The 11th Five Year Plan (2013-2018) is a major step to actualise the Pakistan Vision 2025, a medium-term framework designed to face multiple challenges on the economic, security, and development fronts. The Plan seeks to increase the PSDP from 3.9 per cent of the GDP in 2012-13 to 4.6 per cent in the terminal year 2017-18.The Vision divides its challenges and goals into a set of seven pillars, identified as the key drivers of growth: Putting people first: developing human and social capital; achieving sustained, indigenous, and inclusive growth; democratic governance, institutional reform and modernisation of the public sector; energy, water and food security; private sector and entrepreneurship-led growth; developing a competitive knowledge economy through value-addition; and modernising transportation infrastructure and greater regional connectivity.
According to the document, malnutrition remains a major cause of affecting children s physical and mental growth having burden on the health and education sectors, while at later age, low labour productivity leading to poverty, and consequently deteriorated socio-economic development of the country. The efforts are to improve the nutritional status of the population, particularly women and children, through adequate diet and nutritional awareness as envisaged in the Pakistan Vision 2025. In order to address this, some of the proposed actions are, in short term: advocacy and awareness at all levels to put nutrition at the centre of the national development agenda; resource allocation to priority sectors; integrated preventive interventions focused on children and pregnant and lactating women; food fortification of wheat flour with iron and folic acid; agronomic biofortification of food grain crops through application of micronutrient fertilizers; research in nutrition through universities and research organisations. In addition, for the medium-term the proposed actions are: expansion of nutrition supplementation programmes; revised curriculum with focus on nutrition education and establish national nutrition degree awarding research institute; provision of Nutritionists and Dieticians in hospitals; enhance water supply and sanitation facilities; and reduce poverty in rural areas through creating business opportunities on-farm and off farm for the farmer community.
The agricultural development strategy for the Plan aims to substantially improve productivity and to bridge the yield gap by the systematic application of better inputs and technology. The major challenge to the agriculture sector is to create an environment for achieving an average growth rate of four to five per cent annually with a focus on small and resource poor farmers. This would require a strategy, which addresses main causes of: (i) stagnant productivity of major crops, (ii) declining investments in agriculture (both public and private), (iii) increasing food insecurity and poverty; (iv) inefficient use of agricultural inputs such as water, fertilizer and agro-chemicals, (v) slow development and dissemination of technologies, (vi) poor delivery of public services, (vii) market failures, (viii) weak institutions, (ix) inadequate agriculture credit, and (x) lack of appropriate policies and incentives. The main objectives of the strategy are to: (i) accelerate agriculture growth and reduce rural poverty, (ii) achieve self-reliance in essential food commodities, (iii) expand exports and galvanise agro business potential, (iv) achieve an average growth rate of four to five per cent per annum to support overall growth strategy of the government, and (v) improve quality of growth by adopting a strategy which is pro-poor, pro-small farmer and pro-environment.
As for poverty reduction, the Plan outlines a new direction as it attempts to move towards sustained and inclusive growth, which will enable equal opportunity for all. The poverty alleviation strategy of the Plan envisages poverty reduction through supporting social mobilisation programmes. Also, the Plan offers poverty alleviation strategies, shaped around the MDGs, while keeping in view the upcoming new development agenda, that is, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for sustainability and inclusivity of all disadvantaged classes. An institutional framework will be established to provide productive assets to the poor. Small corporations, owned by the poor and managed by professionals under the public-private partnership will be established by the provincial governments. n. Potential areas for stimulating the GDP growth and reducing poverty are: milk and its products, livestock, production of meat and its products and marine fisheries. To specifically target the landless of the rural areas and the poor of all areas generally, microfinance has proven to be a powerful empowering instrument. Priorities will be established for an effective extension of rural credit. Moreover, the Plan will take steps to resolve gender-related issues and enable women to become more productive members of the society.
Finally, in the area of climate change, the document s goals include: improve Pakistan s capacity for achieving environmentally sustainable economic development; improve the country s air and water quality; ensure ecosystem preservation, sustainable forest management and development and sustainable management of land. In order to face climate risks such as land degradation, soil erosion, deforestation of floods, the document proposes to adopt sustainable management of water resources, desertification control and rehabilitation of degraded lands through promotion of sustainable land management policies, plans and programmes.