AIRLINK 62.48 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (3.39%)
BOP 5.36 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.19%)
CNERGY 4.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.43%)
DFML 15.50 Increased By ▲ 0.66 (4.45%)
DGKC 66.40 Increased By ▲ 1.60 (2.47%)
FCCL 17.59 Increased By ▲ 0.73 (4.33%)
FFBL 27.70 Increased By ▲ 2.95 (11.92%)
FFL 9.27 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.32%)
GGL 10.06 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1%)
HBL 105.70 Increased By ▲ 1.49 (1.43%)
HUBC 122.30 Increased By ▲ 4.78 (4.07%)
HUMNL 6.60 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.92%)
KEL 4.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-1.1%)
KOSM 4.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.97%)
MLCF 36.20 Increased By ▲ 0.79 (2.23%)
OGDC 122.92 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (0.43%)
PAEL 23.00 Increased By ▲ 1.09 (4.97%)
PIAA 29.34 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (7.51%)
PIBTL 5.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-2.36%)
PPL 107.50 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.12%)
PRL 27.25 Increased By ▲ 0.74 (2.79%)
PTC 18.07 Increased By ▲ 1.97 (12.24%)
SEARL 53.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.63 (-1.17%)
SNGP 63.21 Increased By ▲ 2.01 (3.28%)
SSGC 10.80 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.47%)
TELE 9.20 Increased By ▲ 0.71 (8.36%)
TPLP 11.44 Increased By ▲ 0.86 (8.13%)
TRG 70.86 Increased By ▲ 0.95 (1.36%)
UNITY 23.62 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.47%)
WTL 1.28 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 6,944 Increased By 65.8 (0.96%)
BR30 22,827 Increased By 258.6 (1.15%)
KSE100 67,142 Increased By 594.3 (0.89%)
KSE30 22,090 Increased By 175.1 (0.8%)

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank's board of executive directors has approved $236 million in grants and credits, to support Pakistan's efforts to enhance learning and healthcare, and address the Covid-19 threats to human capital accumulation.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project ($200 million) and Balochistan Human Capital Investment Project ($36 million) will improve public services in education and health, which are the building blocks for human capital accumulation.

The projects aim to increase the productive capacity of the workforce, to bolster future economic growth in Balochistan and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

"Education and healthcare are at the heart of Pakistan's vision for inclusive growth to enable its people to reach their greatest potential," said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank country director for Pakistan.

"Human capital is about investing early in children and families. The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to roll back human capital accumulation in Pakistan, and decisive actions are needed now to reduce losses through targeted interventions supported by the two projects."

These investments will help address barriers to access education and health services, particularly among low-income, vulnerable communities, where utilisation of essential health services, especially primary care, and school enrolment rates are lower.

In the KP, the project will reach 25 percent of the population, and help the government increase the availability, utilisation and quality of healthcare services in areas most affected by the pandemic.

Education activities focus on learning opportunities for children at the primary and secondary school levels, particularly for girls and women, and take into account disruptions resulting from the Covid-19.

For, the KP Human Capital Investment Project, the IDA credit is $75 million. The terms of maturity of loan are 30 years, and the grace period is five years. The project will improve public services in education and health, as the building blocks for human capital accumulation.

It aims to increase the productive capacity of the workforce to bolster future economic growth in the KP. "Investments in education and health services are crucial to strengthen Pakistan's most important asset, its people," said Cristina Panasco Santos, task team leader for the KP Human Capital Investment Project.

"The project will help address persistent human capital deficits that limit current and future economic development in the province." In Balochistan, the project will support the government to improve service delivery by upgrading schools and health facilities in four districts, increase accountability of service providers by strengthening community engagement, and improve efficiencies in service delivery systems.

The terms of maturity of loan are 30 years, and the grace period is five years.

"Improvements in health and education services, especially in early childhood, have large payoffs for children and their families, by improving livelihoods and future opportunities to generate wealth," said Yi-Kyoung Lee, task team leader for the Balochistan Human Capital Investment Project.

"The project serves as a model through synergistic interventions in education and health to bolster human capital accumulation in Balochistan."

Both projects are financed from the IDA18 regional sub-window for host communities and refugees.

Pakistan applied for and became eligible to access the sub-window in 2017.

In addition to the two projects approved today, the Balochistan Livelihoods and Entrepreneurship Project and the national Strengthening Institutions for Refugee Administration were approved on March 3, 2020.

Together, the four projects leverage $128 million of grant funds, in addition to concessional financing from the IDA, to support poor and vulnerable households living in select districts of Balochistan and the KP.

Comments

Comments are closed.