Now is the time to act!

Natural disasters are a fact of life for every country, but they are especially dangerous for people in countries where people struggle to survive. Environment degradation is among the major recent challenges faced by (Pakistan). Degraded soils, a decline in forest cover and rising level of air and water pollution are the major environmental issues. The environmental degradation is further compounded with the rapid urbanization linked with rural to urban migration.

The importance of poverty-environment nexus is well established, and Pakistan’s ranking in the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) is very poor2.The earthquake in 2005 in Pakistan has reinforced the environment poverty-nexus as one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the history of the world. Prior to the Earthquake, the economy of Pakistan was facing severe challenges at internal and external fronts with a poor law and order situation. The continuing energy crisis combined with these challenges discontinued the growth momentum in the real sector left the people more vulnerable. The double digit inflation with rising unemployment in the past two years has also badly affected the overall well-being of the Pakistan population.

Vulnerability and poverty are closely linked; the majority of those whose livelihood was completely destroyed by the Earthquake were people and communities already living in poverty. Even though emergency response efforts prevented a major food crisis and disease outbreak, the need for humanitarian organizations to invest in long-term rural development projects that better reduce their poverty, illiteracy and to prepare them for future disasters risks (as mentioned above Pakistan is a Disaster Prone Area) is imperative.

As we know that here in Pakistan, Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of poverty. Investing in them early on and giving them an education not only radically alters their lives but has a massive knock on effect benefitting their families and communities. Girls who have been to school are likely to do significantly better financially, socially and be far healthier.

Research shows that:
• Providing girls with an extra year of schooling can increase their wages by up to 20 per cent, while also lowering birth rates, which can have a profound economic impact.3
• An infant born to an educated woman is much more likely to survive until adulthood.4
• An educated woman is 50 per cent more likely to have her children immunized against childhood diseases.5
• If we had reached the gender parity goal by 2005, more than 1 million childhood deaths could have been averted.6

Educating girls helps to make communities and societies healthier, wealthier and safer, and can also help to reduce child deaths, improve maternal health and tackle the spread of HIV and AIDS. It underpins the achievement of all the other MDGs. That is why in 2000, at the Dakar Conference, donors promised that every country with a sound education plan would get the resources it needed to implement it.

Progress has been hampered by a number of factors: a lack of international political leadership, a global funding gap of an estimated $5.6 billion a year for education, a lack of plans and capacity within national education systems to improve the access to and quality of schooling for girls, and locally many poor families who simply cannot afford to send their children to school. According to PRSP-II 7, the government has been spending only 2.4% of the GDP on education which is quite minimal. This severe situation requires immediate attention in order to cope with poverty.

References
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1. RRA-Remote Rural Area
2. In 2005, Pakistan is ranked at 131 out of 146 countries, with an ESI score of 39.9
3. Psacharopoulos, G.; Patrinos, H. A. 2002. Returns to Investment in Education: A Further
Update. Washington, DC, World Bank, Education Sector Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region. (Policy Research Working Paper No. 2881).
4. Summers, L. 1994. “Investing in All the People: Educating Women in Developing Countries”. EDI Seminar Paper, No. 45. Washington DC: World Bank.
5. Gage, A.; Sommerfelt, E.; Piani, A. 1997. “Household Structure and Childhood Immunization in Niger and Nigeria”. Demography, 34 (2).
6. Abu-Ghaida, D.; Klasen, S. 2004. “The Costs of Missing the Millennium Development Goal on Gender Equity”. IZA Discussion Paper, No. 1031, February.
7. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-II, November 7, 2008.

Fatima Zafer, FD blogger from Pakistan