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| August 27, 2005 | Saturday | Rajab 21, 1426 |
Poverty on agenda of Washington meeting
ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The World Bank is seriously concerned over the extent of poverty in Pakistan and the subject will figure in its annul meetings with the International Monetary Fund, to be held in Washington from September 25 to 27.
Informed sources told Dawn that the government was finalising a report on poverty to be discussed at the meeting, with similar reports of some other countries, including India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The government maintains that poverty has started reducing and that more jobs are being created to address the issue.
Prime Minister’s Advisor on Finance Dr Salman Shah is expected to represent Pakistan at the joint annual meetings of the Bretenwoods institutions.
According to a latest World Bank update - Pakistan Country Brief - copy of which was made available to Dawn, poverty significantly varies among rural and urban areas and from province to province, from a low of 24 per cent in urban Sindh to 51 per cent in rural Sindh.
During the meetings, the World Bank’s strategy — which is to support implementation of Pakistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and provide financing and technical assistance for economic and human development — will come up for discussion.
Pakistan is seeking increased development assistance from bilateral and multilateral donors in the shape of grants and soft loans. “No hard loans, but we would certainly welcome grants and soft loans from the international creditors, especially the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and a couple of other donors,” a source said.
The annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF provide an opportunity to the member countries to consult with one another and address the assembled delegates to present their countries’ point of view on current issues in international economics and finance. The meetings include two days of plenary sessions, during which board of governors of the World Bank and the IMF will take up matters of business, make decisions on how current international monetary issues should be addressed and approve corresponding solutions.
According to the bank, though complete data from the recent Pakistan Integrated Household Survey is yet not available, it is evident that a large segment of the population lives in poverty. “More importantly, differences in income in per capita across regions have persisted or widened,” the bank’s update said and added that poverty remained a serious concern in Pakistan.
It said that according to the rebased GDP numbers, the per capita income came to US$720; poverty rates which had substantially fallen in the 1980s and early 1990s, had begun to rise again towards the end of the decade. “Pakistan has grown much more than other low income countries, but has failed to achieve social progress commensurate with its economic growth,” the update said.
It added that the poor and rural inhabitants of Pakistan were being left behind. “For example, access to sanitation is 23 per cent lower than in other countries with similar income.”
The update further said that maternal mortality remained high at 450 per 100,000 live births. “Gender gaps remain in schooling, largely in the rural areas where only 22 per cent of girls have completed primary or higher schooling compared to 47 per cent boys.”
Improving government performance is a central element of Pakistan’s poverty reduction strategy. The World Bank is assisting the government’s efforts in this area by supporting reforms in public financial management and procurement, restructuring of tax administration bureaucracy, support for civil service reforms and assistance to local and municipal governments to improve their capacity for delivery of public services.
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