Pakistan’s response towards its own commitments at global level regarding socio-economic development and political empowerment of its citizens are often not fulfilled at the first place therefore the citizens’ confidence and trust on state institutions is weakening day by day. Since the failure in achieving these commitments do not have any major political implications due to the lack of awareness in masses, therefore the attention as well as investment on these commitments are not set as priorities. Global community is often made satisfied on the progress of these commitments with irrational and tactical excuses. Whereas some of the reasons are really based on logic like in case of Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) it was said that most of them were not achieved due to war against terror (2000) deadly earthquake (2005) and devastating floods (2010 & 2014). However, the public opinion on the failure of these commitments including MDGs was neither sought by global community nor by the state institutions and civil society organizations. CSOs perspective on the failure of MDGs in response to the final report of Planning Commission of Pakistan was published by AwazCDS/ Pakistan Development Alliance while engaging only with well-informed citizens of Pakistan.
In order to make sure the inculcation and translation of global commitments in to the national priority agendas of the political fraternity as well as state institutions, sensitization of masses and their engagements in accountability processes at home is a must strategy and should be strictly adopted by all. Therefore, AwazCDS/Pakistan Development Alliance always tried to conceive and implement citizens’ centric initiatives. SDGs Citizens’ Watch Pakistan (SCWP) Program was the outcome of Citizens’ Led Mechanism for Voluntary National Review in Pakistan that has generated Citizens’ Voices on Pakistan’s first VNR process and progress on SDGs and was presented at United Nation’s High Level Political Forum in July 2019.
In continuation of such efforts SDGs Citizens’ Scorecard was launched across the country. Citizens’ Scorecard is known as the most effective means of citizens’ engagement for better governance and accountability. Therefore, we decided to use this tool to have better understanding and perception of citizens of Pakistan on the progress of SDGs after the completion of almost first five years of our commitment on agenda 2030 for social transformation. The SDGs Citizens’ Dossier is comprised of results attributed from country’s first ever SDGs Citizens’ Scorecard. This Dossier is a remarkable resource for Parliamentarians, policy makers, academics, private sector and CSOs. The UN agencies and other global and regional institutions and alliances may also refer to this document to have first hand information as well as citizens’ voices on the compliance and progress on commitments made by governments. Details of this SDGs Citizens’ Dossier are also available at SDGs Citizens’ Dashboard @ http://sdgscitizenscorecard.pda.net.pk/