Printable version available here (PDF) The World Bank, Islamabad Office
July, 2008 Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project
The World Bank funded Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project (PMSIP) became effective in June 2006. It aims to improve the viability and effectiveness of urban services provided by participating Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMAs), and to make these improvements sustainable and replicable through the creation of performance-based management framework at the TMA and provincial levels. TMAs selected against a stringent performance criteria, are provided capacity grants for institutional strengthening and development grants for infrastructure investments. The project is being implemented through the Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company (PMDFC), a government-sponsored Company established in 1998 under a previous Bank initiative, as an apex organization under the Companies Ordinance. The project thus represents a paradigm shift in the way public resources for urban development are being allocated by the Province of Punjab.
To read more, please click the PDF version on the top ================================================= Balochistan: Developing Public-Private Partnerships for Education Service Delivery
Balochistan, home to eight of the ten most deprived districts in Pakistan, is the poorest of Pakistan’s four provinces with limited economic opportunities, lagging social indicators and large gender gaps. In addition the province is plagued by tribal, ethnic and sectarian conflict which has been exacerbated in recent times by a low- level nationalist insurgency and the fallout from the war on terror in Afghanistan. Overall literacy rates in Balochistan, at 37% (17% for females), compare unfavorably with that for Pakistan at 52% (38% for females). Gross enrollment rates in primary education in Balochistan have improved from 62% in 2001-2 to 72% in 2006-07. But this compares unfavorably with the Pakistan average of 72% and 91% respectively. Clearly, other parts of Pakistan have shown faster progress in getting students enrolled in school. The difference in enrollment rates is mostly explained by the expansion of non-government and private provision of education in the rest of Pakistan where they account for 38% of all primary enrollment, in contrast with Balochistan where the corresponding figure is 11% only. Over the years, low public investment in education and dissipating administrative capacity at all levels has led to a system that is characterized by low enrollment, high teacher and student absenteeism, little or no engagement by communities that feel unempowered. Read more ================================================= Learning and Educational Achievements in Punjab Schools (LEAPS)
A large fraction of rural Pakistani households no longer lives in a village with one or two government schools—half the population of rural Punjab, for instance, lives in villages where parents routinely have 7-8 schools to choose from. This new educational landscape is best described as an active educational marketplace with multiple schools vying for students whose parents are actively making educational decisions. From evaluating policy reform to understanding how the private sector can help educate the poor, the rise of such schools represents a significant opportunity and challenge, not only in Pakistan but also in the wider South-Asian context. Furthermore, with enrollments looking up, debate will likely shift to what children are learning in school. Enrollment does not imply learning. Low-income countries routinely place at the bottom of the charts in international comparisons. Measuring what children are learning in public and private schools and understanding how the educational marketplace can foster learning is a first step towards formulating policy in the new millennium. Chapter Summaries
Full report ================================================= Events 
WB-AKTC Collaboration for the Urban Regeneration of the Lahore Walled City: The World Bank and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network , signed a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration on the ‘Urban Regeneration of the Walled City of Lahore’. The signing ceremony took place at the Bank headquarters in Washington DC, with the World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region, Mr. Praful C. Patel and the General Manager AKTC, Mr. Luis Monreal as the co-signatories. His Highness the Aga Khan, and the Bank’s Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala were also present on the occasion.
WBI In Country Training to Build Capacity for Education Assessment: The World Bank, Government of Pakistan and the World Bank Institute arranged and conducted an in country training program as part of the objective of capacity building for assessments under the National Education Assessment System (NEAS). NEAS, supported by a World Bank-DFID project, is now functioning as a mainstream institution within the Ministry of Education to develop and implement regular assessments of key subjects for Class IV and Class VIII students. Established merely three years ago, NEAS is now undertaking analysis to identify weak areas of learning in various subjects, and is sharing the findings with stakeholders such as teacher training institutes, curriculum wing, provincial education departments in order to help them improve the system. To further strengthen capacity in an areas that requires specialized skills, this WBI training was offered in Pakistan to benefit all the resource persons and staff directly involved in various aspects of assessment. The training, offered as three modules between March - May 2008, included sessions on:
1. National Assessment and Policy Making - to target policy makers and make them aware of the function and importance of assessments
2. Sampling Techniques for National and Provincial-level Assessments - to build skills of statisticians and analysts working in the NEAS national and provincial/area centers
3. Test Development, Questionnaire Design, and Preparation of Administration Manuals - all relevant NEAS staff and resource persons who develop tests
4. Analyzing National Assessment Data - targeting the statisticians and report writers The training was imparted by lead experts in their fields - Mr. Vincent Greaney, Ghulam Choudhry, Thomas Kellaghan, and Gerry Shiel. The feedback received from participants strongly endorses this approach of conducting training in country to benefit a large number of relevant staff (more than 80 people benefited from this training series), who found the training relevant for their on the job requirements - as it was targeted at building skills directly related to what the staff working in NEAS are required to do. Launch of 2008 World Development Report in Pakistan: The 2008 World Development Report features agriculture as its central theme. After 26 years, agriculture development is once again at the forefront of development agenda. This year’s Report is particularly timely in the wake of current high poverty incidence, climate change threats, and food price crisis in Pakistan. The World Bank's Pakistan Country Office launched the 2008 World Development Report (WDR) on May 16, 2008 in Islamabad. In Pakistan, the launch could not have come at a better time in the wake of growing food prices currently threatening millions of citizens' in the country. Launching the World Development Report in Pakistan affirmed the need for greater investment in agriculture sector - a key area of policy and programming for the new Government in the country. The World Bank Country Office co-hosted the launching event with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Government of Pakistan. The launching event was attended by around 120 people representing the federal and provincial governments, international agencies, private sector, civil society, and academia. To read more, please click the PDF version on the top ================================================= Increasing World Food Prices: South Asia's Poor at Risk
World food prices have been increasing rapidly since 2006, and the rate of increase during 2007 had been much higher than average. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), overall food prices have increased by 75 percent in dollar terms since 2000. Feature ================================================= Global Monitoring Report Warns on MDG Goals
According to a new World Bank-IMF report, Global Monitoring Report: MDGs and the Environment—Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable Development, South Asia is on the path toward sustainable economic growth, with net adjusted saving on the rise, and a positive savings rate. The region is likely to halve by 2015 the number of people without access to safe drinking water, but will not achieve the same target for improved basic sanitation. In 2000 the region accounted for less than 6 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Feature ================================================= Publications  Strategic Environmental Assessment for Policies: An Instrument for Good Governance: Environmentally and socially sustainable policies are essential for good governance. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the key tool for integrating environmental considerations into policies, programs and plans. This book focuses on SEA applied to policies. Through lessons learned from previous use of SEA on policies, it draws lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of current SEA methodology. It then goes on to analyze how policies are formulated and implemented and proposes a new conceptual framework for conducting SEA of policies that potentially could be more useful in influencing decision makers to integrate environmental sustainability considerations into policy formulation and implementation.
