Pakistan is on track to halve the population without access to improved water and sanitation by 2015; income poverty has decreased rapidly recently. If this trend can be sustained, Pakistan will reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of halving the income poverty headcount by 2015.
According to a report of Department for International Development (DFID), steady progress has been made towards most of the MDGs in Pakistan since 2000, but a low starting point and slow progress during the 1990s meant that many of the MDG targets would be difficult to reach.
UK and Pakistan had signed a 10-year Development Partnership Arrangement and the UK announced a doubling of aid for the period 2008-2011 to £480m. This is an increase from £236 million for the previous three-year period. Since then, DFID has begun a programme of consultation with other government departments, civil society, academics, MPs and the general public in the UK and Pakistan on how this new money should be spent.
In line with the commitment to improve the effectiveness of aid, DFID has been at the forefront of efforts to harmonise donors' programmes and policies. In 2004, DFID co-founded the Donor-Poverty Reduction Working Group, formed to share information, promote joined up engagement with government, and develop common positions.
The results of the first OECD-DAC survey in Pakistan to monitor progress against the Paris Declaration are due to be published soon. Apart from assistance to federal (national) programmes, DFID is concentrating its assistance on two provinces: Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
In taking this decision, DFID considered need (population size and poverty levels), working relationships and the size and scope of other donors' programmes. DFID also considering working in other areas of Pakistan in the future, DFID the report said.
DFID report stated that Pakistan has undertaken major reforms in governance since 1999, including a decentralisation of functions, power and funds to local governments, a major reform of the justice sector, reforms to the police system and improvements to the revenue collection and administration functions.