Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal chaired a meeting on the Human Capital and Skills Mission, the seventh of the 11 National Economic Missions under URAAN Pakistan, placing investment in people at the centre of the country’s strategy for long-term economic transformation.
The meeting reviewed Pakistan’s standing on health, education and skills against peer countries, the URAAN targets for the mission, and a proposed federal–provincial delivery mechanism for achieving them.
“Where will Pakistan stand in 2047, when we complete one hundred years of independence? That is the decisive question before us today. Just as we won Marka-e-Haq, we must now win Marka-e-Taraqqi - the battle for development.”
The Minister said Pakistan had prepared development plans many times, but political instability had repeatedly disrupted the continuity of policies. Continuity of policy and political stability, he said, were indispensable for putting Pakistan on the path of development, and long-term social and economic goals would be difficult to achieve without them.
“Investment in human resources and skills is the foundation of Pakistan’s future development.”
Social sectors must be treated as a national emergency
Ahsan Iqbal said that social-sector challenges were more important than roads and buildings and must be taken up as a national emergency. Education, health, nutrition, clean water and population balance, he said, must be placed among the country’s national priorities.
“Pakistan’s literacy rate is 63 percent. With literacy at this level, we cannot develop at the speed we need.”
The Minister said rapid population growth of 2.55% was a major challenge for Pakistan, warning that unchecked growth could undermine the country’s efforts for economic progress.
He said that a significant improvement in social indicators would require at least ten years of a sustained and coordinated system.
*The human capital gap is holding Pakistan back*
The briefing presented to the meeting underscored the urgency of the mission.
Pakistan ranks 168th of 193 countries on the Human Development Index, and its Human Capital Index score of 0.41 means that a child born in Pakistan today will reach only 41 percent of his or her productive potential. Stunting stands at 40.2 percent, the highest among peer countries, and every province and region is above the WHO “very high” threshold of 30 percent. Maternal mortality, at 186 per 100,000 live births, remains well above the SDG target of 70.
In education, around 26 million children (28%) are out of school, and of every 100 children who enter Class 1 in public schools, only 46 reach Class 10. Literacy ranges from 68% in Punjab to 49% in Balochistan..
In skills, female labour force participation is 22.7% compared with 68.7% for men, 45.4% of young women are not in education, employment or training, and uptake of technical and vocational training has remained flat at around 11%, while about 2 million young people enter the labour force every year.
The briefing also noted areas of progress, including full immunization coverage, which has risen to 81.3% nationally.
*Fifteen years after the 18th Amendment: devolution must reach the districts*
The Minister said the purpose of the 18th Amendment was to improve the social sectors, but the desired results could not be achieved because authority was not transferred to the lower tiers.
He said that between 2010 and 2025 the pace of progress remained far below expectations, largely because of the centralisation of authority, and that the social sectors had not seen the required improvement compared with fifteen years ago.
“A single provincial secretary cannot effectively resolve the problems of an entire province. Authority must be transferred to local governments.”
He said empowered departments must be established at the district level so that citizens can access basic services at their doorsteps, and that administrative reforms would have to be introduced to make this possible.
The Minister called on provincial governments to introduce governance reforms in education, health and other social sectors, and to post officers of the highest caliber in these departments.
*From planning to implementation*
Ahsan Iqbal stressed that the time for merely making plans was over and that effective implementation must now be ensured.
“The job of the Ministry of Planning is to provide the best evidence based planning. Implementation rests with the relevant departments and the provincial governments. Only the best planning combined with effective implementation can guarantee that we achieve our development goals.”
The Human Capital and Skills Mission is the most devolved of the 11 National Economic Missions, with health, education and skills being primarily provincial mandates. The federal role is centred on standards development, policy coordination, international commitments, financing dialogue and data consolidation.
URAAN targets for health, education and skills Under URAAN Pakistan, the mission’s targets include reducing maternal mortality by 35 percent and stunting and under-five mortality by 18 percent each, raising skilled birth attendance to 85 percent, increasing education spending to 4 percent of GDP, improving the literacy rate by 10 percent, creating 1.5 million jobs per year and raising female labour force participation by 17 percent.
The meeting was informed that these national targets will be broken down into annual, provincial and regional milestones so that progress each year is clear, comparable and trackable. Population indicators, including the total fertility rate and contraceptive prevalence rate, were also proposed for inclusion in the mission’s monitoring framework in addition to increasing spending on health to 2% of GDP..
*A coordinated federal-provincial delivery mechanism*
The briefing proposed a delivery architecture linked to the National Population Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, with three working groups; Education, Health and Population, and Skills bringing together the relevant line departments, Planning and Development, Finance and development partners.A thematic working group on nutrition is equally important.
The working groups will meet every two weeks, resolve federal–provincial bottlenecks, and report progress to the Executive Committee. They will also map the current PSDP and provincial ADPs to identify existing interventions, available financing and any gaps, and align development spending with the mission’s priorities. The Monitoring and Tracking Unit at the Ministry of Planning will provide support and track progress for the NPC and the Executive Committee..
*The spirit of the nuclear programme for economic transformation*
“Achieving the targets of URAAN Pakistan’s 11 National Economic Missions requires the same resolve and hard work that Pakistan demonstrated in completing its nuclear programme.”
The meeting was attended by representatives of federal ministries and provincial departments from the health, education, planning and skills sectors.
The Human Capital and Skills Mission aims to translate Pakistan’s long-term economic transformation agenda into mission-driven, measurable, and time-bound national action.
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