Governor Mahtab said the report would serve as a tool, enabling policy-makers in the process of resource allocation, sectoral prioritization and subsequent monitoring and evaluation of the progress towards the desired goals and objectives which were the building blocks of the peaceful and prosperous future of area that was being envisaged despite constraints and challenges.
Praising FATA youth for their services in the survey process, the governor said, “it is commendable to know that the educated youth from FATA were engaged in on-ground data collection, and in this way not only lend greater authenticity to the data but also a strong sense of ownership of the people of FATA.”
He said the process had contributed to the capacity building of the budding youthful talent from FATA besides BoS FATA and IM|Sciences.
The Additional Chief Secretary FATA, Sec Planning andDevelopment Department FATA, the World Bank’s, Multi Donor TrustFund team, Development Partners, international donors, Academia, Coordinator of GSP-ISU FATA and the enumerators were also present on the occasion.
Earlier speaking on the occasion, Secretary Planning and Development Department FATA Secretariat, Shakil Qadir Khan presented major findings of the survey report.
He mentioned that the literacy rate in FATA was now 33.3% and 11.8% of FATA youth (Age 15-24) was unemployed according to the latest statistics.
About the ratio of health, water and sanitation data he added that only 8.9 percent of estimated population had access to piped drinking water, 38.3 percent of FATA households had flush latrines, Only 6.3% houses had underground drainage system and only 29.5% of births were attended by skilled health personals moreover the report says 0.7% children (Age 2-9) have at least one disability in overall FATA, furthermore 71.8% of FATA people use radio as source of information, he added.
He further described the objectives of the survey that were to make available quality and reliable DATA and statistics on key development and socio economics parameters to FATA planners and policy makers and importantly the capacity development of the Bureau of Statistics and FATA secretariat for conducting future studies.
FATA Development Indicator Household survey report 2013-14 has more than 50 development indicators.
As many as 4,070 household were surveyed, all the agencies and frontier regions except North Waziristan and parts of Orakzai and Khyber agencies because of security situation.
Source: APP
