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South Asia

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Subregional Perspective

Many South Asian countries have an unparalleled opportunity now to reduce poverty as never before. Buoyant economies combined with policy changes in the region are laying the foundations for sustained growth that can lift millions out of poverty.

The regional economy grew a robust 7.8% in 2005, helped by strong growth in India and Pakistan. South Asia is benefiting from further integration into an expanding global economy, rising consumer spending, generally accommodative monetary policies, and market liberalization. Still, 30% of the subregion’s 1.4 billion people live on less than $1 a day.

Growth in India was impressive at 7.5% in 2004–2005 and reached 8.1% in 2005–2006. The government is initiating several measures to address the constraints to high growth in a comprehensive manner. These measures will help in upgrading infrastructure, providing stronger institutions and better policy, encouraging private investment, and improving agricultural growth.

Meeting the funding needs for infrastructure will require strong participation from the private sector, in partnership with the public sector. Foreign direct investment can be a means of bridging the gap between India’s huge investment requirement and domestic savings, but a lot more needs to be done to attract those investors.

Overall, high and volatile oil prices remain a major risk, with India depending on imports for 70% of its oil needs. The rapid rise in international crude prices has not been completely passed on to consumers, however, and inflation was contained at a moderate 4.5% in 2005.

In Pakistan, GDP expanded by 8.4% in 2005, its highest rate in 3 decades and the third consecutive year of strong growth. Manufacturing surged 12.5%, backed by a 9-year high in agricultural growth, at 7.5%. Good weather, easier credit, and greater access to fertilizer benefited farmers. Inflation rose sharply to 9.3%, however, pushed up by expensive energy and high consumer demand, while the balance-of-payments current account turned into a deficit of $4.5 billion, ending a 4-year surplus.

In Bangladesh, the economy was buoyant, as GDP expanded by 5.6%, helped by steady expansion in industry and services. However, insufficient pass-through of the increase in international oil prices to domestic consumers resulted in huge losses in the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, amounting to 0.7% of GDP in FY2005. Inflation hit 6.5% in FY2005.

More promisingly, earlier concerns about the adverse effects on the industry sector from the phaseout of the Multi-Fibre Agreement for garment exports proved unfounded.

A man surveys the damage from the October earthquake in Pakistan; ADB rushed aid under the Pakistan Earthquake Fund

In Sri Lanka, the effect of the Indian Ocean tsunami was not strong enough to slow economic growth significantly. First-quarter GDP was dragged down in part by weak tourism and fisheries after the disaster, bringing it down to 4.4%, but the country bounced back to full-year growth of 5.7%.

An upsurge in violence at the end of 2005 left the cease-fire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam looking fragile. To some extent, Sri Lanka has learned to live with uncertainty and disasters. Its economy has averaged 4% growth in the last 3 decades despite the upheavals of civil war.

Nepal’s economy has fared less well amid political instability and conflict. Growth slowed to 2.3% in FY2005, compared with 3.5% in FY2004, affected also by lower agricultural production due to poor weather and by weaker industry and services sectors. If it is to regain the average growth of 5% in the 1990s, it will need to resolve the conflict and accelerate its reform process.

Faced with security problems, the illicit opium trade, the poor state of infrastructure, and weak institutions, Afghanistan nonetheless leapt ahead to full-year GDP growth of 13.8% in FY2005, helped by continuous international reconstruction efforts, favorable weather conditions for agriculture, and an expanding services sector.

In Bhutan, GDP expanded by 8.8% in 2004/05, well above the medium-term trend of 7.0%. Hydropower remained the economic mainstay, backed up by a 19% spurt in the construction sector.

The Maldives’ economy was hit hard by the Indian Ocean tsunami and contracted 5.5% in 2005. Tourist arrivals for 2005 did not meet expectations, while high oil prices have exerted additional pressure.

Regional Cooperation

Regional cooperation gained momentum in South Asia, particularly after the meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in November 2005 in Dhaka. At this landmark meeting, which reinvigorated cooperation, the leaders affirmed their commitment to a vision of South Asian economic union in a phased manner.

