ISLAMABAD, May 20: The federal government has finalized a Rs219 billion three-year human development programme (2002-4).

The Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP) will get the biggest share (30 per cent), followed by education (26 per cent), health (17 per cent) and women development (three per cent).

According to the details made available to Dawn here on Monday, out of Rs110 billion, Rs30 billion has been earmarked for the current financial year, while Rs32 billion for 2002-03 billion and Rs38 billion for 2003-4 will be made available under the federal and provincial public sector development programmes (PSDPs).

A financing gap of about Rs105 billion, including Rs1.4 billion in 2001-2002, Rs46 billion in 2002-3 and Rs55 billion in 2003-4, will be bridged by the international donor agencies, specially the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The programme also includes Rs3.5 billion “Tawana (healthy) Pakistan”, which has been prepared by the women division. It is in fact a nutrition package for school girls spread over a period of three years in 43 “high poverty districts” all over the country.

The project will be implemented by the Pakistan Baitualmall to benefit 500,000 girl students in 5,000 primary schools by providing daily meal for 25 days per month for 10 months per year with supplements of vitamins and micro-nutrients.

Initially, Rs800 million has been allocated for this purpose in the 2001-02, which forms the part of additional allocations. The project costs and other mechanism for monitoring and implementation are in the final stage. The project is being launched in Badin, Jacobabad, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas districts.

A comprehensive exercise has been undertaken to estimate financial requirements for 2001-2004 for the implementation of poverty reduction and human development programmes to achieve the desired improvements in the living conditions of the poor.

It is felt that there has been a slowdown in social sectors’ expenditure in the first half of the fiscal year (2001-2002) due to structural changes at the district level to achieve empowerment of the local governments. New processes of financial devolution, accountability and transparency of procurement and empowerment of elected mayors and deputies at the district level and below have now been put in place and tendering process has been completed.

Under the new framework of placing responsibility at those levels, where social sector services are to be delivered, expenditures will become much more transparent, its effectiveness will increase, and outcomes will improve.

The officials concerned expect that district expenditures will rise from May to September 2002, after which these expenditures would have upscaled to new levels, as capacity enhancement would have its effect.

Officials also concede that there was 40 per cent less PSDP utilizations during the current financial year. “The disbursement of PSDP fund during the first nine months of 2001-2002 was only 60 per cent due to weak utilization by ministries and provinces”, said an official of the ministry of finance.