ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $350 million for the Decentralisation Support Programme and the Sindh Rural Development Project — $300 million for the DSP and $50 million for the SRDP.

The DSP will provide fiscal support to the Pakistan government for improved local government representation, accountability and efficiency.

The new funding line is being offered to Pakistan by the ADB as the government has demonstrated strong commitment to governance reforms articulated through its Decentralisation Plan 2000 to address issues related to chronic access to justice, basic service delivery, political representation and gender equity issues.

The legal and political framework for these reforms is already in place. The Local Government Ordinance 2001 clearly assigns powers and functions to local governments, provides for transparent systems and revenue generating powers for local government financing and ensures elected representatives’ control of local administrations.

According to local ADB office, the important challenge now for the federal government is to be able to bear the medium-term costs of implementing fiscal decentralisation, which is vital for sustaining and entrenching decentralisation.

Explaining the objectives of the DSP, M. Ali Shah, country director for ADB, said the programme is structured around three policy outcomes.

The first outcome relates to ensuring sufficient and effective federal support for decentralisation and related reforms. Reforms under this policy outcome include effecting fiscal restructuring to transfer fiscal resources to provinces and local government, building capacities at the provincial and local government levels to adopt new systems and procedures related to decentralised governance.

The second component relates to promoting effective and sustainable province-local intergovernmental relations. Reforms under this policy outcome will support the development of rule-based and integrated relationships between provincial and local governments, resulting in sufficient technical, political and fiscal support of local government affairs consistent with national and provincial priorities.

The final outcome would support the effective functioning of local government institutions which are able to manage resources accountably and facilitate delivery of efficient and equitable services. Reforms under this policy outcome will support implementation of nationally sanctioned local government planning and fiscal management systems to create an enabling environment for efficient and equitable delivery of services according to clearly established norms of public participation, access to information and accountability.

SRDP: The objective of the $50 million SRDP is to reduce poverty in the four districts of Badin, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Thatta.