KARACHI: A five-member delegation of the World Bank(WB) led by its Senior Social Development Specialist of Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice Imran ul Haq met the Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi
During the meeting, they discussed the potential of the establishment of the WB’s Centre for Environmental and Social Sustainability initiative in Pakistan. WB’s Imran Haq informed that the World Bank is interested in creating a center of excellence in the province which could help in catering the environmental issues, and help in providing durable and long-lasting solutions, and social sustainability in the country.
He shared that the proposed CESS project aims to create ownership among individuals and all the stakeholders including governments, industries, masses, and academia besides the capacity building of a society.
Imran ul Haq mentioned that the WB delegation has shortlisted four possible varsities for the establishment of CESS and the University of Karachi is one of them.
According to him, they have linked up with 16 universities and after a thorough process, they have shortlisted four universities in Karachi and initially met with the heads of all three institutions before visiting the KU.
He elaborated that the CESS is supposed to strengthen the partnership of donors, governments, industries, academia, and others in environmental and social sustainability of the development process as well as help in improving environmental conditions, safeguarding social values, educating the importance of the CESS to society, doing in-depth research, preparing policies to protect the environment and improve the quality of the environment.
He said that the WB would like to take other donor agencies on board too regarding the CESS and hoped that with the collaboration of institutions like the Asian Development Bank, and Japan International Cooperation Agency the CESS project would be more useful for society.
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Meanwhile, the KU VC Prof Dr Khalid Iraqi shared that KU has established an Industry Advisory Board at the departmental level and each of them has field experts available to suggest changes in the curriculum as per the market’s needs and help the students to get internships and jobs during the final years of their studies.
