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- The bank's country director said millions of families across Pakistan were facing economic hardships amid the coronavirus pandemic
- Apart from supporting other projects, the bank wants to help Pakistan expand the Ehsaas poverty alleviation initiative
KARACHI: The World Bank agreed to finance Pakistan's social protection initiatives on Friday after it signed deals with officials in Islamabad to provide $1.336 billion, including $128 million of grant, to the country.
"This financing will support the government's initiatives in the social protection, disaster and climate risk management, improving infrastructure for resilience, agriculture and food security, human capital development and governance sectors," the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) said in a statement issued shortly after the agreement was signed.
According to further details, the global lender will finance six projects initiated by the government under the deal, including the flagship Ehsaas (Empathy) poverty alleviation program.
The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved $600 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA) for the Crisis-Resilient Social Protection Program (CRISP) which will help support Pakistan expand Ehsaas to protect more vulnerable households amid the economic challenges resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
"Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of families across Pakistan face economic hardship, particularly those working in the informal sector, who have no savings or are not covered by existing social safety net programs," World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Najy Benhassine said in a statement.
"This investment supports Ehsaas in developing an adaptive social protection system that is more efficient and offers a new model for crisis-response and increasing household resilience to future shocks," he added.
The World Bank will extend another $200 million for the Locust Emergency and Food Security Project.
The project will introduce and implement a set of customized activities, such as conducting locust surveillance and controlling operations and rehabilitating livelihoods of affected rural communities and farmers.
Under an agreement signed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration’s representative, the bank will extend $200 million for the province's Human Capital Investment Project.
"The objective of the project is to improve availability, utilization and quality of primary healthcare services and elementary education services in four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that have been hosting refugees," the EAD said in its statement.
The bank also decided to extend $200 million for the Sindh Resilience Project to mitigate flood and drought risks in selected areas and strengthen the province's capacity to manage natural disasters and public health emergencies.
Under the agreements signed on Friday, the global lender will also provide $86 million for the Balochistan Livelihood and Entrepreneurship and Balochistan Human Capital Investment Projects.
"These projects aim to promote employment opportunities for rural communities, achieve sustainability of enterprises and improve utilization of quality health and education services in various districts of Balochistan," the EAD said.
The World Bank also agreed to commit $50 million for the Supporting Institutional Interventions for Management of Refugees Project to improve the organizational and institutional capacity of the country to manage refugees and host communities.