At the current rate of population growth, per capita availability of water in Pakistan would drop down to 885 cubic metres from the existing 1,200 cubic metres' supply to each citizen against the world average of 7,000 cubic metres, making Pakistan a water scarce country.
According to Islamabad-based Human Resource Development Network (HRDN), in just 20 years from now, Pakistan's population will leap to a staggering 225 million from the existing 150 million. In spite of 273 times increase in the gross domestic product (GDP), the per capita income in Pakistan has increased a mere 61 times.
We have about 30 million more illiterate persons than in 1961. Moreover, despite a 100 percent increase in total employment from 1971 to 2004, the total unemployment has increased to a staggering nine-fold during the same period.
To debate the subject, the HRDN has organised corporate summit for greater corporate involvement in Family Planning and Reproductive Health (FP/RH) awareness and services in Pakistan at a local hotel on September 23.
The participants would include Boeing Company's Lead Director Lewis E.Platt, Packard Foundation Population Programme Director Dr Sarah Clark, World Bank Senior Health Specialist Dr Inamul Haq, Greenstar Social Marketing (Pakistan) CEO Imran Zafar and Bill and Melinda Gates Institute's Senior Scholar Duff G.Gillespie.
The HRDN says a population of 225 million with more than half, having no income to sustain themselves, a lack of natural resources such as water, it is not hard to envision the social problems that would ensue increased crime rate, increased levels of hostility and a complete social disorder. But what does all this have to do with the corporate sector? Can any legitimate business prosper and grow in such a climate?
The corporate sector possesses the key to a future where the nation can grow successfully, where the business can thrive and expand, blending business with social causes for an overall lucrative and productive system.
The HRDN's corporate summit for corporate involvement in FP/RH awareness in Pakistan may tackle the issues related to family planning and reproductive health services, the corporate sector involvement, and provide the very key for the corporate sector to flourish.
The summit will explore how the corporate sector could be engaged meaningfully for the enhancement of family planning and reproductive health services in the country, in ways that could also prove beneficial for them.
The HRDN says that throughout the world, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is being seen as the revolutionary way of doing business and is paving a way for intertwining corporate business with social concerns.
The CSR is grounded on the belief that ethical and environmental behaviour must be considered in businesses, along with profit, market share and other methods of commercial performance.
The HRDN is making an effort to make the corporate leaders aware of the crucial link between sustainable development and FP/RH services, and for them to invest in FP/RH information and services for an overall enhanced corporate involvement in FP/RH on a long-term basis.
The HRDN is anxious that each one 'involve to resolve' the social issues and environmental causes related to FP/RH facing the nation for bringing about a revolution, and crafting a population management system for the best of both the worlds.
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