RAWALPINDI, April 10: The Asian Development Bank has described the performance of the social sectors in Pakistan as poor, claiming that the persistent poor performance emphasises the need for action but also the difficulty in achieving results, significantly influenced by political, social, and cultural constraints.
The report evaluates twenty years (1985-2004) of Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to social sector development in Pakistan. Under ADB’s previous classification system, social sector operations included those in the education, health and population, urban development, and water supply and sanitation sectors.
According to the evaluation, only eight per cent of 24 projects assessed were rated as successful, with 58 per cent judged as partly successful and 33 per cent as unsuccessful.
These figures are in line with the ratings in project performance audit reports for all social sector operations in Pakistan (9 per cent successful, 64 per cent partly successful, and 27 per cent unsuccessful).
Over the period being evaluated, ADB has approved social sector loans for $1.9 billion (86 per cent from the Asian Development Fund), around 16 per cent of total approvals, for 28 projects —10 in education, five in health and population, five in water supply and sanitation, four in urban development, and four multi-sector projects.
Over the same period, ADB approved 57 technical assistance grants for the social sectors for a total of 41 million dollars.
In keeping with the overall sector performance, and relative to performance of some other sectors, the performance of ADB’s social sector operations has been poor.
In its recent millennium development goals (MDGs) report, the government expressed optimism that most of the MDG targets were potentially achievable. However, this would require a turnaround from negative progress in the 1990s or much faster progress than has been achieved in the past.
Pakistan’s performance generally lags behind that of comparable countries. A high, although declining, rate of population growth often more than negates any percentage improvements in social indicators, the report says.
Having said this, the availability of reliable data on social sector performance is a major problem —this reduces public awareness of the need for action, constrains strategy and policy development, and limits the ability to design effective interventions. Over the 20-year period, ADB has formulated five strategy documents to guide its operations in Pakistan. These documents have generally not contributed significantly to decision-making on support for social sector development.
There has been no shortage of government policies and strategies to address the problems. Many targets have been set but few have been achieved. Over the last 20 years, there have been 15 administrations (including caretaker governments) and many of these were replaced before they had time to implement their policies.
However, policies generally appear to have been made (and targets set) with insufficient consideration of the resources required and available to achieve them. Sometimes there has been insufficient political or bureaucratic support for stated policies.