The National Plan of Action for children (NPA) is a commitment of the Pakistan government towards it's children over a period of one decade. The First National Plan of Action for Children was implemented in the 1990s on the basis of the targets set forth in the 1990 World Summit for Children.

In the End of Decade Review Report (EDR) released by the UN Secretary General in May 2001, Pakistan's first National Plan of Action for Children recieved criticism for being extremely un-participative during it's formulation because of which people working at various levels in the state with children were unable to contribute towards developing the action plan. Moreover, the action plan was also evaluated as not being rights-based and rights-focussed.

The statistical indices in the report demonstrated that Pakistan's progress fell significantly short of the targets set by the World Summit for Children. Except for access to the potable water (coverage close to 83 per cent), "all the indicators lag substantially behind the NPA targets and those set out in the 1990 World Summit for children, and are unlikely to be met in the next several decades at the current rate of development," the report remarked. The report stressed that in order to overcome these shortcomings, it needs to elicit participation from all regional resources working with children such as district officials and the civil society.

Policy makers in Pakistan seem to have have learned from their previous experience. The Second Plan of Action for Children that is being developed by the government with the assistance of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) aims to use a new approach whereby the new NPA will be formulated through elaborate consultations at the regional, provincial and district levels.

UNICEF is providing technical support and consultants to assist the provincial social welfare departments. The government is also holding seminars to evolve a process and methodology for the provincial and district planning workshops to ensure that these are focused, participatory, objective and outcome driven and task oriented. The seminars would also discuss and agree on guidelines for child participation in the planning process.

With committed efforts by the Pakistan government to rectify the shortcomings of the first national plan of action for children, the second plan holds a lot of promises for children in Pakistan.