Recently, I met with all four honorable Chief Ministers in Pakistan to discuss the population agenda and family planning matters. We engaged in candid and direct conversations about the urgent need for a championing leadership to make a breakthrough toward positive change. Two shared takeaways emerged during the discussions; on the one hand, there is a recognized urgency to align population growth with available resources, and willingness to take the lead. However, on the other hand, the capability of the public machinery to enact the vision of CMs is hindered by various bureaucratic complications and a lack of sound scientific foundation for assessment exacerbated by a lack of access to timely disaggregated necessary statistical data.

To bridge this gap between visionary leadership at the senior level and practical implementation, especially at the sub-national levels, the availability of reliable, complete, and comprehensive data is essential. Effective leadership in addressing population issues hinges on a foundation of accurate, disaggregated, and timely information. Without such data, the ambitious visions of leadership are hindered by insufficient or inaccurate information and lack of evidence-based knowledge which undermines informed decision-making and strategic planning. Data is the unsung hero propelling progress. While the senior leadership across the country broadly agrees on the ‘what’ part of the problems and challenges around population, women, and youth agenda, there is a significant divergence in the interpretation of the root causes and the ‘how’ part of possible solutions. This divergence stems from the inadequacy of timely and disaggregated data which hampers the analysis that builds common ground for........

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