ISLAMABAD, March 21: The World Bank has asked the government to scrap Social Action Programme (SAP) for good and encourage new social sector activities preferably in the private sector.

Informed sources said here on Thursday that the World Bank has indicated to extend $150 million to $200 million to Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) for diversifying its activities in order to improving health, education and sanitation services to the people.

The PPAF is a private sector organization and is currently engaged in extending micro credit for poverty alleviation. It was offered $100m by the World Bank in 2000 and as such the PPAF was the first private sector organization to secure such a big assistance.

The World Bank expected that by June 30 this year, SAP will be discontinued for all practical purposes.

Earlier, the Bank had withdrawn its $115 million from SAP-2 and allocated them for the rehabilitation of the drought affected areas. Currently, the Asian Development Bank’s $10m programme in the SAP was continuing in health and education sectors.

According to a World Bank report, Pakistan needed to have increased development activities in the private sector to remove poverty.

It said that spanning social, economic and fiscal difficulties, the country’s current predicament was not rooted in a discrete set of policies to rapid rectification, but the structural factors linked to the issue of governance.

The issues of governance in the form of lacking accountability, voice and participation, were the heart of many difficulties encountered in mitigating poverty and a broadening access to social services in Pakistan. Neither debt reform nor the mere availability of donor funds was likely to dispel these problems.