Struggling to cope with lack of funds, corrupt regimes, or
well-intentioned but ineffective leaders, the development process in countries
of South Asia is frequently derailed. In this context, the World Bank Group
(WBG) has long honored its commitment to South Asia by identifying issues,
mobilizing communities and supporting initiatives of governments, community
organizations and other stakeholders to keep the development process rolling.
World Bank Group (WBG)
has long been a crucial development partner in South Asia, with an impressive
portfolio of 215 International Development Association (IDA)/International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) projects. By 2012, WBGs total net
commitments for South Asia reached $38.7 billion, and the lending program for
2013 offers $8 billion. A brief review of the WBG’s contribution is as follows:
Economic growth
opportunities:
According to the World
Bank’s (WB) most recent poverty figures on South Asia, about 571 million people
(44% of the developing world’s poor) survive on less than $1.25 a day. WBG’s
Development Marketplace (DM) offers a competitive grant program that funds
innovative, sustainable projects offering services for low-income groups. “DM
has awarded, in aggregate, US $60 million to Social Enterprises identified
through country, regional, and global competitions.” Onno Ruhl, World Bank
country Director in India, has acknowledged that, “The World Bank Group
is committed to supporting innovative models and programs that support
underserved communities, particularly in low-income states. The DM provides an
opportunity to understand what works and under what conditions as a means to
improve services to the poor.”
The World Bank Group’s Country Partnership
Strategy (CPS) for India is based on a lending program of $3 billion-$5 billion
each year from 2013- 17 to encourage inclusiveness of economic growth, cut
poverty to 5.5% by 2030 from 29.8% in 2010, and increase the share of people
living above the threshold to 41.3% from 19.1%.
In Bangladesh, the World Bank sponsors 50% of the operating budget
of the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Center (IIFC) since its inception
in 1999, to promote and facilitate public private partnerships in
infrastructure projects offering expertise in evaluation, negotiation and
implementation. Another very successful WBG supported initiative in Bangladesh
is The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project (RERED,
which established Solar Home Systems (SHS) in remote areas as an alternative
for electrification. Registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for
carbon credits, the project helped installation of 2 million solar home systems
by 2012. The repeater Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development
Project II (RERED II) approved in September 2012 is working to cover an
additional 2.5 million people.
With crucial WBG support, Nepal succeeded in attaining the first
Millennium Development Goal ahead of schedule to reduce its poverty levels by
half, with a percentage drop from 53.1% in 2004 to 24.8% in 2011.
In Sri Lanka, 200,000 households in 1,000
post-conflict villages have benefited from infrastructure/productive investment
by WBG, allowing for rehabilitation of 650 km roads, and 12,000 ha of land
brought back to production.
In Pakistan, 4.7 million families have
received income support of $12 per month, 5.2 million micro-credit loans were
provided since 2000 by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund supported by
the Bank, and 12 million customers supported by IFC investment in power
sector.
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
In the field of
information and communications technologies, the World Bank helps developing
countries improve “access to affordable connectivity, transform delivery of
basic services, drive innovations and productivity gains, and improve
competitiveness”. Its consistent support for ICT sector reforms has drawn over
US$30 billion private investment for mobile network infrastructure in IDA
countries.
Young adults account for half of the unemployed
in South Asia. To engage the technology-savvy youth and their
unemployment challenges, and to encourage ownership of ideas and their
implementation, the World Bank and Microsoft recently launched a successful
South Asia Regional Grant Competition in Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri
Lanka, titled: “Youth Solutions! Technology for Skills and
Employment”.
In Nepal, The World Bank also funded the
Violence Against Women (VAW) Hackathon this year. Participants explored ideas
and solutions to combat gender-based violence while supporting victims. As Maria Correia, the World Bank’s South Asia
Social Development Manager, noted: “We realize that engaging youth and
tapping into their passion and creativity is critical for breaking out of the
cycle of gender violence. Young people have the greatest potential to change
their society and the future.”
WB also hosted a conference in
Kathmandu with Oxfam International, Joining Forces to Overcome Violence
against Women. The event brought together policy-makers, practitioners and
volunteers actively working to check gender-based violence in South Asia. Isabel Guerrero, World Bank Vice President for South Asia,
reiterated the Bank’s commitment to fight gender injustice in South Asia, “We
will be present here in Nepal with women and opinion leaders from all of South
Asia to break the silence. Together, we want to understand the complexity,
scale and gravity of Violence Against Women, so that we can take a step forward
to overcome it.”
