Success story: Muhammad Shoaib, 2019 Local Pathways Fellow

Project: Lahore’s Disability Act

Fellow: Muhammad Shoaib, 2019 Local Pathways Fellow (Lahore, Pakistan)

CHALLENGE

Lahore is the second largest city of Pakistan and a provincial capital of Punjab province. However, its green cover is receding rapidly coupled with no infrastructure available for disabled people. The challenge was to strive for legislative changes regarding the built environment and the implementation of the Disability Act that would make it easier for disabled people to access every place without any hindrance.

SOLUTION

Muhammad Shoaib's solution is based on harnessing the potential of the built environment at all levels to make them sustainable and accessible for people with disabilities. He worked on designing the bill for all stakeholders. The bill was designed to implement the green buildings standards for future development projects, including the American Disability Act. Instead of making individual efforts to all governmental institutions, which again come under the government, Muhammad decided to work on the legislative side as the impact of proper legislation is enormous. Muhammad contacted all the institutions and a few members of the assembly to help him in introducing the bill to adopt the provisions of international standards in the current building and infrastructural development guidelines, and ultimately the bill was presented to the provincial governments. The next phase of the project is to develop the digital twin for the city to monitor and evaluate the sustainability measures and the SDGs progress achieved.

IMPACT

Passing the Disability Act from the provincial assembly is a valuable milestone of Muhammad's project with LPF. The key component of the project was related to the accessibility of disabled people in the built environment. Now the bill is ready to be implemented after going through a comprehensive legislative process. Furthermore, in his professional working capacity, Muhammad has completed ten green buildings projects and contributing to the urban built environment sustainability. He has worked with local stakeholders and private owners to make their built environment more sustainable and accessible. Besides, he has completed the plantation of more than 20,000 plants in Lahore in collaboration with the NGO Green Squad. Muhammad is now working with the Deputy Commissioner of Lahore and the Walled City of Lahore Authority to develop place-making projects.

A WORD FROM THE FELLOW

This fellowship journey was an excellent learning curve for me in my personal and professional ambit. It broadened my perspective regarding urban sustainability, allowed me to develop synergies and connections with Local Pathways fellows and astute professionals across the globe. My work with the SDSN was acknowledged by the Pioneering institutes in the Sustainable built environment. I was the youngest professional worldwide to be selected by the International WELL Building Institute for the WELL Advisory role to develop the new Standard Post-COVID-19 Built Environment Operations. It is known as Health-Safety Rating 2020.

Muhammad Shoaib, Local Pathways Fellow (Lahore, Pakistan)