CHAPTER 10

IT, Sustainable Development Goals, and Disaster Management

Sarfraz Khawaja

(Former Dean) National School of Public Policy, Lahore, Pakistan

Huong Ha

School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore

Ayesha Akbar

National School of Public Policy, Lahore, Pakistan

Introduction

Disaster management by employing technology is a widely acclaimed mechanism to help in building mitigation strategies for preparedness for and responses to disasters. In the same domain, policy design is one of the best vehicles to address the gaps in promoting education and better health care standards, especially in developing countries in South Asia.

Since January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the world leaders in a historic UN summit in September 2015 for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are universally applicable to all countries to take measures to end poverty, tackle climate change, and fight inequalities (UN 2017).

Pakistan, in order to achieve the agenda of the SDGs, created a national framework to establish a link between modern technology and resource mobilization. The primary initiative is an integration of IT (information technology) to bridge the gaps in service delivery. The breakthrough in technology can be employed with proper integration of policy interventions and used to find loopholes in the administrative system. The transformation of manual records to the digitized “dashboards” (Punjab Information Technology Board [PITB], Government of the Punjab 2017) provides the reflection of the overall performances to target the areas of underperformance or to highlight efficient services. The integrated model of IT offers the capability of designing administrative structures with effective processes to ensure that the SDGs can be attained (Kiani 2017; UN 2017).

The government and relevant stakeholders, with these structural changes, can work out a plan to involve local government actors as they are in close contact with the community. These reforms aim at better communicating the needs of society, and the country at large, to deliver the SDGs. This activity will stimulate more options to improve the indicators of all SDGs, which in turn can help to mitigate disaster risk. Thus, this chapter discusses how Pakistan has tried to achieve the SDGs via the use of IT in many different sectors.

IT and Preparedness Responses to Disaster Management

Public service delivery has witnessed a significant improvement with the integration of IT. It improves the monitoring of service delivery and provides effective means for informed decisions and policy. Pakistan’s public sector has not been able to produce acceptable results in the provision of water supply, basic health, primary education, and other public services through good governance. Thus, the government introduced a paradigm shift from traditional to technological models to produce a significant difference in the governance structure, and to ensure that laws are followed. Integration of IT in the service structure of emergency response security staff that includes emergency rescue, fire brigade, and road accidents and such services reflected a significant improvement. IT has developed a nexus in governance and service delivery to assure reliability, predictability, validity, and transparency in the implementation of rules and regulations. These elements strengthen the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and ensure evidence-based policy creation and decision-making.

Rescue-1122 is a public sector organization run by the state for providing emergency services to deal with the disaster management incidents, and to improve human development (Sriram et al. 2016). This chapter briefly discusses a success story after going through rigorous data collection and deep analysis of the organization. The service delivery model of Rescue-1122 works on two fronts: front-office interface and the back-office interface. Back-office defines the procedures of the operations, and assures the compliance of the staff, whereas front office is equipped with the latest technology and good infrastructure in order to handle the emergency calls. Both ends are integrated with satellite-based vehicle tracking wireless system, fleet monitoring system, and IP camera that monitors every move of the staff for the assurance of efficient services and to identify distortions in the system.

In Pakistan, the standard time of reaching to the emergency location is 7 minutes as provided in the manual of the organization, and drivers “behavior, traffic volumes and the technical assistance being provided to the emergency are monitored by the front-office personnel” (Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) n.d.). Then, the information is uploaded to the main dashboard of Lahore headquarters from the provincial offices for the 24/7 surveillance. With the adoption of IT, the service cycle has improved the disaster management and emergency case responses significantly thus improving public services.

This innovative model for delivery of public services can be replicated in other public agencies to ensure transparency, identifying the loopholes, developing a redress mechanism, and to generate information for making informed decisions. For example, the management of Rescue-1122 strategized the policies and procedures in such a way to develop a comprehensive model for the integration of technology (Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122 n.d.). This model provides efficient service delivery as well as maintains the standards of the organization.

IT and Education

As education is a catalyst for achieving SDGs, it is important to discuss how IT can help Pakistan discharge its duty via launching several educational initiatives (Ministry of Planning, Development & Reform 2014).

Under E-learning Initiative, PITB, in the realization of the need of technology for the management of its administration, introduced a myriad of projects to generate evidence to make decisions. Integration of IT for maneuvering governance strategies has been considered one of the drivers of reforms, and to achieve Goal 4 of the SDGs.

