KARACHI: World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser on Tuesday unveiled a series of policy recommendations to outline key areas requiring the attention of Pakistani authorities to improve the quality of life for its people.
Raiser, who is currently visiting the South Asian state and plans to meet officials on federal and provincial levels, primarily focused on issues like child stunting, education, fiscal sustainability, private sector growth, energy, agriculture, poverty and climate change.
The policy recommendations presented by him intend to help inform the public policy dialogue in the country ahead the general elections scheduled in February.
“Pakistan’s economy is stuck in a low-growth trap with poor human development outcomes and increasing poverty,” the senior World Bank official said in Islamabad. “Economic conditions leave Pakistan highly vulnerable to climate shocks, with insufficient public resources to finance development and climate adaptation.”
“It is now time for Pakistan to decide whether to maintain the patterns of the past or take difficult but crucial steps toward a brighter future,” he added.
The policy recommendations include the necessity of addressing the “acute human capital crisis” in the country, according to a World Bank statement, including the high prevalence of stunting and learning poverty by adopting a coordinated and coherent cross-sectoral approach.
The also suggest improving the quality of public spending and taking serious measures to expand the revenue base, ensuring that the better off pay their share.
Additionally, the recommendations called for Pursuing business regulatory and trade reforms and reducing the presence of the state in the economy to increase productivity, competitiveness, and exports.
“Almost 40 percent of children in Pakistan suffer from stunted growth, more than 78 percent of Pakistan’s children cannot read and understand a simple text by the age of 10,” Raiser said. “These are stark indicators of a silent human capital crisis that needs priority attention.”
“With additional spending on water and sanitation of around 1 percent of GDP per year and better coordination at the local level, stunting could be halved over a decade with significant positive impacts on growth and incomes,” he noted. “This is just one example of the huge economic benefits a coherent and decisive reform strategy could have.”
The World Bank official plans to interact with representatives from the private sector and academia during his stay in the country.
He will also visit various hydropower projects in Pakistan along with project sites in Sindh and Punjab.
Senior World Bank official proposes key reforms for Pakistan’s development ahead of elections
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Senior World Bank official proposes key reforms for Pakistan’s development ahead of elections
- Martin Raiser says Pakistan needs to decide if it wants to pursue past policies or take difficult and crucial steps ahead
- The World Bank official points out Pakistan’s low-growth economy is increasing poverty along with climate vulnerability
UN rights chief says 56 Afghan civilians killed since Pakistan conflict escalates
- Death toll includes 24 children and six women, with 129 others injured
- UN says about 115,000 Afghans, 3,000 Pakistanis displaced by fighting along border
GENEVA::The United Nations rights chief said Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed — nearly half of them children — since hostilities with neighboring Pakistan intensified last week.
“I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict, and to prioritize helping those experiencing extreme hardship,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The neighbors have clashed along the frontier since February 26, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.
Turk said that since the intensification of hostilities, “56 civilians, including 24 children and six women, have been killed.”
“A further 129 people, including 41 children and 31 women, have been injured,” he said.
And since the start of the year, the numbers are even higher, with 69 civilians killed in Afghanistan and 141 injured, he said.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
The UN refugee agency said Thursday that around 115,000 Afghans and 3,000 people in Pakistan had been displaced by the fighting in the past week.
“Civilians on both sides of the border are now having to flee from air strikes, heavy artillery fire, mortar shelling and gunfire,” Turk said.
He lamented that a new wave of violence was affecting people “whose lives have been tormented by violence and misery for so long.”
He highlighted that over two million Afghans had returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan started to implement its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” in September 2023.
And nearly as many were believed to remain in Pakistan, “where many face hardship and constant fear of arrest and deportation,” he said.
“As a result of the violence, humanitarian assistance is unable to reach many of those desperately in need. This is piling misery on misery,” the rights chief said.
He called on “the Pakistan military and Afghan de facto security forces to end immediately their fighting, and to prioritize helping the millions who depend on aid.”