Another regional grouping, the Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, also gained momentum after a summit in July 2004. This grouping joins Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka with Myanmar and Thailand.

ADB Assistance

Most urgently, assistance was rushed in 2005 to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and the massive South Asian earthquake. The late 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated coastal communities in India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, while the earthquake inflicted suffering and extensive damage in Azad Jammu and Kashmir* and certain districts in North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan and in Jammu and Kashmir** in India. In both cases, ADB assistance concentrated on restoring the infrastructure needed for economic activity to resume, with social service delivery, commerce, and communications either debilitated or destroyed.

In 2005, ADB assistance to the South Asian subregion totaled $4.4 billion. The overall operational approach remained focused on helping the eight countries spur growth by removing infrastructural bottlenecks—in particular roads and highway development, urban development, and energy—and by improving governance. Work also focused on sectors, such as education, and on projects providing basic needs, such as water.

New Facility to Finance Roads in Pakistan

In Pakistan, total assistance was about $1.7 billion, including loans of $776 million. This also includes the new multitranche financing facility, which is making $770 million in financing available to support the country’s National Highway Development Sector Investment program.

Infrastructure, particularly roads vital to regional trade, remains one of ADB’s focal areas. The facility will support the long-term development of the country’s national highway network and regional road connections.

Important sections of Pakistan’s highway network consist of only narrow roads, often unsuitable for heavy traffic. In other sections where congestion cripples traffic, double lanes are needed, while cities need bypasses. ADB’s investment will target road improvements in three batches: the first comprises three sample projects covering 376 km, the second 460 km, while the third will be determined later. The facility also provides planning and design support, management of construction schedules, social and resettlement assessments, and environmental safeguards.

ADB assistance also focused on areas destroyed by the devastating earthquake in October with almost $400 million approved immediately to support rehabilitation and recovery efforts.

Work in Pakistan will shortly begin on the New Bong Escape project, an 80-megawatt power plant downstream from the Mangla dam on the Jhelum River in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, home to some of the areas worst hit by the earthquake. The plant, scheduled to begin generating power in 2009 and to be built by a private entity, is the first large-scale, private sector infrastructure project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the first private sector cofinancing between ADB and the Islamic Development Bank.Work in Pakistan will shortly begin on the New Bong Escape project, an 80-megawatt power plant downstream from the Mangla dam on the Jhelum River in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, home to some of the areas worst hit by the earthquake. The plant, scheduled to begin generating power in 2009 and to be built by a private entity, is the first large-scale, private sector infrastructure project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the first private sector cofinancing between ADB and the Islamic Development Bank.

ADB also approved a $205 million loan for the Balochistan Devolved Social Services Program, which will support policy reforms to improve education, health, and water supply and sanitation, and will also provide resources for local government social services—enabling the private sector to participate—and help develop capacity and strengthen institutions.

India: Focus On Infrastructure

Help for India’s rural sector is coming through better roads and improved irrigation under several programs

Infrastructure development dominates ADB assistance in India as well, and supports the Indian government’s own massive plans for such investment.

ADB approved five loan projects in 2005, including two private sector loans; the Chhattisgarh Irrigation Development project ($46.1 million); Kerala Sustainable Urban Development project ($221.2 million); and Tsunami Emergency Assistance Project, comprising a loan of $100.0 million and an Asian Tsunami Fund grant of $100.0 million. Three technical assistance operations were approved in 2005 in support of the government’s road program.

In addition to these loans, assistance to the country also included $750 million for the Rural Roads II Investment Program, setting up a credit facility from which loans can be drawn on the new multitranche financing facility, the second facility structure set up in South Asia after Pakistan.

Providing loans from the multitranche financing facility, ADB’s assistance will finance investments in the rural roads program of the government, covering 30,000 km and connecting 19,000 villages. To ensure success, the facility will assist in all stages, from planning to maintenance and road safety.

Multiple loans will be provided over 5 years, each financing a clearly defined investment project. Some 3,200 km of rural roads—about 1,000 km each in Assam and West Bengal and about 1,200 km in Orissa—will be addressed in the first stage. The remaining projects will be prepared by participating states in three annual batches.