E-learning enables teachers to deliver lectures with the help of sophisticated digital devices (Masic 2008). Android tablets have been handed over to teachers equipped with semi-smart TVs. It helps teachers in developing curriculum, plan training activities, and enables students to have online access to study material by using user-friendly interface. Offline availability of content has also been assured to give students full-access to course content. E-learning aims to make education, including environmental education and disaster education, more accessible by the provision of digitized content, online tools for the evaluation of teachers and students (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017). It corrects technological gaps, addresses issues of adoption, and upgrades weak content.

Under Smart Monitoring of Schools, Punjab Government employs 950 monitoring officers across the province for the monitoring of 52,695 public schools all over Punjab by making spot-visits. This monitoring mechanism is part of the Open Data Strategy of Government of Punjab (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017). During visists teacher presence, student enrolment, and attendance, availability of facilities such as clean drinking water, electricity, and toilets are assured. All the data is placed on the websites of respective schools by summarizing information from the actual monitoring forms to guide the decisions on provincial and district levels.

Literacy and Numeracy Drive is a project of PITB to evaluate the performance of schools (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017). The program evaluates the performance based on the criteria of pre-designed students learning objectives (SLOs). The designs aim at defining the criteria of structuring school curricula. Monitoring and evaluation assistants have been handed over devices with the installation of applications with a series of tests comprising multiple-choice questions based on SLOs. An average of 49,000 public schools are visited on a monthly basis, with approximately 2,400 visits each day. It means that around 14,000 students are assessed every day (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017).

Under IT and Policy Design, Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) (2016) has introduced a mechanism of data-driven insights for policy design in operating the administrative system. The initiative ignites an approach to evidence-based policy making in Pakistan. In an attempt to revitalize Pakistan’s overall fabric with the integration of technology, CERP started a project in 2002 with the name of LEAPS (Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools). The project focuses on changes in the landscape of Pakistan to synthesis information and inform policy and decisions across the country. Against all odds of poor statistics of education, CERP (2016) draws the attention of government toward better decision-making and accountability, increasing access to schooling, reform poor performing public schools, reform teacher compensation, and the government acts as an innovator.

Online College Admissions System (OCAS) has been developed to provide students with a secure source of facilitation for admission. It is a convenient, secure, efficient, and reliable access to students for admission in a higher level of education. The solution has been provided by the collaborative relationship of Nine Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Higher Education Department of Punjab, Bank of Punjab, and PITB (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017).

The objective of OCAS facilitation is to offer time- and cost-saving strategies with the convenience of submitting an application online. It enhances the time efficiency of an applicant for not paying any physical visit to college with the leverage of applying to a number of colleges from a single spot. A long and tedious system of college applications spanned over a long period of time has been made so conveniently accessible with the successful integration of ICT models (Sarfraz 2011; Sarfraz and Jahanzeb 2017).

Though there is no denying that modern technologies have helped in developing new ways and models to achieve significant successes in the teaching–learning process, but they have added challenges as well. Alvin Toffler said in 1991: “The illiterate of the twenty first century, will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” (National Library Board n.d.), and he was correct. A whole generation of those teachers who never touched a computer were forced to unlearn and relearn. Some did and some did not, which is the success rate of inclusion and optimization of IT in education (Khan 2017).

IT and Health Administration

In terms of health care, Pakistan ranks at the bottom for infant and neonatal mortality. 44 percent children are stunted, and 9.6 million suffer chronic nutrition deprivation (UNICEF 2015). According to UNICEF, compounding the nation’s state of poor health, for example, is the toll taken by pneumonia killing approximately 92,000 children annually (UNICEF 2015). Pakistan’s ranking in the Maternal Mortality Ratio Index has slipped from 147 in 2014 to 149 in 2015, recording a staggering 276 deaths per 100,000 births (UNICEF 2015).

Technological breakthrough and advancement in health sciences have contributed to a vast improvement of health care systems all over the world. Still, real progress is the achievement of universal health coverage by making medicines and vaccines affordable; and educating women to sexual and reproductive health care and preventing children from dying. After several initiatives, inequalities in health care access still persist (World Health Organization 2007). The health indicators reveal a grim picture, more than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year, and only half of all women in developing regions have access to the health care they need. Epidemics like HIV/AIDS thrive where fear and discrimination limit people’s ability to receive the services they need to live healthy and productive lives (UN 2017).

