PESHAWAR: The World Bank has concluded an extensive project technical review of the Pakistan Community Support Project (PCSP) comprising field visits and progress update discussions.

The World Bank delegation was facilitated by the PCSP Project Management Unit, led by the Project Director Shakeel Ahmed, and the Project Implementation Units, during the week-long activities and consultations.

The World Bank delegation visited different community infrastructure sub-projects, which have been completed in the project target areas located in Landi Kotal, Badaber and Jalozai, and also interacted with the beneficiaries of the development initiatives, according to a statement issued here on Sunday.

The technical review kicked off with a component-wise progress update of the PCSP where it was informed that civil works on the 165 approved community infrastructure sub-projects were being carried out simultaneously at a swift pace, with 50 sub-projects already completed across the three PCSP districts.

Community infrastructure schemes costing Rs1.3bn will benefit 548,752 people

The approved community infrastructure sub-projects costing Rs1,372 million would benefit around 548,752 individuals in the project target areas upon completion. It was also learnt that a total of 83 sub-projects would be completed by the end of June 2023, while the 165 sub-projects target would be achieved by the end of September 2023.

During the field component of the technical review mission, the World Bank delegation visited some of the completed goodwill schemes, including the government girls primary schools and basic health units in Badaber, Peshawar and Landi Kotal, Khyber, as well as the completed community infrastructure sub-projects such as farm-to-market roads, street pavements and water supply schemes in Jalozai, Nowshera.

The visiting delegation also met with the community representatives who were directly involved in the identification and implementation of the development activities.

While interacting with the visiting delegation of the World Bank and the PCSP team, the communities reiterated the significance of Casa-1000 with reference to the benefits sharing of the power transmission project which is being ensured through the PCSP support.

In addition to the infrastructure updates, the project technical review also covered other key aspects including maintenance of the completed sub-projects, trainings for the capacity building of communities, communication support for the project’s outreach and providing more opportunities for women and youth development.

The PCSP also organised community scorecard activities in the project target areas of Khyber and Peshawar with the assistance of the World Bank task team.

Through the use of the community scorecard process, the feedback of the participating communities was gathered on the quality of the rehabilitated girls primary schools and civil dispensary, which have been fully rehabilitated in Nikki Khel and Sultan Khel areas of Landi Kotal, as well as Maryamzai locality of Badaber in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2023