ADB’s support to the Indian government’s development priorities include constructing rural infrastructure, building the highway network, upgrading cities and satellite towns, and strengthening the power sector.

Gujarat Communities Meet Basic Needs Villages in Gujarat are mobilizing to address water issues In many parts of Gujarat, India, villagers struggle to find clean drinking water. Almost 60% of the state’s villages have no water source that is assured throughout the year. In Surendranagar district, rural communities face acute water scarcity, especially during summer, when the entire Saurashtra region is parched. The rural women bear the brunt, having to walk long distances to collect drinking water. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme is attempting to alleviate this water crisis by mobilizing the local women’s federation, Mahila Manch, to operate tankers to supply drinking water at affordable rates to 20 villages in the Chotila and Sayla blocks of Surendranagar. In the summer of 2005, the Manch transported and supplied more than 480,000 liters for nearly 2,000 households. With Aga Khan support, the Manch procured tractors and tankers, trained drivers, and planned water distribution. The Manch covers its operating costs through a nominal charge to the poor. This has forced private suppliers to reduce water prices. In the drought-prone Poshina area of Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat, nearly 1,000 tribal households have started lining up at the local milk collection center to get their milk weighed, tested, and recorded before it is transported to the Sabarkantha Dairy for processing. Every 10th day, villagers receive cash payments, right in the village. The Sabarkantha Dairy has organized villagers into eight dairy cooperatives, has helped them purchase livestock, has trained them in basic animal husbandry, and buys their entire milk production. In less than 2 months of operations, the villagers supplied nearly 15,000 liters of milk and generated sales of nearly $3,500. Both these projects are funded through a $3.4 million grant to the government of Gujarat from the ADB-administered Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction. The grant is supporting more than a dozen similar projects in Gujarat, which are being implemented by NGOs and community-based organizations.

In support of urban development, for example, ADB approved a loan of $221.2 million. It aims to develop urban living conditions in five municipal governments in India’s southernmost Kerala State, including Kochi, Kollam, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram (the state capital), and Thrissur. In particular, it will rehabilitate and expand urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation, urban drainage, solid waste management, and roads and transportation.

It offers “livelihood enhancement” components focused on the poor communities; makes investments in other smaller urban local bodies in the state; and supports capacity building and project management.

The combined population of the Kerala municipalities covered by the project is 2.5 million and is projected to rise to about 3.6 million by project completion in 2011 and further to 6.2 million by 2021. Kerala has performed considerably better than most Indian states on social development measures, but lingering urban poverty remains a threat to its future growth.

In Chhattisgarh, ADB will help improve the livelihoods of about 120,000 farm families by upgrading irrigation services and agricultural practices through a $46.1 million loan. The project will help the government of Chhattisgarh’s Water Resources Department better develop and manage the state’s irrigation sector by strengthening its existing capacity, initiating reforms, upgrading procedures, modernizing equipment, and developing new facilities.

It will also redefine and bolster the role of water users associations in managing and maintaining irrigation systems by strengthening the framework for partnership between them and the government. The project will then rehabilitate and upgrade about 200 minor and 20 medium irrigation schemes, especially those with high potential for diversified cropping, serving about 200,000 hectares throughout

Other projects in India included several funded under the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, which is administered by ADB and uses extensive support from NGOs to find creative ways to help alleviate the difficulties faced by the poor. In Gujarat, for example, the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction is funding efforts to provide clean drinking water to villages in the drought-prone state.

ADB’s overall loan portfolio to India at the end of 2005 comprised 33 ongoing loans for $5.7 billion, including $2.6 billion to transport, $1.7 billion to urban infrastructure, $1.1 billion to energy, and $0.2 billion to the financial sector. Another $0.05 billion went to agriculture, environmental protection, and natural resources.

Bangladesh: Infrastructure for the Poor

Under the Urban Primary Health Care project, the poor in Bangladesh are finding better health care in government clinics run by NGOs

In Bangladesh, ADB approved six new loans in 2005. These included ADF and OCR loans for the Gas Transmission and Development project (total $230.0 million), Emergency Flood Damage Rehabilitation project ($152.3 million), Agribusiness Development project ($42.5 million), Second Urban Primary Health Care project ($30.0 million loan and $10.0 million ADF grant), and Southwest Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management project ($20.0 million).

