Pakistan is urbanising at an increasingly rapid rate – as of 2023, almost 40% of the population lived in urban areas. This poses major challenges, in relation to such things as housing, essential services, pollution, and security. However, it also presents major opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction.
The goal for Pakistan is to find ways to minimise the negative impact and maximise the positive effects of urbanisation. The evidence of these potentials is explored in our report ‘Urbanisation Trends in Pakistan and Impact on Development Progress’. Here’s what we found.
Pakistan’s urbanisation: scale and drivers
Pakistan’s census in 2023 found that the total population was 241.9 million, of whom nearly 40% were in urban areas. While this proportion is comparable to other South Asian countries, the rate of urban growth in Pakistan is the fastest in the region. Between 2017 and 2023, the overall population grew by 2.55%, but the urban population by 3.57%. There are now 22 Pakistani cities with a population of 500,000 or more, up from 14 in 2017. Of the four provinces, Punjab has the highest number of urban residents.
Why is Pakistan urbanising so quickly? Historically, conflict has been a main driver of urbanisation in the country. This started with Partition and independence in 1947, when millions of Indian Muslims were displaced across the new border into its cities. Similarly, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and later counter-terrorism operations in the tribal belt, have pushed many people to cities, notably to Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi.
More recently, climate change effects are pushing people to urban areas: drought, large-scale floods (such as the devastating floods of 2022), and extreme weather events are all eroding rural livelihood sources. Rural residents also move in search of a better quality of life, and there is natural population growth.
Negative effects: cities under stress
Pakistan’s cities were not prepared for the historic influxes or for more recent arrivals. The country’s rapid urbanisation has thus had knock-on negative effects on development. The evidence used in our report shows that the ability of cities and urban areas to deliver essential services such as water and sanitation, healthcare and education – already difficult – comes under increasing strain. The housing deficit has created vast urban slums, while jobs are often insufficient or low-income. Pakistan’s cities do contribute significantly to the economy, but urban inequality means there are high levels of urban poverty. Urbanisation also exacerbates problems with congestion and pollution. And there are security implications, with increased risk of political violence and radicalisation or extremist violence.
Positive potential of urbanisation
International experience shows that urbanisation is associated with high growth, with a number of factors involved. Firstly, people in urban areas have better access to healthcare, education, as well as access to transport, the internet and electricity. All these factors contribute to higher productivity and poverty reduction.
Secondly, urbanisation provides opportunities for agglomeration (geographic concentration of economic activity), which contributes to specialisation, knowledge exchange, economies of scale and entrepreneurship. The city of Sialkot, for example, is renowned for the production of sporting goods and surgical equipment. Productive urban areas have positive spillover effects on rural areas, such as through remittances.
Thirdly, Pakistan has a very young population, so its urban areas have the additional potential to realise a ‘demographic dividend’ (possible when a country has a high proportion of people of working age, and a small share of dependents, such as the elderly). However, this requires investment in education, skills and job creation.
Government commitments and approaches
The Government of Pakistan’s Vision 2025 aims to transform ‘urban areas into creative, eco-friendly sustainable cities’ and to make urbanisation an important driver of growth. Specific measures to bring this about include: revision of zoning laws; development of the housing sector (especially low-cost housing); expansion of public services; development of mass transit systems; and promotion of ‘smart’ cities through the use of data and technology. In addition, empowering municipal governments to raise more of their own revenue, and building their capacity for urban planning and management, can make a significant difference. The private sector also has to play a role: there is huge potential for public-private partnerships, such as in housing, services and transport.
Donor interventions
Various donors are supporting sustainable urbanisation in Pakistan. The Asian Development Bank, for example, is funding two major cities’ improvement programmes in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively. Both focus on intermediate cities, and seek to build capacity as well as improve water supply, sanitation, solid waste management and transport infrastructure.
There is considerable scope for such donors to help Pakistan realise the positive potential of urban areas, through support for service delivery, capacity building of municipal governments and the private sector.
Looking ahead
What else can be done to realise the potential of Pakistan’s urbanisation? Our report gives some options based on the available literature. One innovative measure would be establishing sister-city partnerships between cities in Pakistan and Europe, in particular those with high Pakistani diaspora populations. Such partnerships would allow the exchange of knowledge, experience and lessons in urban governance, as well as contribute to job creation.
A second finding is that Pakistan could also benefit from best practices in other cities facing similar challenges. The Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in India, and the transformation of Medellín in Colombia are two such examples of positive change.
