ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday said recent statistics showed that around 70 per cent of Pakistanis were engaged in some form of volunteerism significantly addressing poverty alleviation , education and health, contributing three per cent plus of the GDP.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the first international conference on Volunteerism and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mr Aziz welcomed Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy, UN Executive Coordinator volunteers Add De Raad's visit to Pakistan and lauded the efforts of National Commission for Human Development chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf for his initiative in organizing this first international gathering to spotlight volunteerism in the country and resources needed to sustain the present pace for achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs).

The prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to UN Millennium Development Goals and said the country had developed a strategy for poverty reduction. Talking about 70 per cent volunteerism in Pakistani society, Mr Aziz said it was a healthy trend and strengthened belief that volunteerism was woven into the fabric of our psyche.

He said the shining examples of such volunteerism are the Edhi Foundation, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, etc., to name just a few. He said Islam institutionalised the contributions through the principle of Zakat for distribution among the poor.

The premier said it was heartening to note that the NCHD Volunteer Corps of 40,000 volunteers ensured enrolment of one million out of schooling age children in schools and vaccinated over 200,000 children in locations where no government or private facilities existed.

The prime minister said Pakistan had endorsed the MDGs and was committed to their achievement. Mr Aziz said the four pillars of his national strategy for poverty reduction included efforts to achieve high and broad-based economic growth focusing particularly on the rural economy, while maintaining macroeconomic stability; improving governance and consolidating devolution both as a means of delivering better development results and ensuring social and economic justice; investing in human capital with a renewed emphasis on effective delivery of basic social services' and bringing the poor and vulnerable and backward regions into the mainstream of development.

He said the government would strive to make marked progress in reducing inequalities and specify measures to that effect. Mr Aziz said the government continued to raise awareness, encourage advocacy, build alliances and renew commitment at the country level, as well as to strengthen national capacity for monitoring and reporting on the goals and targets.

Mr Aziz said the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper reflected the tentative broad path aligning it with the MDGS. He said the Planning Commission in consultation with the concerned stakeholders and the ministries had development MDGs framework and the first Millennium Development Goals Report (MDGR) would be launched shortly.

Mr Aziz said the report would include status and trend for each of the goals, policies and programmes, the major challenges in accomplishing the goals, and priorities of development assistance and the format for reporting progress.

Mr Aziz while appreciating the contribution that the NGO sector can make in social development, affirmed government's institutional support to NGOs through a range of government ministries, including the Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education that is the focal point for NGOs and various projects under execution in different provinces. He said the poverty reduction strategy recognised the significant role that NGOs could play in social service delivery, advocacy, and empowerment.

The prime minister said the National Volunteer Programme, anchored in the National Commission for Human Development, aimed to establish linkages between voluntary action and development and to provide the government with instruments that actively promoted citizen voluntary action towards agreed development goals.

Mr Aziz said the government believed in strengthening of devolved governments as it was imperative for achieving millennium development goals. He said the strategic thrust of the government was on meeting the actual needs of the people at the grassroots level through community participation, improving funding mechanism to increase enrolment, raising literacy, and improving quality; removing institutional bottlenecks that have disrupted flow of funds in the past; and making devolution to work for achieving social sectors outcomes.