Chairman P&D Board, Hamed Yakoob Sheikh attended the Idea Hackathon session of the FCDO-funded Sub-National Governance programme on planning, governance, and climate change and stressed on the importance of innovative solutions for government.

The participants with representation from Planning and Development Board, Punjab Economic Research Institute, Punjab Social Protection Authority, Bureau of Statistics, technology companies, youth, academia and researchers presented various ideas to improve planning and governance processes in the province. Climate change and environment were also added as themes in the Hackathon to find solutions to the hazardous impact of climate change, especially during the smog season.

Chairman P&D commented that maximum stakeholders, especially citizens, need to be involved to ensure planning processes that deliver for the public. He also stressed on the importance of effective use of data for decision making.

He emphasised that having data alone is not enough, the analysis and integration of data is important and innovative pilots for data integration and analysis are encouraged as government is looking for good ideas to adopt and process

The Sub-National Governance Programme runs the Innovation Challenge Fund to help pilot innovative solutions to improve public financial management, planning and governance systems for improved service delivery. Through a highly competitive system, ideas (with scalable potential) are selected and piloted with relevant government departments.