Pakistan among countries with least spending in social sectors: UN

Source: www.dawn.com - Tuesday, November 27, 2018
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has placed Pakistan in the group of Asia-Pacific countries that spend the least on social protection, education and healthcare. According to the ‘Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific 2018 ’ report published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) on Tuesday, other countries in the group are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal and Timor-Leste. With the exception of Timor-Leste, it said, all other countries in the group spent around five per cent of their GDP on the three social sectors, which was below the regional average of nine per cent of GDP. Most of these countries were also all low-income states, many of which had seen human and other resources depleted by conflicts and natural disasters. The main challenge for this country grouping, it noted, was to gather political will and public support for significantly boosting investments in people. The report said that while the Asia- Pacific region had made considerable achievements in primary education — with primary school net enrolment rates above 90pc in almost every country — gross enrolment rates for secondary education varied widely, being as low as 45pc in Cambodia and Pakistan. Developing countries in the Asia- Pacific region only spent about 3.7pc of GDP on social protection, compared to the world average of 11.2pc. This under-investment, the report noted, was the reason why 60pc of the population in th

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