ADB okays three loans totaling $658.8m for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank has approved three loans totalling $658.8 million for Pakistan’s struggling economy, out of which a $300 million programme loan under Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) would be disbursed within the next two weeks.

After signing the Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with the IMF under the $3 billion Standby Arrangement (SBA) programme, the ADB has again become the first multilateral lender to come forward to approve the policy loan.

According to the ADB’s announcement made on Wednesday, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved this week three projects totalling $658.8 million to help Pakistan achieve its goal of more inclusive and sustainable growth and development. The projects will focus on improving domestic resource mobilisation, rehabilitating schools damaged by the devastating August 2022 floods, and enhancing agricultural productivity to improve food security.

The Improved Resource Mobilisation and Utilisation Reform Programme will support the government in realising its ambition of achieving sustainable, broad-based, and inclusive economic growth. The $300 million policy-based loan will support the initiative’s first subprogramme, which focuses on laying the foundation for reforms to policies, laws, and institutional capacity that will improve domestic resource mobilisation and utilisation.

The ongoing Sindh Secondary Education Improvement Project will receive additional financing, a $275 million emergency assistance loan that is part of ADB’s $1.5 billion pledge of support for Pakistan’s recovery from the devastating 2022 floods. The additional financing will help reconstruct up to 1,600 flood-damaged schools using disaster- and climate-resilient and gender-responsive designs.

An $800,000 technical assistance grant will be provided to help plan and monitor the status of reconstruction in all flood-damaged schools and provide implementation support, including design features.

A concessional loan of $80 million for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Security Support Project, which is also part of ADB’s $1.5 billion pledge of support for Pakistan’s recovery from the 2022 floods, will help address climate vulnerabilities, enhance food security, and boost the livelihoods of rural farm households in the most flood-damaged districts in the province.

The project will provide essential agriculture inputs and training to smallholder farmers, including women, and improve household nutrition and women’s empowerment.