The UK Government set out in January 2025 a ‘blueprint to turbocharge’ AI use. But the principles that guide international and state actors’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) have – and continue to be – at the centre of global conversations. International organisations and governments around the world have been working on non-binding and binding principles for multi-lateral AI governance.
Here is what we found in our K4DD report on ‘Multilateral Technology Governance’.
The landscape of AI governance
The types of mechanisms governing AI fall broadly into two categories: binding and non-binding. Non-binding governance has an important role in the multilateral regulation of technologies, in part because it is quicker to adopt than binding regulations. Non-binding mechanisms carry no built-in cost for non-compliance. This makes it easier to attract more participants and also makes non-binding regulations more adaptable to the increasingly fast-paced changes in technology.
The landscape is very rich, and centres primarily around a variety of international organisations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), among others. Of these, UNESCO is unquestionably the most influential actor both by virtue of the widespread adoption of its recommendations with 193 signatories, and the fact that it is highly involved in cooperation with other governance organisations.
The OECD’s governance efforts are also influential, although the OECD’s 38 Member States are comprised solely of high-income countries and do not provide a forum for negotiation with low and middle-income countries. Nevertheless, the OECD’s definition of AI has been widely adopted by all 36 Member States and eight non-member states.
The OECD AI Principles put forward five values-based recommendations for signatories, setting standards for AI that the OECD notes are ‘practical and flexible enough to stand the test of time’. These are:
- Inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being,
- Human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy,
- Transparency and explainability,
- Robustness, security and safety, and
- Accountability.
The G7 also recently focused a significant portion of its policy guidance on AI. This includes the May 2023 Hiroshima Process on Generative Artificial Intelligence, which was followed in May 2024 by the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group at the OECD.
Inter-Agency Working Group on Artificial Intelligence
Together with UNESCO, the ITU hosts the Inter-Agency Working Group on Artificial Intelligence (IAWG-AI), which brings together expertise within the United Nations system on AI ethics and the ‘strategic approach and roadmap for supporting capacity development’. The group is open to all interested UN members and observers of UN High-level Committees and requires interested entities to designate a senior-level focal point from the organization to contribute to the Group’s work.
Notably, the group is largely responsible for the production of the UN System White Paper on AI Governance. At least within the UN system, the Working Group may serve as an influential actor in shaping UN programming and outreach on AI in the future.
UNESCO’s recommendations
UNESCO’s recommendations on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence were introduced in 2021 and are the most widely adopted globally, and are applicable to all 194 of UNESCO’s Member States. The recommendations adopt a broad understanding of AI, defining it as ‘systems with the ability to process data in a way which resembles intelligent behaviour’. The recommendations adopt four key values for the effective governance of AI systems:
- Human rights and human dignity;
- Living in peaceful, just, and interconnected societies;
- Ensuring diversity and inclusiveness; and
- Environment and ecosystem flourishing.
The recommendations are wide-ranging, covering issues from surveillance, oversight, data protection, and the environment, and highlight a need for governments and the private sector to build AI systems that protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms. Although UNESCO’s recommendations are non-binding in nature, their widespread adoption makes them among both the most inclusive and theoretically effective of the AI governance mechanisms surveyed here.
As part of its work on AI, UNESCO also undertakes State ‘readiness assessments’ as regards AI. These assessments – the most recent of which was Mexico – are undertaken in cooperation with the State in question, and UNESCO’s reports are the product of collaboration with national bodies related to technology and AI governance. In addition to its recommendations and its partnership with the ITU hosting the IAWG-AI, UNESCO hosts the Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory, which aims to provide policy guidance on AI through research, best practices, and toolkits. Importantly, it includes questions of ethics, governance, innovation and standards, and even neurotechnology in this work.
The role of standard-setting organisations
Standards-setting plays an important role in the international governance of any technology, including AI. Like non-binding international agreements, standards constitute a voluntary mechanism. The two most important standards-setting bodies as regards AI are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Both are non-governmental organizations, with membership comprised of national standards-setting institutions. The non-governmental status of both institutions means they rely on direct financial contributions from buy-in as opposed to public financial support.
Both the ISO and ICE jointly co-host the Committee on Artificial Intelligence – SC 42 – which plays a role in shaping standardisation in AI. Founded in 2017, SC 42 is a consensus-based body with 60 countries currently represented in the body. SC 42 operates under a one-country, one-vote policy and has five working groups: Foundational standards, Big Data, Trustworthiness, Use cases and applications, and computational approaches and characteristics of artificial intelligence.
