President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the need to bring about a shift in our habits and attitudes from frequent and unbridled consumption to saving and conserving all resources, including water and energy, to overcome our financial and economic difficulties and to build a better and healthier society. He said that by closing our businesses from 6 pm onwards we could save 3000 to 4000 megawatts of energy, whereas by saving precious rain and flood water by making small and mega water reservoirs we can reuse the saved water during dry seasons and droughts. The President expressed these views while addressing the opening plenary of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)’s 25th Sustainable Development Conference, in Islamabad, today. The Conference was also attended by diplomats and international delegates. The President said that there were various stages to handle crises and issues, starting from first recognizing the issue, creating a baseline, factoring in past experiences, benchmarking good practices within the country and around the world, defining our goals, setting KPIs and a timeline and then putting our minds and resources to achieve set goals. “By adopting such an approach, we can overcome many problems and issues confronted by us in a systematic and sure manner”, he added. The President said that our attitudes should be targeted towards reducing waste and stopping littering, overcoming unnecessary desires and wants and striving to spend our lives based upon cherished Islamic values of love for ourselves, for family, neighbours, humanity and nation without hating other nations, and love for all creations, both living and non-living, and love for Prophet (SAW) and Allah Almighty which, he said, would help us live happy and fulfilling lives. He said that the world had entered into an era of abundance of food through the use of high-yielding seeds, highly efficient water conservation techniques, use of artificial intelligence to provide micronutrients and other requirements to the crops which have helped in multiplying the yield of food items. He said that by adopting modern farming techniques, we also could substantially increase our food yields which could help us in overcoming stunting, and malnutrition in mothers and children, and eliminating hunger, deprivation and poverty from the country. The President said that if we were fully committed and geared, we may be able to reverse and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change by putting our minds and resources to this end by setting KPIs and timelines which as yet the world is not ready to do but is of immense importance to save our planet from the negative impacts of climate change. He said that now that the floods were over, we were entering into the rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas and flood victims in most parts of the country. “We need to adapt ourselves to the expected changes brought about by climate change and to create a resilient society, which is capable of successfully countering negative fallouts of climate change and global warming”, he added. While talking about population control, the President said that due to cultural taboos, people are reluctant to approach and buy contraceptives which are necessary to stop unwanted pregnancies, which are 50% of the total pregnancies of 9 million in a year. He said by creating ease of access to contraceptive means, we could prevent unwanted pregnancies which would help us in impeding population growth in Pakistan. He said that Pakistan was able to control the COVID-19 pandemic in a much better manner compared to many regional countries by repeatedly conveying the message to clean hands, wear masks and observe social distancing. He said that the pandemics were going to spread frequently in future due to ease of communication and frequent world travelling, therefore, we should set in place protective and preventive mechanisms to defeat future pandemics before they spread to minimize their impact on lives and livelihood of the people. Chairman BoG, SDPI, Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel, in his welcome address said that SDPI was offering research-based and evidence-based policy inputs to the government for formulation of policies. He said that the world should focus on inclusive growth. Ms Mikkiko Tanaka from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said that South and South-west Asia needed to strengthen their partnership for coping with common issues. Executive Director SDPI, Mr Abid Sulehri, gave a brief overview of the three-day conference. He said that the conference discussed recent challenges i.e., Covid-19, Ukraine War and Climate Change. He said that 11 sessions of 38 panels were held pertaining to these issues and delegates from International Organizations also participated in the conference. ?
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