ADB Loan to Help Pakistan's Rural Women and Children

Pakistan's rural women and children will be the main beneficiaries of a US$200 million loan approved today by the Asian Development Bank for the Government's Social Action Program (Sector) Project II (SAPP II).

The nationwide program will address the severe challenges the country faces despite quite high economic growth: high birth and illiteracy rates (only 40 per cent of girls go school) combined with low access rates to clean drinking water and sanitation.

SAPP II is a US$7 billion program in support of the Government's Social Action Program, which was started in 1993 to develop basic social services such as primary education, basic health care, family planning services, and water supply and sanitation services. That program initiated fundamental changes towards improving social conditions, especially for the rural poor and women. But the gains need to be consolidated and sustained. For this reason, after extensive reviews of the program, the ADB and other co-financiers, including the World Bank, the Dutch Government, the Overseas Development Administration of the United Kingdom and the European Union, have agreed to support a second stage from 1996 to 2000.

The second stage program has set the following targets:

• In education, to increase primary school enrolment by 4 per cent a year from 73 per cent in 1996 to 85 per cent in 2000; to raise girls' primary school enrolment from 38 per cent to 46 per cent in the same period. How? By building 90,000 new classrooms; training teachers and improving distribution of textbooks; and strengthening education management.
• In health, to reduce infant mortality by 4 per cent a year, from 95 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1996 to 80 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2000. It is aimed to do this by increasing the number of health workers, especially women, and the supply of services such as x-rays, vaccines and medicines.
• In family planning, to bring the population growth rate down from 2.8 per cent to 2.6 per cent in the same period by expanding the number of family planning workers, services and materials.
• In rural water supply and sanitation, to improve access to safe drinking water by 5 per cent a year from 54 per cent to 75 per cent and to increase sanitation services by 4 per cent a year from 18 per cent to 35 per cent. It is aimed to do this by developing community ownership of water schemes, increasing the number of water schemes (especially in the countryside) and enhancing the cost recovery of such schemes through increased tariffs and privatization.

The executing agency for the program's second stage remains the Ministry of Planning and Development.

The ADB loan is concessional, which means it is interest-free, repayable over 35 years, including a 10- year grace period, and carries a service charge of one per cent per annum.