World Bank approves $535 million for social protection, livestock development in Pakistan
KARACHI: The World Bank’s Executive Board has approved $535 million for two projects in Pakistan, it said in a statement on Friday, adding that the funding will strengthen social protection systems for poor households across the country and develop climate-smart and competitive producers in Sindh province’s livestock and aquaculture sector.
The bank’s loan is part of the Crisis Resilient Social Protection (CRISP) Programme and Sindh Livestock and Aquaculture Sector Transformation (LIVAQUA) Programme.
The former project has a broader reach as it aims to increase the resilience of vulnerable households to economic shocks in different parts of the country, while the latter initiative is limited to only the Sindh province in Pakistan’s southeast.
“The devastating floods that hit Pakistan in 2022 were a tragic reminder of the importance of building resilience to such disasters, including strengthening both social protection and the sectors that underpin economic growth and recovery,” said the World Bank’s Naji Benhassine.
“It is also essential to help vulnerable people absorb climate shocks through innovative climate-smart technologies and contingency plans,” the Pakistan country director was quoted as saying in the statement.
He added that the additional $400 million in funding for CRISP will strengthen the program’s ongoing efforts to equip Pakistan’s social protection system with the policy and implementation systems foundations needed to respond more effectively and quickly to future crises.
“Since its inception, the CRISP programme has achieved significant results, providing regular safety net assistance to over 9 million households and demonstrating the capacity to rapidly reach 2.8 million households during the recent floods,” noted Amjad Zafar Khan, task team leader for the project.
“The additional funding will not only help families become more resilient to climate and economic shocks, but will also encourage local capacities to play a greater role in social support,” he added.
Meanwhile, LIVAQUA’s $135 million funding is expected to boost interventions to promote climate-smart production, value addition and inclusive access to markets.
This will create growth opportunities for the livestock and aquaculture sectors, the statement said.
“The project will improve the livelihoods of small and medium-sized livestock and fish farmers, increase animal health and resilience to climate-related shocks, strengthen the overall growth of these two sectors in Sindh, improve food and nutrition security more broadly, and reduce the contribution of these sectors to greenhouse gas emissions,” said Miriam Chaudron, task team leader for the project.