 Small States, Smart Solutions: Improving Connectivity and Increasing the Effectiveness of Public Services: Small states face special hurdles in achieving development gains. These states spend significantly more of their GDP on producing public goods and services, and they face higher connectivity costs than do their larger brethren. Small States, Smart Solutions examines how some small states use international trade and telecommunications technology to outsource services such as justice, banking supervision, public utilities regulation, high-quality medicine, and education. Sourcing these services internationally poses unique challenges but also opens broad opportunities. The eight case studies in this book, based on interviews with government officers and citizens, describe pioneering initiatives undertaken by some small states to better the quality of life of their citizens.
 Accounting for Infrastructure Regulation: An Introduction: This title provides a practical guide for regulators, policy-makers, and utility managers for establishing regulatory accounts that can be the cornerstone for better, more complete, and more reliable information. It sets out the essential accounting features of regulatory accounts and provides practical guidance on controversial areas such as cost allocation, asset valuation, and depreciation. It emphasizes the essential requirements for consistency with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
 Linking Education Policy to Labor Market Outcomes: This title examines current research and new evidence from Ghana and Pakistan—representative of two of the poorest regions of the world—to assess how education can increase income and help people move out of poverty. This study indicates that in addition to early investments in cognitive and noncognitive skills—which produce a high return and lower the cost of later educational investment by making learning at later ages more efficient—quality, efficiency, and linkages to the broader macro-economic context also matter. Education and relevant skills are still the key determinants of good labor market outcomes for individuals. However, education policies aimed at improving skills will have a limited effect on the incomes of that skilled workforce or on the performance of a national economy if other policies that increase the demand for these skills are not in place.
 Inclusive States: Social Policy and Structural Inequalities: The heterogeneity of social structures and cultural identities in many developing countries, together with traditional hierarchies, rivalries, and deep-seated biases, has perpetuated inequities. Inclusive States: Social Policy and Structural Inequalities examines the role of the state and society in addressing structural inequalities and identifies a set of policy recommendations to redress them.
 Unleashing Prosperity: Productivity Growth in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union: Many countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have experienced strong growth over the past five years, with a rapid improvement in living standards. Key to this positive dynamic has been a productivity surge driven by substantial progress along the transition path, including: (i) a progressive shift of resources towards the higher productivity service sector, (ii) reallocation within the service, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors toward higher productivity uses; (iii) increasing importance of "within-firm" productivity growth as a driver of productivity growth, especially in the more advanced countries; and (iv) declining contribution of firm turnover as transition matures. Both domestic and globalizing factors have contributed to the productivity surge which has also helped to narrow the productivity gap between lower income and higher income countries, as well as between more advanced and less advanced reformers. While first generation reforms that accelerate the reallocation process and promote new entry and exit of less productive firms remain important, second generation reforms to promote within-firm productivity growth are becoming more important. The latter need to rely more on reducing labor market rigidities,strengthening the quality of human capital, promoting competition in product and factor markets, fostering innovation, and furthering financial deepening.
 MiniAtlas of Human Security: Drawing upon data from the Human Security Report 2005, this miniAtlas of Human Security uses colorful world maps and other graphics to chart the incidence and severity of global violence. With easy-to-read text and captions, this fourth volume in the World Bank miniAtlas series provides a visually-compelling introduction to a dramatic but largely unknown trend: the decline in the number and deadliness of armed conflicts and wars over the past 1 5 years.
================================================= Pakistan Infrastructure Implementation Capacity Assessment Pakistan Country Assistance Strategy Pakistan's Country Water Assistance Strategy Doing Business Pakistan Strategic Country Environmental Assessment Pakistan Promoting Rural Growth and Poverty Reduction Pakistan Higher Education Policy Note Pakistan Growth and Export Competitiveness Transport Competitiveness in Pakistan Pakistan Country Gender Assessment NWFP Economic Report Punjab Economic Report World Bank Documents & Reports website |
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