The importance of non-binding mechanisms
As AI continues to evolve, bodies leveraging non-binding influence—such as the OECD, UNESCO, and standards-setting bodies—will be well positioned to continue to address the challenges and opportunities that continue to arise as AI technologies continue to evolve and proliferate. Non-binding mechanisms are also more likely to bring more actors than just the State to the table—allowing civil society and business alike to play a greater role in the governance process.
Mechanisms such as the EU’s AI Act will do the same, although the binding nature of such regulation means it will take longer to negotiate and be slower to adapt. The adaptability of non-binding mechanisms seems to make them the favoured international governance mechanism for AI, at least for the moment.
Humanitarian action is essential to support people facing crisis, save lives, assist their recovery, maintain their dignity, and increase their resilience. Developing our humanitarian knowledge, skills, and abilities is crucial if we are to prevent and respond to the multiple and protracted crises across the world.
These are challenging times, and in order to help humanitarians access the latest and most relevant resources to develop their learning, K4DD has published its ‘Humanitarian Learning Resource Guide – 3rd Edition’. This blog shares just some of the reasons why updating our humanitarian knowledge is so important right now.
Increasing humanitarian need
The Global Humanitarian Overview for 2025 noted that 305 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection in 2025. This increasing humanitarian need is driven by conflict, disasters made more severe and frequent by climate change, and governance failures. This is coming at a time when the humanitarian system is facing many challenges, including decreasing funding at a time of increasing need, attacks on humanitarians and the services they provide, and access barriers for humanitarians and people in need.
Humanitarians and staff working on these issues need to constantly update their skills and capabilities. By doing so, their programming and policy efforts can be as effective as possible in the evolving global and local context, and to meet the increasing humanitarian need.
K4DD Humanitarian Learning Resource Guide
This update of the K4DD’s Humanitarian Learning Resource Guide is designed to provide information about free online courses and materials that the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff and other interested parties can use to develop or refresh their humanitarian knowledge, skills, and abilities. It is organised around the FCDO humanitarian technical competencies of:
- Prioritise effective humanitarian assistance to people in greatest need
- Reform humanitarian theory, architecture and system effectiveness
- Protect civilians, IDPs, refugees, marginalised groups including women and girls and promote and maintain humanitarian access to these groups
- Prevent andanticipate future shocks and rebuild resilience in protracted and recurring crises
The guide provides an overview of the courses or resources and how much input is needed to engage with it so that people can chose to focus on the areas where they feel they want to develop or refresh their humanitarian competencies. The courses and resources are drawn from a range of different organisations working in the humanitarian sector.
Chris Porter, FCDO humanitarian Head of Profession said:
“Hugely grateful for this update. Whilst commissioned rather narrowly to support FCDO staff, feedback is that many others beyond FCDO found earlier editions helpful. There are some fantastic resources produced by a huge range of actors and great to bring a spotlight to just some of them – whilst recognising this is not a checklist!”
K4DD’s humanitarian resources
K4DD has produced a number of resources to support the uptake and understanding of the broad field of humanitarian evidence and knowledge. Aside from the Resource Guide, we have also published an associated 2nd edition of our ‘Reading Pack: Humanitarian Action’, supported by a detailed video overview of the issues and challenges of humanitarian action by Jamie McGoldrick, former Humanitarian Coordinator at the United Nations.
K4DD also publishes monthly ‘Humanitarian Evidence and Discourse Summaries’. Authored by Luke Kelly at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI), these summaries signpost practitioners and policy makers, and anyone with an interest in humanitarian issues, to the latest relevant resources to inform and support your response to crises. You can get the latest summaries by subscribing to our dedicated LinkedIn newsletter.
Exploring research ideas, problems and needs collaboratively is a valuable part of synthesising evidence, and also an opportunity to draw on the expertise of others.
This is a unique feature of the Knowledge for Development and Diplomacy (K4DD) programme, which provides the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with a high-quality and rapid evidence and learning service. It provides FCDO staff with the opportunity to explore their needs with researchers and take advantage of a research helpdesk for rapid evidence reviews, larger (more detailed) reports, and a bespoke learning service.
In this blog, William Avis and Phoebe Hill share their experiences of engaging through K4DD, and how the programme is supporting the day-to-day work in FCDO.
