New atlas launched to improve health and education

A new atlas giving the locations of health and education facilities across Pakistan has been launched to help district authorities and aid agencies plan services for people more effectively. "We want to give the planners and decision makers a tool which will help make these facilities more effective," the director of the Pakistan Planning Commission's Centre for Research on Poverty Reduction and Income Distribution (CRPRID), Dr Mushtaq Khan, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday. The atlas is a joint venture between the CRPRID and the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF), which cost about US $40,000 over a three-year period. The process of gathering information for the atlas revealed the existence of 170,000 primary schools and 7,000 basic health units, but also that sections of the population still have virtually no access to such facilities. "Every year there are three million children who are eligible to start schooling and 4.5 million children currently not attending schools, so we need to look at how we can increase enrolment figures by making schools more accessible and better resourced," Khan said. The atlas, a fully digitised map of the country, is part of an ongoing effort to build up a comprehensive social sector database in Pakistan by mapping health, education and welfare facilities. "We hear horror stories about pregnant women who aren't able to reach hospitals in time for the birth or having experienced complications during birth. But if health facilities were equally distributed, this could give them more of a chance to overcome difficulties and, in some cases, improve their chances of surviving," he said. The information for the atlas was gathered from various databases, the 1998 census, education and health management information systems, as well as by way of dispatching officers from the planning commission to districts all over the country. Khan said one of the reoccurring questions he has been asked during his working career was about the location of facilities. "Many cannot be accessed by women, or schools are put in places where children have to walk for miles in order to get there. This atlas aims to highlight these problems and get the decision makers to move the facilities or improve resources for them," Khan explained. A copy of the atlas will be sent to each of the district nazims (mayors) to enable them to establish at a glance where the under-and over-resourced areas are in their particular district. Aid agencies say the atlas is a vital tool for the promotion of development in Pakistan. "It is a very exciting development for the aid community in Pakistan, because the critical thing in Pakistan in terms of social service delivery is whether these institutions function or not," a UNICEF project officer, Dr Abdul Alim, told IRIN in Islamabad. "This database will show which facilities are staffed and functioning or highlight those which are inaccessible or badly resourced, enabling donors to distribute funds better," he added. The CRPRID atlas will be updated every year. "It is now up to the district nazims to use this tool effectively and provide proper health and education facilities for the people living in their areas," Khan said.