Human Resource Development
Strengthening human resource by ensuring access
to basic necessities like healthcare and quality education is crucial to
development. In the area of health, WBG lays emphasis on fulfilling nutrition
needs of women and girls, and providing skilled birth attendants to check
infant and maternal mortality. As a result of WB’s support, 99.5% of deliveries
take place in medical facilities in Tamil Nadu, and in Nepal, the maternal
mortality rate has declined from 538 in 1996 to 380/100,000 live births.
Education projects focus on school enrollment
rates and vocational training. The World Bank has made significant contribution
towards education reforms in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In Sri
Lanka, 2,825 classroom blocks have been built; in Bangladesh, Girls’ enrollment
in secondary schools jumped from 47% (2007) to 55 % in 2012; in Nepal, net
primary enrollment has increased to 95% and gender parity in primary education
has been achieved. In Pakistan, secondary school graduation rate has increased
from 30% to 39% during 2008-11, and rural female-male primary net enrollment
rate ratio increased from 61% to 72% in 2007-11 in Sindh. The World Bank has
provided support to the government’s education reform program in Punjab from
its inception, “providing financing of close to $800 million over the last 10
years, helped provide 34 million free textbooks to more than 11 million
students in the 2010-11 academic year, helped hire more than 200,000 new
teachers since 2003 and improved school infrastructure by adding toilets,
boundary walls, and new classrooms”.
Accountability and
Transparency in Governance
The Bank supports
greater accountability and transparency for governments in order to deliver
better services and benefit economic well-being. Supported by the World Bank Institute (WBI), the Dhaka based Affiliated
Network for Social Accountability South Asia Region,( ANSA-SAR) and Global
Partnership Fund (GPF), promote and strengthen the concepts and
practices of social accountability by holding workshops, discussions and
deliberation on development-related issues.
In Bangladesh, the Bank has supported the Local
Governance Support Project (LGSP), since 2006, to strengthen accountable forms
of local governance. Recognizing its positive impact, the Government has
requested the Bank for extension of LGSP-approach to other local government
levels.
South Asia Social Accountability Network
(SasaNet) is another initiative taken by the Centre for Good Governance (CGG)
and World Bank to develop a broader understanding amongst various Government
and Civil Society Organization towards Social Accountability in promoting good
governance. In India and Sri Lanka, SasaNet has used Citizen Report
Cards and Community Score Cards in demanding greater accountability and
efficiency in the delivery of public services, including healthcare.
Addressing Weather-related Hardships
Isabel Guerrero, World Bank South Asia Vice
President, has rightly said, “We have a moral imperative to protect
the most vulnerable people, standing in the path of climate-driven hardship…we
have a duty to respond.”
The South Asian region is experiencing effects
of climate change, including, inconsistency and intensity of rainfall, increase
in droughts in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, fast melting glaciers in Nepal,
and rising sea levels affecting coastal areas of Bangladesh, the Maldives and
Sri Lanka.
South Asia’s expected population increase from
1.6 billion people in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2050 (WB) will notably strain the
scarce resources further. To successfully navigate the worst effects of climate
change, “major investments in infrastructure, flood defenses, drought and heat
resistant crops are needed”. The Bank is contributing towards provision of
services in irrigation and drainage, reforesting water-logged land, and
facilitating process of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) for food security.
Regional Cooperation Goals
The World Bank has
always emphasized regional economic cooperation, sharing of information
and capacity building through mutual analysis and dialogue. The Bank’s policy studies focus on finding
constraints that make South Asia one of the least integrated regions of the
world, with lowest level of intra-regional trade. The regional trade is even less than sub-Saharan
Africa.WBG suggests focus on “trade in goods, services, and electricity,
people-to-people contact, and cooperation in water resources management among
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Nepal”. An example of regional
cooperation in SA brokered by WB is the Indus Water treaty between India and
Pakistan in 1960. The World Bank arranged development funds of US $893.5 million,
and facilitates dispute resolution and a court of arbitration.
In short, over the last
many decades the World Bank has supported South Asia’s regional development
process, reenergizing nascent economies and stabilizing existing ones through
timely and consistent provision of funds and expertise and proved itself to be
a truly reliable partner.
Note: Data for this
article was obtained from The World Bank sources.