The first project will construct four gas pipelines totaling 353 km for transporting natural gas to the less developed western region, an area with nearly 15 million people. With plans to transport 360 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, this will be the first time the region has had access to a large-scale gas supply.

The Emergency Flood Damage Rehabilitation project will repair public infrastructure in five sectors damaged by major floods in 2004. It will restore access to basic services, increase disaster preparedness and mitigation, and include capacity building and training in infrastructure design and assistance to enhance early warning systems.

ADB also began the second phase of the highly successful Urban Primary Health Care project, which has been contracting NGOs to run primary health services. The project is providing more efficient and affordable care than government-run services, with at least 30% of its services targeted at people earning less than 700 taka (about $10) per month. Nutritional supplements will also be given to severely malnourished women and children. It will be active in six cities—Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet—and five municipalities— Bogra, Comilla, Madhabdi, Savar, and Sirajgonj—and support the construction of 64 health facilities, upgrading of 4, and purchase of 12 apartments and/or buildings for primary health care facilities in Dhaka.

Separately, Bangladesh joined Nepal and Bhutan as one of the first batch of countries to adopt a results-based country strategy and program for 2006–2010.

As a landmark harmonization initiative, the new results-based strategy and program was prepared jointly with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, Government of Japan, and World Bank. The country strategy and program is also aligned with Bangladesh’s national poverty reduction strategy, which aims to achieve the MDGs, including halving the number of poor people in the country by 2015 and delivering substantial improvements in almost all aspects of human development. To achieve these aims, the national poverty reduction strategy emphasizes promoting growth, advancing human development, and improving governance.

Reconstructing Afghanistan

Since resuming operations in Afghanistan in 2002, ADB has approved some $817.5 million in support, complemented by nearly $85 million in cofinancing. ADB will provide the country with up to $200 million per year in ADF loans and grants over the remainder of the 2005– 2008 period, in keeping with its pledge at the 2004 Berlin donors’ conference, with up to 50% on a full-grant basis. Another $10 million a year in grant financing will go toward capacity development and technical assistance.

ADB will provide Afghanistan with up to $200 million per year in ADF loans and grants over the remainder of the 2005–2008 period

In 2005, ADB approved a $50 million loan and grant package to improve the power supply. The project will construct a 110-kilovolt power transmission network, as well as a low-voltage distribution system that will connect 11 rural towns, or more than 900,000 households, to the emerging electricity grid.

Another grant for $55 million will rehabilitate a final section of Afghanistan’s “ring road” as ADB’s further contribution to major international efforts to restore the national road system.

A $75 million ADF loan and grant project will support irrigation rehabilitation in Afghanistan’s Western Basins region. The project will include extensive capacity development for Afghan authorities and improve community water resource management.

The $55 million Fiscal Management and Public Administration Reform Program approved in 2005 consisting of loan and grant support will help improve government budgeting, strengthen domestic resource mobilization, improve the civil service, and enhance the monitoring of public finance—all important complements to investments in infrastructure rehabilitation.

ADB’s assistance also contributes to improving governance and development skills, national institutions, and major policies—areas that have constrained Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

Sri Lankans have been reestablishing livelihoods after the Indian Ocean tsunami, with ADB’s help (right); throughout the region, ADB focuses on bringing the essentials of life to the poor (above)

In the private sector, a $35 million loan approved in 2004 to the main telecommunications provider, a company called Roshan, had extraordinary results in 2005. Before the mobile phone network started operations, Afghanistan’s nearly 30 million people had to make do with just 25,000 decrepit land-based telephone lines. Roshan quickly drew down the full ADB loan to erect communications towers to reach more remote parts of the country.

