The World Bank has transferred $615 million from ongoing slow-moving projects to flood-affected areas, which Pakistan was unable to utilise due to a variety of challenges impeding implementation of these plans.
The Washington-based lender announced this week at the Climate Resilient Pakistan Conference in Geneva that it will donate $2 billion to flood relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction efforts in flood-affected areas.
Of the $2 billion pledges that the World Bank announced at the Geneva conference, $615 million was taken out of schemes that had already been approved but were facing implementation delays.
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While explaining this at the Geneva Conference, World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region Martin Raiser said that for immediate relief, $357 million was repurposed from the existing portfolio, supporting cash transfers, procurement of tents and emergency needs, as well as small urgent rehabilitation works.
In addition to that, Raiser told the gathering of the lenders and the donors that another $258 million was mobilised from existing projects for reconstruction, totalling $615 million of repurposed funds.
Also, on December 19, 2022, the WB had approved $1.3 billion worth of projects to support the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction process. These operations, some prepared under emergency procedures, were aligned with the priorities and principles outlined in the government’s Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, known as the 4RF framework.
At the Geneva conference, Pakistan had received at total $9.7 billion worth of pledges, including $2 billion that the WB had already given in various forms.
Addressing a news conference at his house after returning from Geneva, the jubilant Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had said that the pledges had beat the government expectations and if he disclosed the internal very low expectations, people might have hit the roof.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said that over 90% of the total pledges were in the shape of loans.
The World Bank also plans to approve some new projects in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab that would bring additional resources to support the reconstruction across all affected districts of the country, according to Raiser.
Recall that In September last year, the Bank, for the first time, announced that it would give $2 billion in for flood-related activities and subsequently it approved $1.3 billion worth of projects in December –a month before the Geneva conference.
In August last year, it also identified at least nine troubled projects that might have faced loan cancellation of over $730 million, including concessionary financing of $400 million. These projects came under the axe due to the poor performance of Pakistani authorities.
Story was adapted from Tribune.
