Pakistan signs $19.85m COVID-19 grant deal with the World Bank

The government of Pakistan and the World Bank yesterday signed a grant agreement worth $19.85 million. Entitled Covid-19 Response, Recovery and Resilience in Education Project, the grant aims to boost the nation’s education sector during the second wave of the coronavirus.

Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed signed the grant agreement on behalf of the government of Pakistan, while Najy Benhassine, country director at World Bank, signed the grant agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar was present at the grant agreement ceremony as well.

The project is aimed at boosting and supporting federal and provincial actions in the education sector to better respond to and recover from the Covid-19 crises in the short term. Furthermore, it aims to lay the foundation for resilience to face future crises, with a focus on disadvantage areas and vulnerable populations.

The project’s interventions will help the government to ensure learning continuity in the country through expansion of national distance learning content and distribution of learning material in lagging areas, protect the students’ and teachers’ health safety and wellbeing, designing and implementing distance learning competency standards, promote safe schools, support teachers and students to prepare for the recovery through delivery of teacher training and better coordination across provinces.

Mr. Bakhtyar thanked the World Bank country management for extending their continuous support to the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic issue, especially with regards to the continuity of learning in the country.

The World Bank assured its continuous support to the government of Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives.