Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Fatou Haidara, deputy director general and managing director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), have agreed to strengthen their cooperation on inclusive economic growth, climate-resilient infrastructure, rural development and job creation. The agreement came out of a meeting at the CM House in Karachi.
UNIDO intends to raise about $40 million for a special development programme for Sindh under its Programme for Country Partnership (PCP) for 2025 to 2030. The two sides also discussed expanding existing interventions and identifying new areas to improve livelihoods for vulnerable communities.
PAIDAR programme supports rural enterprises in Sindh
The meeting reviewed progress under the Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh (PAIDAR) programme, which is funded by the European Union. Provincial Minister for P&D Jam Khan Shoro told the meeting that UNIDO implements it with a grant of €49.55 million, working across Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar and Larkana districts.
The programme combines rural infrastructure and community facilities with financial grants for micro, small and medium enterprises, along with technical assistance and institutional capacity-building. Its stated goals include reducing poverty, strengthening local economies and creating jobs for women and young people.
Special Assistant to the Chief Minister Syed Qasim Naveed highlighted beneficiaries who turned assistance into working businesses. They included a woman entrepreneur who opened a restaurant in Badin, and an entrepreneur in Larkana who set up a pasta-making facility linked to a flour mill. He said such support could create livelihoods and stimulate economic activity in rural Sindh.
Resilient settlement plans and model villages after floods
The Chief Minister thanked the delegation for UNIDO’s ongoing work with the Sindh government, particularly after the floods of 2022. He also praised the programme’s role in rebuilding flood-affected communities through climate-resilient settlement planning, carried out with the Sindh People’s Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF).
The meeting was told that Community Resilient Settlement Development Plans had been prepared for about 300 villages across the five PAIDAR districts. A model village has been developed at Lakho Bhambhro in Thatta with SPHF, and UNIDO is now supporting the approach in an additional 100 villages.
The model village initiative includes safe drinking water, sanitation, drainage, roads, energy-efficient facilities and other improvements aimed at better living conditions and resilience to climate-related risks. The programme is also helping develop Rural Growth Centres to improve access to public services and create room for enterprise development. The Chief Minister stressed that these infrastructure and livelihood efforts should deliver lasting benefits to rural residents.
Skills training and a digital development portfolio system
In an employment-focused initiative, PAIDAR will support skills development for 200 young people from the five target districts through reputable training institutions. The proposed training programmes will run for nine to 12 months and focus on market-oriented trades such as hospitality, electric vehicles and solar technologies. The Chief Minister welcomed the plan and called for training to match market demand and emerging investment opportunities in Sindh.
The meeting also reviewed UNIDO’s technical assistance for the Sindh Development Portfolio Management System (SDPMS), developed with the Planning and Development Department. The platform is designed to manage the provincial development portfolio from planning and appraisal through approvals, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. It supports the digital processing of PC-I to PC-V documents.
Planning and Development Chairman Najam Shah told the Chief Minister that the system had been operational for about one and a half months and was being used across government departments and project implementation units. He said work on a mobile application and the integration of an artificial intelligence tool was at an advanced stage. The meeting was informed that the system now covers 3,715 active development schemes and has about 250 users.
Plans for a $40 million programme for Sindh
A major focus of the meeting was a dedicated programme for Sindh under UNIDO’s PCP for 2025 to 2030. Fatou Haidara briefed the Chief Minister that Pakistan has signed the PCP framework with UNIDO, and that the organisation planned to build a programme tailored to the development priorities and needs of the province.
Haidara added that UNIDO planned to raise about $40 million for the proposed programme. The Chief Minister said the Sindh government was prepared to seek approval for the initiative as a priority development programme. He said it would be pursued in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change and other relevant federal stakeholders.
