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The World Bank, Islamabad Office
August, 2011 Pakistan : Achieving Results in a Challenging Environment 
Throughout its history Pakistan has been plagued by cycles of high growth interrupted by shocks and crises and followed by relative stagnation. Social indicators for both health and education have remained low and have lagged behind other countries in the region. The next few years are deemed critical in terms of gaining fiscal and economic stability required for equitable growth and development. Read More================================
Education Reforms in Punjab: Increasing Access and Quality
The Punjab Education Sector Project (PESP) for Pakistan is supporting the Government of Punjab’s education reforms, which since 2003 have aimed to improve access, quality, and governance in education. Together with a combination of critical supply and demand-side interventions to enhance access, the PESP has focused on deepening sector wide reforms to improve accountability and transparency in service delivery in the public sector, which caters to 12 million children, and a large low-cost private sector (accounts for 40 percent of total enrollments in the province). Read more ================================ Pakistan Railways Struggling to Get Back on “Rails” 
Railways are an important mode of transport. On the average, they are more economical, environmentally less hazardous, easier to secure and safer as compared to road transport. For all these reasons, railways are extremely important for the social and economic mobility in Pakistan. Whether we talk of intra city, regional, urban, freight or passenger railways, in Pakistan there is only one railways services provider, Pakistan Railways (PR) — the successor to the Pakistan Western Railways which in turn was a successor to the North Western Railway. Read more ================================ South Asia at Health Crossroads with High Rates of Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity 
A new World Bank report warns that South Asian countries are facing a health crisis with rising rates of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which disproportionately affect poor families, with possible side effects of disability and premature death, and worsening poverty as people pay for medical treatment out of their own pockets. NCD Policy Brief on Pakistan ================================ Events Agriculture & Water Roundtable calls for Innovation for Growth
On March 8 and 9, 2011, the Planning Commission of the Government of Pakistan and the World Bank organized a Roundtable Discussion on Agriculture and Water for Agriculture in Pakistan, with the co-sponsorship of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, USAID, and financial support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The event, which was inaugurated by Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Deputy-Chairman of the Planning Commission, took stock of Pakistan’s current status, challenges, and aspirations for agriculture and water for agriculture. It created a forum to tap into the extensive in-country knowledge and to share knowledge on how similar challenges were addressed using local and international good practice and analysis.
Read more Program for Results Lending
The World Bank Islamabad office held consultative sessions on Friday, May 27, 2011 with various stakeholders to introduce and get feedback on a new lending instrument called P4R or Program for Results Lending. Focussing on development results, the P4R supports government's own programs and strengthens institutions by its results-oriented implementation. Federal and provincial governments officials; private sector, representatives of autonomous bodies; academics, members of civil society and donor community participated in the highly interactive sessions. Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan chaired the meeting. Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS) team joined the consultation through video conference facility in World Bank's New Delhi office and made the introductory presentation. MDTF Hosts Workshops for Provincial Government Counterparts to Prioritize Peace Building Initiatives 
As the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan embarks on its next phase of projects which are guided by the peace building objectives laid down in the Post Crisis Needs Assessment (PCNA) , the MDTF Secretariat organized a series of workshops for its government counterparts. The goal of the workshops was to: (i) get a clear picture of the ongoing and to-be-prepared investments under the PCNA umbrella, (ii) discuss selection criteria for priority MDTF-funded operations, and (iii) assess the implementation capacity , as well as the technical assistance needs for effectively operationalizing the PCNA recommendations. Workshop participants included senior officials from FATA Secretariat and the governments of KP and Balochistan.
At the outset of the discussion, the participants were requested to focus on priority areas where MDTF interventions would add value and accomplish the overarching aim of peace-building. To guide the discussions, the MDTF team shared a set of criteria aimed at deriving the greatest peace-building impact with least implementation constraints.
During the course of the day and a half long workshops, the government officials came up with detailed lists of sectoral interventions. The findings of the workshops will greatly help the government and its development partners to zero in on activities that are low in implementation costs and will achieve greatest peace-building gains. These priority interventions will then form the basis for the next phase of MDTF-financed projects.
================================ Interview with World Bank Staff 
Jose R. Lopez Calix ================================ |
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