WB transfers $615m for flood-relief work.

The World Bank has diverted $615 million from ongoing slow moving projects towards rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas, which Pakistan was unable to use due to multiple issues hindering implementation on these schemes.

The Washington-based lender had informed the Climate Resilient Pakistan Conference, Geneva, this week that it would contribute $2 billion towards relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the areas affected by floods. However, it is not new money, as the World Bank has already approved projects or it diverted funds from the schemes that were moving slow and the lender was considering cancelling those loans.

Of the $2 billion pledges that the World Bank announced at the Geneva conference, $615 million was taken out of schemes that had already been approved but were facing implementation delays.

This fact had also been highlighted by World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region Martin Raiser at the Geneva Conference. He had stated that for immediate relief, $357 million was repurposed from the existing portfolio, supporting cash transfers, procurement of tents and emergency needs, as well as small urgent rehabilitation works.

In addition to that, Raiser told the gathering of the lenders and the donors that another $258 million was mobilised from existing projects for reconstruction, totaling $615 million of repurposed funds.

Also, on December 19, 2022, the WB had approved $1.3 billion worth of projects to support the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction process. These operations, some prepared under emergency procedures, were aligned with the priorities and principles outlined in the government's Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, known as the 4RF framework.

At the Geneva conference, Pakistan had received at total $9.7 billion worth of pledges, including $2 billion that the WB had already given in various forms.

Addressing a news conference at his house after returning from Geneva, the jubilant Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had said that the pledges had beat the government expectations and if he disclosed the internal very low expectations, people might have hit the roof.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said that over 90% of the total pledges were in the shape of loans.

The WB also plans to approve some new projects in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab that would bring additional resources to support the reconstruction across all affected...