Tsunami Assistance for Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the industrial sectors of the country were more or less unscathed by the Indian Ocean tsunami at the end of December 2004. In the coastal regions, however, the tidal waves killed tens of thousands, wiped out whole villages, and destroyed businesses. To help rebuild, ADB provided $157 million in 2005, of which $150 million was given as a grant from the Asian Tsunami Fund. Support is going to the reconstruction of roads, community infrastructure, and shelter; rebuilding livelihoods; and coastal protection. Other funding agencies are supporting reconstruction in education, health, and power. The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction also provided a total of $4 million in grants for posttsunami reconstruction.

In addition to the tsunami assistance project, four other projects were approved in 2005, including the $150 million National Highways Sector project, $50 million Local Government Infrastructure Improvement project, $40 million loan and grant North East Community Restoration and Development II project, and $20 million loan for the Technical Education Development project.

ADB and the new government are discussing reforms in key sectors, including power; roads; and, in alignment with the International Monetary Fund, fiscal management. The government is striving to improve economic management within existing structures and promote a greater role for the private sector and sector restructuring where necessary for better performance. In Sri Lanka, the lack of investment in infrastructure is one of the biggest obstacles to private sector growth and investment, with power among the most expensive in South Asia, and the road network outside of Colombo in rough condition.

Gordian Task Reconnects Afghanistan Fixing Afghanistan’s transport network has been an undertaking of Gordian complexity. As a result of conflict, the nation’s roads were devastated, with many sections having all but disappeared. An early assessment of Afghanistan’s transport sector found that up to 54% of the country’s national roads, totaling 6,100 km in length, were in poor condition. An early assessment of Afghanistan’s transport sector found that up to 54% of the country’s national roads were in poor condition Just getting supplies to construction sites has been a huge logistical challenge. Roadsides remained littered with land mines, freezing winters slowed progress, and remote mountain ranges posed numerous problems. In addition, many areas were still subject to insurgencyrelated violence, delaying the reconstruction process and augmenting security costs. Yet through a massive international effort that includes ADB support, work to rebuild the “ring road” that circles the country and links Afghanistan to its neighbors is now well under way. Planners have even begun eyeing Afghanistan’s central geographic position and its potential as a land bridge to boost regional trade. Rehabilitating the road system is critical for a landlocked country like Afghanistan. In 2005, ADB approved a $55 million ADF grant to rehabilitate one of the last major unpaved stretches of the ring road. Together with an $80 million loan approved in late 2004, ADB financing will rehabilitate 300 km from Andkhoy to Bala Murghab, south of the Turkmenistan border, linking this remote part of the country with the city of Herat, about 100 km from Afghanistan’s western border with Iran. The project will include the provision of toll facilities, important for longer-term operation and maintenance of the national road system, and will also support HIV/ AIDS prevention and antihuman trafficking awareness campaigns in areas near the road project. ADB is also preparing a road development master plan through a $2 million technical assistance grant that will identify routes linking main markets and production centers. Completion of the full primary road network by 2008, together with major upgrades of adjoining roads in the Central Asian republics, Iran, and Pakistan, will help realize the goal of a regional transport corridor. Afghanistan’s opening of its borders has provided new opportunities for landlocked countries in Central Asia to take advantage of the transit corridors to access the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf through Iranian and Pakistani ports.

Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal

In Bhutan, total assistance in 2005 came to $29.5 million, including $27.3 million for the Road Network project, which will improve national roads and selected secondary roads to better connect rural areas. It will upgrade about 140 km of the 244 km Gelephu–Trongsa national highway, which connects with the Indian border.

As part of the first batch of results-based country strategies and programs, the Bhutan country strategy and program is designed to focus on managing for development results. It will facilitate the achievement of the MDGs in Bhutan as well as specific commitments in each sector, with goals, targets, and indicators to which ADB assistance operations will contribute. It aims to reduce poverty through economic diversification, broadening the base to better absorb large numbers of young people as they leave the school system. ADB undertook its country strategy and program in consultation with other development partners to ensure that all sectors of the economy were adequately covered.

In the Maldives, the response to the tsunami included a $20 million Asian Tsunami Fund grant and a loan for $1.8 million. The Maldives Tsunami Emergency Assistance project aims to boost economic recovery by rebuilding damaged infrastructure and restoring livelihoods, especially of the poor, on the affected islands. The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction also provided a $1 million grant for the restoration of livelihoods of the tsunami-affected farmers.