How collaboration with K4DD supports FCDO staff
Phoebe Hill works in the Scholarships, Tertiary Education and Partnerships (STEP) Department of FCDO. She has been working with K4DD since late 2023 on three linked requests. Her latest request was for a rapid evidence review of the role women’s participation in higher education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) plays in the economic and social development of lower- and middle-income countries.
The STEP Department was looking for the most up-to-date evidence, and their staff were keen to draw on available, free-to-use resources, to support our work.
“K4DD represented an exciting opportunity to engage with researchers based in a leading academic institution (in this instance the University of Birmingham) with extensive experience of supporting FCDO through the provision of rapid evidence reviews.
The partnership with William provided an opportunity to outline our research needs and how these feed into our programming. It also provided an opportunity to develop a clear and appropriate research question, defining the scope of evidence required, and clarifying expectations.
The discussion allowed us to test our internal thinking and assumptions with a representative of academia in a safe and constructive environment. It also allowed us to define the scope of the work to be undertaken in a manner that was useful to our day-to-day work”.
This discussion led to the submission of three queries on the following issues:
- Women’s Participation Rates in Higher Education (HE) and TVET: Collating data on women’s participation rates in HE and TVET, alongside indicators of socio-economic development.
- Women’s Participation in TVET and Socio-Economic Development: Providing a synthesis of existing literature on vocational training programmes in the global south and evidence of variation of impacts.
- Women’s Participation in HE and Socio-Economic Development: Providing a synthesis of existing literature on vocational training programmes in the global south and evidence of variation of impacts.
As well as being uploaded to K4DD’s OpenDocs repository for public access, the reports have also been uploaded to FCDO’s internal Centre of Expertise for Education so that numerous teams and posts can benefit from the learning.
How K4DD research supports learning
William Avis is a K4DD Researcher based at the University of Birmingham’s Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), which has extensive experience working with FCDO on rapid evidence reviews.
“The queries submitted by Phoebe dovetailed with my research interests in gender equality and its role in the achievement of sustainable development. The research queries allowed an exploration of factors that shape women’s participation in higher education and TVET, including access to quality education, economic resources, political participation, employment, leadership, and decision-making at all levels.
Discussions with Phoebe and the STEP Department highlighted that increasing economic opportunities and productivity, while supporting sustainable economic transformation, is considered to be among the most pressing global challenges. Education and training systems, including TVET, were identified as one means to help equip current and future workforces with the skills they need for productive jobs and entrepreneurship”.
The research process highlighted that across the education system at all levels, women and girls are the first to be denied the right to education despite progress made over past decades.
Specifically, reports outlined that TVET systems can be gender-biased, affecting the selection of access to and participation in specific learning programmes or occupations for both men and women. In turn, this gender division of labour contributes to the perpetuation of gender inequalities at work and in society at large and has long-running impacts on socio-economic development.
The benefits of working with K4DD
The K4DD helpdesk service is able to support FCDO colleagues in a flexible and adaptable manner by drawing on the expertise and experiences of skilled and knowledgeable researchers. The team has developed a close-knit, researcher-driven organisational culture that is focused on meeting the needs of users. Phoebe and William reflect that:
“The experience of working collaboratively, constructively, and flexibly, with an emphasis placed on clear, open, collegial communication at all stages of work was fundamental to the success of the research commissions. It allowed the development of a Rapid Evidence Review that supported the use of evidence by the STEPs team in a manner that minimised administrative barriers to the use of the service”
A new service for UK government officials seeking to enhance the Foreign Commonwealth and Diplomacy Office’s (FCDO) work with research and evidence launched in April 2024. James Georgalakis, Director of the Knowledge for Development and Diplomacy (K4DD) programme, explores how K4DD builds on past experiences and offers lessons for those seeking to embed evidence services into government.
Global challenges require evidence of what works
Improving the use of data and evidence in policy and programme design and implementation is crucial to facing the challenges of foreign policy, humanitarian action, economic development, climate change, peacebuilding and global health, education and more. The United Kingdom’s Government has a sophisticated science-to-policy infrastructure, consisting of the Government Office for Science, the Government Chief Scientific Advisor, a network of Ministerial Chief Scientific Advisors, and numerous Science Advisory Councils and Committees.
K4DD is an FCDO-funded evidence and learning service that is free to use for the department’s staff. It’s delivered by a consortium of development and diplomacy knowledge institutions that brings together researchers and thematic leaders across a range of disciplines: The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the University of Birmingham’s Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), and University of Manchester’s Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI). K4DD aims to improve the impact of development and diplomacy policy and programming through learning and evidence uptake. It aims to integrate organisational learning processes with the use of evidence. The service includes a research helpdesk – for rapid evidence reviews and emerging issues reports – and facilitated learning events.
