Mandaluyong (TDI): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted an additional 330 million dollars in financing to enhance Pakistan’s federally administered social protection initiatives.
The funding aims to boost grassroots-level programs, eradicate poverty, and support vulnerable populations, especially women and their families.
The loan will bolster the current Integrated Social Protection Development Programme by strengthening institutional capacity of the BISP.
The measure seeks to transition to climate-resilient and adaptive social protection pathways, ensuring more access to healthcare, nutrition and education, particularly for disaster-prone regions.
Also Read: Pakistan Adopts Stringent IMF Reforms
“This program strengthens the efforts to accelerate human capital development and reduce intergenerational poverty, especially for females disproportionately affected by economic hardships,” ADB Director General for Central and West Asia, Yevgeniy Zhukov noted.
Emma Fan, ADB Country Director for Pakistan, said the program’s progress since its inception has considerably increased access to education for children from low-income segments and improved healthcare and nutrition services for females and adolescent girls.
She added that progress have also been made in BISP’s financial management, internal controls, and information systems.
Also Read: Pakistan, ADB Ink $500M Climate Resilience Loan Agreement
Approved in December 2021, the ISPDP originally included a 600 million dollars loan from ADB, a three million dollars grant from the Asian Development Fund, and a 24.48 million dollars co-financing grant from the Education Above All Foundation.
Since 2022, the 627 million dollars programme has brought positive results in improving health and education facilities for poor segments of society.
