National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) was established in July, 2002 as a federal statutory body. It is a fast-track initiative to improve social sector outcomes at the grass-roots.

With a ranking of 144 on the UNDP�s Human Development Index, out of a total of 178 countries, Pakistan faces enormous challenges at the beginning of the new millennium. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of health care facilities and a continuously soaring population have for long hampered the scope of generating improved social sector outcomes for the millions of Pakistanis living at the grassroots. Attempts made in the past to address these issues have often been marred by the lack of political will, economic & political instability and inadequate capacity of the implementing agencies which further exasperated the already dismal state of human development in the country. A Task Force on Human Development was established in June 2001. It was designed to find innovative solutions to improve and fill implementation gaps in social service delivery at the grassroots in the sector of Education, Health and Poverty Alleviation.