World Bank rates IFRAP implementation as ‘moderately unsatisfactory’

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has rated the overall implementation progress of the “Integrated Flood Resilience and Adaptation Project (IFRAP)” of around $213 million as “moderately unsatisfactory”.

The IFRAP was signed on 3rd July 2023 aimed at reviving and enhancing the livelihoods of communities affected by the 2022 floods and strengthening adaptive capacity to future extreme flooding events.

The project has so far disbursed equivalent to $2,324 million, while the current closing date of the project is 31 December 2028.

$213m IFRAP likely to be restructured

The project was declared effective on July 20, 2023.

Documents noted that significant preparatory headway has been made with appointment of the Project Director, filling in of Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) positions, hiring of a Deputy Project Director for PMD PIU, filling in of the positions within Housing Reconstruction Unit (HRU); physical progress has remained slow owing to procedural delays.

The project comprises six components. The first component, community infrastructure rehabilitation will finance the rehabilitation of priority community infrastructure damaged by floods, including irrigation and flood protection infrastructure, water supply schemes, roads, bridges, and small community facilities located in calamity-declared districts of Balochistan. It consists of following sub-components:

(i) rehabilitation of irrigation and flood control infrastructure;

(ii) restoration of water supply schemes;

(iii) reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads and bridges, and

(iv) restoration of small community facilities.

The second component, strengthening hydromet and climate services will improve the capability of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) to generate and utilise hydromet information for decision-making. It consists of following sub-components:

(i) modernisation of the observation infrastructure, data management, and forecasting systems; and

(ii) provision of technical assistance, institutional strengthening, and capacity building.

The third component, resilient housing reconstruction and restoration will finance:

(i) resilient housing reconstruction grants to beneficiaries for the reconstruction of core housing units damaged by floods; and

(ii) institutional strengthening and technical assistance for the reconstruction.

It consists of following sub-components:

(i) beneficiary-driven housing reconstruction grants; and

(ii) technical assistance and institutional strengthening.

The fourth component, livelihood support and watershed management will finance the provision of livelihood grants to smallholder farmers and agribusinesses for enhancing agricultural and livestock-based livelihoods and to communities for watershed restoration.

The fifth component, project management, technical assistance, and institutional strengthening will finance provision of support for:

(i) project management for the FPMU and the provincial PIUs, provision of a pool of technical experts to support PIUs;

(ii) technical assistance for monitoring and evaluation, project supervision, and implementation assistance (PSIA), preparation of series of projects (SoP), including river basin planning studies, basin-level flood modelling and resilient infrastructure planning and design, dam safety studies and preparation of community flood resilience plans; and

(iii) institutional strengthening, including an internship program, capacity building and the preparation of a draft Water Act.

The sixth component, contingent emergency response facilitates provision of immediate response to an eligible crisis or emergency, as needed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024