Provincial Strategy for Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Growth – B Municipal Business Plan

Pakistan is the sixth largest country in terms of population in the world and is facing massive problems due to large population. One of the main problems faced by the country is mass movement of population from rural to the urban areas. Major cities in Pakistan have experienced rapid urbanization, with an average urban population growth of 4% per year since 1951. By 2030, about 60% of the country’s population will be living in urban areas, of which 12 large cities will have a population of more than 1 million inhabitants.  While economic activities in urban areas produce more than 75% of the national income (gross domestic product), about 15% of the urban population lives in poverty. The urban infrastructure is aging and has not expanded at the pace necessary to provide basic services or stimulate economic growth.

In Pakistan, local government is the third tier of government whose major responsibility is to provide basic service delivery to the people and sustainable development. The local governments across Pakistan are not performing up to the expectations of the people in delivering basic services and for sustainable growth. Many factors are contributing in this underperformance of the local government including the lack of financial resources available to the local governments, their inability to generate their own sources, inappropriate allocation of resources, absence of sound financial management systems including lack of strategic planning, weak operational planning and budgeting, and weak accountability.  Lack of capacity of the people responsible to manage these local governments and non availability of data required for efficient allocation of resources are also major contributing factors.  Similar to other parts of the country the people of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is no exception and like other provinces, the large urban population of the province is facing severe problems such as limited access to land and housing, limited access to basic social services and a lack of employment opportunities. KP is vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and the large urban populations living in those areas which are exposed to climate change threats are more vulnerable to losses due to climate change. The government’s ability to cope with these challenges is very limited; these conditions have contributed to high levels of socioeconomic deprivation and constrained productivity and economic growth in urban areas.