The $6 million loan for the Regional Development project Phase II—Environmental Infrastructure and Management was approved in April 2005 to raise the standard of living in the central regions of the Maldives by improving environmental and land management.

Total assistance in the year amounted to $30.7 million, including $7.8 million in loans, $21.0 million in grant financing, and technical assistance amounting to $1.9 million.

In Nepal, political instability and the security situation hampered the 2005 assistance program, although ADB approved a technical assistance for $2.2 million. It was the first year of implementation of the new Nepal country strategy and program (2005– 2009). It is ADB’s first pilot results-based country strategy and program and is serving as a model for other DMCs.

Water Projects Take on Rural and Urban Poverty Across Bangladesh, every year, millions struggle through months of floods, food insecurity, disease, and scarce incomes. In Pakistan’s third largest city of Rawalpindi, storm drains turn into sludge canals that seep waste into groundwater and through broken pipes, and contaminate the drinking water. These stark realities, however, are changing. ADB is supporting governments as they tackle some of the region’s toughest water problems. These operations also address an array of poverty issues that are directly and indirectly linked to poor water supplies and lack of sanitation. The impact of these projects is proving that an investment in the water sector is an investment across the poverty board. Stemming Floods Revitalizes Rural Life Managing chronic floods in Bangladesh was not the objective, per se, of the Small-Scale Water Resource Development Sector project. Rather, it was an entry into reducing overall poverty. If floods could be managed, drainage improved, and irrigation water made available, then total cropping area and cropping intensity could increase. Essentially, less flooding, more fields, more irrigation, and higher yields could result in greater overall productivity, more farm jobs, and higher income levels. What the project envisioned, it accomplished—and more. In its first phase (1995–2002), using an intensely participatory approach in the 280 subproject areas in the west, total crop area increased by almost 13% and cropping intensity by 40%. The increased agricultural production in project areas has generated 14.4 million labor-days annually. Fishery production also increased and created an estimated 176,000 labor-days annually. Local people have formed water management associations to sustain these benefits. According to inspections undertaken by the Department of Cooperatives, members have effectively used their savings to start micro credit schemes to increase their incomes in new activities, such as purchasing milk cows, sewing machines, and higher producing seeds. The same approach is being rolled out in 300 more communities during phase 2 of the project (2002–2009). A third phase is planned. Rawalpindi Project Brings Institutional Reforms The impact of these projects is proving that an investment in the water sector is an investment across the poverty board The deplorable conditions of water supply and sanitation in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, Pakistan, were clear indications that institutions were not in order. Lessons from other projects have shown that the sustainability of water supply and sanitation projects requires the utilities to be in good financial health first. So the Rawalpindi Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project went to work on institutional and financial reforms. Unreasonable and unsustainable low tariff levels have been revised, billing systems computerized, several complaint offices established, a disconnection policy for defaulters of bills strictly enforced, and an incentive program initiated among utility employees to improve collection efficiency of utility bills. At the same time, the project began increasing water supply levels by considerably rehabilitating the distribution system, legalizing illegal connections, and extending the network to new areas. The institutional reforms are making for a more efficient, reliable system as the project unfolds into phase 2 (the Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project), which was approved in December 2005. Operations Break Down Divisions Guided by ADB’s Water for All Policy, which was externally reviewed in 2005, these projects show how ADB’s operations in rural and urban water are cutting across sectors in 17 DMCs with ongoing projects. In 2005, ADB approved a total of $1.4 billion in water sector loan components and $27.5 million in technical assistance grants, which includes the water supply, sanitation, and waste management sector, as well as water subsector components in multi-sector loans, amounting to 20% of ADB total lending and 14% of total grants. In the water supply, sanitation, and waste management sector alone, ADB approved $618 million in new loans and $5.1 million in technical assistance grants. The investments are a considerable contribution to sustaining economic development—laying the groundwork for water’s critical role in achieving almost all the MDGs.

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