Under Reforms towards SDGs Targets, technologically led solutions to the problems start orientations toward smart monitoring designs and coherent policies for ensuring compliance. The Government of Punjab, in the realization of achieving SDGs, has revitalized the health vision with integrated models of IT to track distortions in the service delivery. The PITB offered IT-centric solutions with the help of the World Bank to consolidate information to maintain the supply chain of drugs, equipment, and the availability of human resources. These initiatives are to be rolled out across Pakistan after receiving successful outcomes (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017).

Under Electronic Medical Record and Hospital Information Management System, electronic record helps in Basic Health Unit (BHU) clustering, ensures health service standards through monitoring and evaluation, maintenance and cleanliness system, health watch, and medicine inventory management system (PDSSP, Government of The Punjab 2008).

District supervisory officers are provided with Android-based smartphones to visit health facilities. They pay a visit to health facilities, and monitor the records of absenteeism, stock-out medicines, and nonfunctional equipment. All the information along with a self-photo of the supervisory officer get uploaded with a map in real time with GPS accuracy of 5 m, and such information is available for use by managers at various levels. All the necessary information is communicated with Health Watch application for effectively solving three key issues of (i) compliance of supervisory officers, (ii) validity of data collected, and (iii) timeliness of data reporting (PDSSP, Government of The Punjab 2008).

Under this e-monitoring initiative, 210 Android (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017) phones and SIMs with Internet facilities were provided to the district health managers (DHMs). These DHMs follow pre-assigned monthly targets for visiting health care facilities in their respective jurisdictions. The DHMs submit their inspection data through the Health Watch application developed by PITB. The data submitted through the application automatically pops up on a map using GPS in real time. Multiple other reports are available on a web-based dashboard for departmental review and decision-making. The Health Watch program has delivered exceptionally positive results from 2015 to 2017, that is, (i) the dashboard has received more than 110,000¹ entries from the field managers, and (ii) staff attendance has improved from 22 percent to over 90 percent² within a year (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017)

Under IT and Disease Surveillance System, health science all over the world is led by administration with IT-centric solutions that are produced by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. The department uses SatScan (software) and Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) for preparedness to emergencies and to gather information to facilitate all stakeholders. In 2011, the PITB developed a disease surveillance system in response to the vital outbreak of dengue fever to identify geographical location of waterborne disease of typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis, and hepatitis A (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017).

The need of historical data in an organized manner was highlighted by PITB for the early detection of future outbreaks. The government was unable to take steps for early preparedness and emergency response. To overcome the problems, all the available health outlets of teaching hospitals, headquarters of Rural Health Centers (RHCs) at Tehsil and district levels were equipped with trained staff for data entry and reporting of cases (Callen et al. 2013). Each person was provided with a laptop, internet dongle or any other means of connectivity. These all consolidated information is used to make informed decisions, and to plan interventions to introduce innovative ideas to combat the situation (PITB, Government of the Punjab 2017).

Conclusion

The efficient use of IT can improve the mobilization of resources to achieve sustainable development not only in education but to achieve the rest of the SDGs. Reforms in Pakistan with the adoption of IT will improve the current educational and health situations that can help the country meet the SDGs and to keep up with international development. A public–private partnership, integration of technology and the adoption of the global best pedagogical techniques can give a kick-start to provide a reliable foundation for now and tomorrow.

IT-centric transformation of management systems brought about tremendous benefits for aligning departments in a way to produce maximum output while mobilizing the available resources. Pakistan has revitalized the health system by deploying IT-trained personnel for strengthening the monitoring and evaluation mechanism with smart applications and sophisticated devices. IT-integrated models will ensure transparency and accountability while generating the statistical data to form evidence-based decisions. Fostering innovations for coherent policy design is the global demand that the Government of Pakistan has successfully implemented. However, despite improvements in the governance structure, some problems still persist, which results in noncompliance with the existing system. The government can establish a balanced framework for incorporating the holistic, comprehensive, and coherent system of administration for ensuring human well-being, economic development, and a healthy environment.

References

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Sriram, V. M., G. Gururai, J. A. Razzak, R. Naseer, and A. A. Hyder. 2016. “Comparative Analysis of Three Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services Organizations in India and Pakistan.” Public Health 137, pp. 169–75.

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¹https://www.pitb.gov.pk/digital_punjab, (accessed January 23, 2018).

²Ibid.