The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help ensure equitable and effective delivery of basic social services - health, education, and water and sanitation - that have been devolved to the Punjab government through an approved assistance package of $200 million. According to an official source, the Punjab Devolved Social Services Programme will support critical reforms, institutional strengthening, capacity building, and partnership building in provincial social services.
The programme aims at expanding the coverage of health services, especially for women and children; increasing school enrolment rates; and improving access to water supply and sanitation services in a province of an estimated 83 million people, accounting for more than half of country's total population.
It will also direct resources to programmes and projects that have been identified and implemented in line with the Punjab's poverty reduction strategy paper, medium-term budgetary framework, and other medium-term province-level plans; help participating local governments to assume new roles and responsibilities as laid out by the Punjab Local Government Ordinance; enhance capacity at the province and local levels to involve stakeholders and civil society; and enhance capacity to monitor at all levels.
"Making special provision for protecting poor and vulnerable groups, the programme will help Punjab achieve progress on the millennium development goals related to poverty, gender, education, health, water supply, and sanitation," says Brajesh Panth, an ADB senior social sector specialist.
"It will provide better access to health facilities for poor, rural populations, women, and children; and create educational facilities for handicapped children and for girls in less affluent districts, water supply and sanitation schemes will also mostly benefit small villages and neighbourhood", he added.
The poverty, illiteracy, and ill health are a major hindrance to economic progress, and a source of social instability, he said adding recognising this, the Pakistan government is pursuing an ambitious reform agenda aimed at putting the economy on a stronger and more stable footing.
Punjab's social indicators fall too short of its economic development. This is reflected in low literacy rates; high infant, child, and maternal mortality rates; susceptibility to communicable diseases; low proportion of deliveries by trained birth attendants; and great disparity among income and gender groups in access to social services; and inadequate sanitation and solid waste management.
The government initiated a sweeping and complex devolution programme in 2001, which included devolution of social services, including health, education and water supply and sanitation to the local governments. But the Punjab government is short of resources in relation to its large socio-economic needs. The overall cost of reforms is estimated at $200 million.
The ADB will provide financial assistance amounting to $180 million equivalent to two loans and a grant.
A $75 million loan comes from the concessional Asian Development Fund and carries a 24-year term, including a grace period of eight years. The interest is set at 1 percent per annum during the grace period and 1.5 percent per annum for the rest of the term.
A second $75 million loan comes from ADB's ordinary capital resources with a 15-year term, including a grace period of three years. The interest is determined in accordance with ADB's LIBOR-based lending facility.
The UK government through the Department for International Development (DFID) will also provide a grant of $30 million to be administered by the ADB.
The Punjab planning and development department is the executing agency of the programme, which is due for completion in March 2008.
In addition, the Punjab government will receive a TA grant of $20 million from the DFID to strengthen the sector and the programme management and monitoring, support policy reforms, and boost social sector governance and development of local governments.
The Punjab government will provide $5 million towards the TA's total cost of $25 million. The grant will be utilised over four years.
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