ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a technical assistance (TA) grant of $680,000 to the Government of Pakistan for enhancing capacity for resource management and poverty reduction in the province of Punjab.

The grant, according to ADB announcement here on Tuesday, includes co-financing by the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund for $230,000 and the Government of United Kingdom for $200,000. The TA would provide input to the proposed Punjab Resource Management Programme, which is in ADB’s loan pipeline for 2003.

To be implemented over 18 months from December 2002 to May 2004, the Punjab Planning and Development (P&D) will be the executing agency for the TA, while the implementing agencies to be supported by the TA would include P&D as well as the departments of finance, excise & taxation, and management and professional development.

Explaining the rationale for the project, the ADB noted, inter alia, that fiscal management in Punjab government was severely constrained by inflexible expenditure and revenue policies and procedures, which do not allow the provincial government to undertake the investment needed to stimulate economic growth.

Moreover, it went on to state, the transfer of responsibility for the delivery of most social and productive services to the new local governments under the devolution process has presented the province with the challenge of restructuring itself and adopting new systems consistent with its new responsibilities to make policy, support and monitor the performance of local government agencies.

The TA will have two interrelated components. The first will focus on promoting poverty-focused and effective development planning in Punjab with the aim to develop a provincial poverty strategy and district-based poverty action plans.

The second component would assist in translating the poverty reduction strategy and action plans into a medium-term budget and expenditure plan to ensure that the resource needs identified by the poverty strategy are prioritized and met on ongoing basis.

This component, it is stipulated, would also enhance the effectiveness of development and poverty-related spending by supporting improvements in fiscal and financial management.

Meanwhile, according to another ADB press release, the first ADB Water Prize has been conferred on the Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department of Punjab, for “successfully promoting stakeholder participation, hygiene education and local community ownership in the ADB-financed Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project”.