A changing UK aid and diplomacy landscape
FCDO was created in September 2020, and in 2021, the Government published an Integrated Review (IR) setting out the UK’s overarching security and international strategy, combining defence, security, resilience, diplomacy, development and trade, and science and technology policy. The IR set out for the UK to be ‘a science and technology superpower by 2030’. The IR was followed by a new International Development Strategy in 2022 and a White Paper in 2023 which set out the Government’s agenda, prioritising investment partnerships, humanitarian relief, empowerment of women and girls, and commitments to climate change, nature, and global health. There is a strong emphasis on investment in ‘what works’ and science and technological innovations that will support national development priorities.
Strengthening the use of research
In the wake of these new directions, K4DD represents a vital opportunity to further strengthen the FCDO’s use of research and organisational learning around evidence-informed practice. K4DD can significantly contribute to government programme decision-making that, in the long term, will lead to real-world impact. We know that FCDO development and diplomatic decision-makers value quick access to a reliable evidence base and spaces for learning and knowledge sharing that can be utilised to anchor programme design. This directly aligns with our consortium partners’ strategies and values. We are committed to enhancing evidence-informed decision making by the UK Government and seek to champion the use of evidence to promote a safer, healthier and more equitable world.
Our approach reflects our understanding of how the process of getting evidence into use is as much about bridging different ways of knowing, as it is about translating or transferring knowledge from one set of stakeholders to another. Knowledge services, like K4DD, need to be rigorous and of exceptionally high quality, demand-driven and shaped by the needs of their users, whilst also supporting their understanding of what questions to ask and which types of knowledge may be most relevant.
A global pool of expertise
All this builds directly on the legacy of the original Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) programme and a rapidly expanding range of similar international initiatives. Our consortium is connected to a global pool of expertise via our formal partnerships, existing research consortiums and associate fellows and research partners. This pool covers a broad spectrum of geographies and themes and includes members of several hundred organisations. These are established institutional and individual networked relations that give us direct access to leading thinkers and practitioners. We can mobilise expertise at short notice to support the Helpdesk and learning sessions.
K4DD is a global public resource
Since the inception period began at the end of 2023, K4DD has already produced over 150 rapid evidence reviews for FCDO. We are deeply committed to ensuring the service provides a global public good and most of the content we produce is published externally. This will provide a valuable resource for all those seeking to explore research and evidence relevant to the challenges they face whether related to humanitarian responses, climate change, social protection, global health, education, economic development or international relations.
The world needs many different forms of knowledge to address global challenges. Embedded knowledge service for government is just one approach but it can be a powerful one. We cannot tell decision makers what to do but we can give them the latest and most relevant evidence to inform their decisions.
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Knowledge for Development and Diplomacy (K4DD) programme. K4DD is providing the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with knowledge, evidence and learning designed to support development and diplomacy programmes and policies.
K4DD runs a helpdesk service specifically for FCDO, providing rapid evidence reviews, a curated learning service, and bespoke learning products to support the uptake and use of knowledge.
K4DD is a 3.5-year programme, directed by a consortium of six leading development and diplomacy organisations in the UK, which have long standing experience of working closely with UK Government. The consortium is led by the Institute of Development Studies, joined by the University of Birmingham, the Humanitarian and Conflict Research Institute (HCRI), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).
The consortium builds on its experience of running multiple helpdesk services, such as K4D, HEART, GSDRC and more. K4D, which ran from 2016 to 2022, produced over 1,200 rapid evidence reviews, delivered 45 facilitated learning journeys, and saw over 675,000 downloads of its outputs.
James Georgalakis, Director of K4DD and based at the Institute of Development Studies, says:
“We are delighted to be supporting the UK Government with rapid evidence and learning services that will help shape its efforts to address urgent global challenges. This builds on over 25 years of collaboration on innovative knowledge for development services that utilise rapid research synthesis reports and facilitated learning events.
By accessing the latest evidence from across our worldwide network of expertise on climate change, conflict and security, health, education, economics and politics, we will support FCDO in its mission to promote a safer, healthier and fairer world for all.”
K4DD will be sharing all public-facing outputs on the programmes dedicated website, and also on social media including X and LinkedIn. Additionally, you can stay up to date by signing up for our e-newsletter.