CDWP Approves Education Sector Project Worth Rs. 45.7 Million

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting presided over by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Jehanzeb Khan Thursday approved a development project with a cost of Rs. 45.69 million and recommended three projects to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for further consideration. Secretary Planning Awais Manzur Sumra, senior officials from Planning Commission and Federal Ministries/Divisions participated in the meeting, while Chairman/ACS (Dev) from Provincial Governments also participated in the meeting. Projects related to education, physical planning & housing sectors were considered in the meeting. The “Getting Results Access and Delivery of Quality Education Services (GRADES) Punjab Project” worth Rs. 42.750 billion was recommended to ECNEC for further consideration. The GRADES project aims to consolidate Punjab’s response to the learning losses accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, which have been a major setback for progress in Punjab’s education indicators. While Punjab responded on various fronts with SOPs, a reduced curriculum, re-enrollment campaigns, remote learning opportunities, maintaining education budgets and other measures, the losses are still visible in macro-indicators. The total amount of funding will be provided by the World Bank through a loan, with $96.877 million provided on project mode and $53.123 million through Performance Based Conditions (PBC). The education sector’s second project, the “Sindh Basic Education Program,” valued at Rs. 20,060 million, was also recommended to ECNEC for consideration. This initiative is stated to be funded through foreign sources, with an approximate foreign grant of $154.978 million from USAID (equivalent to around Rs. 19,190 million), and a contribution of Rs. 870 million (approximately $10 million) from the Government of Sindh. During the meeting, another project in the education sector, titled “Capacity Building of Education Managers (CBEM) (2nd Revised),” with a value of Rs. 45.69 million, was approved by the CDWP forum after detailed discussion. A project related to physical planning & housing presented in the meeting namely “Flood Response Emergency Housing Project (Revised)” worth Rs. 296,000 million was recommended to ECNEC for consideration. The government of Sindh will contribute counterpart share of Rs. 50,000, million, while the World Bank loan financing would be of $500 million equivalent to Rs. 140,000 million. The Islamic Development Bank via Islamic Financing arrangements are $200 million equivalent to Rs. 56,000 million. The project aims to support the flood affected people in all districts of the Sindh in the reconstruction and repairs of their houses. The original project with the assistance of the World Bank and government of Sindh with the implementation period of 36 months.