The government has prepared a comprehensive plan for housing and population census 2009, costing US $62.1 million of which $49.8 million will be arranged locally. The United Nations has so far pledged US $1,629,000 and is working to mobilise additional US $10,657,440 from multi-and bilateral donors.
The Federal Secretary Statistics Division, Tariq Shafiq Khan and the Heads of UN agencies UNFPA, UNDP, Unifem, Unicef, Unhabitat, ILO and Unesco signed the Joint Programme Component Document on Population Census here on Thursday. The main objective of the Joint Programme is to assist the Government in conducting error-free population census-2009.
The data encompassing all important population-related parameters of the economy will be used for planning and policy making at the federal, provincial and district levels. The joint programme is for a period of three years from March 1, 2009 to December 31, 2011.
Speaking on the occasion, the Federal Secretary, Tariq Shafiq Khan said, "Learning from past experiences made it essential to introduce new technologies in the census process to ensure complete accuracy of data. The data collected will help the policy makers to chalk out need-oriented plans".
The UNFPA Representative, Daniel B Baker said, "This Joint Programme Component for 2009 census in Pakistan will enable the UN to provide multi-faceted assistance for the proposed activities in a co-ordinated manner." He informed that UNFPA would be contributing US $1,330,000 from its own resources for this important initiative.
The United Nations is providing assistance in areas such as equipment, technical capacity building, support, and "gendering" of the census. The UN Joint Programme Component for the census has been designed keeping in view lessons learned from the previous census exercises, taking into account factors that might impede or catalyse its implementation.
The UNs contribution for the census will be one of the first tangible results of the UNs Delivering as One strategies, for which Pakistan is one of 8 pilot countries. Implementation of the census is key element of the One Programme strategies. The United Nations agencies, by working together, bring forward their comparative advantages to ensure that the census addresses all aspects of the Millennium Development Goals.
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