Supporting Educational Projects in Pakistan: Operationalizing UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Abstract

Pakistan has a population of over 212 million people which makes it the sixth largest country by population in the world. In 2021, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 22.8 million children in the country did not attend school which represented 44% of this age group. As a result, due to the low educational standard of much of its population, Pakistan is not well equipped to meet the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that will integrate advances in knowledge including artificial intelligence, robotics, and the “Internet of things.” The Government of Pakistan has committed to raising literacy standards urgently, and international and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are delivering educational projects in the country to support this aspiration. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4) relates to Quality Education, and this is clearly of relevance to the delivery of these projects. Based upon data collected from semistructured interviews undertaken with NGOs, donors, and government representatives operating in Pakistan, this chapter will investigate how SDG-4 is influencing the delivery of educational projects in this country, and will reflect upon how the elements of this United Nations’ goal are being operationalized in practical situations to ensure that the projects being delivered are efficacious and sustainable. The key elements required to ensure the successful delivery of educational projects are identified in this chapter, and from these findings a framework is proposed that can be used by other organizations to ensure that their own projects are “fit for purpose” in terms of supporting SDG-4.