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KARACHI, Nov 30 (APP):Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (R) Maqbool Baqar and World Bank’s South Asia Regional Vice President Martin Raiser in their meeting discussed the $2.2 billion World Bank portfolio and decided to accelerate work on the ongoing projects by the provincial government and the World Bank would start releasing the funds so that project could be completed in time.
The meeting was held at the CM House and was attended by World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine, Draugelis Operation Manager Gilius and others.
Chief Secretary Dr Fakhr e Alam and Chairman P&D Shakil Mangnejo were part of the meeting.
The World Bank’s “Accelerated Action Plan for Reduction of Stunting and Malnutrition” in Sindh is aimed at achieving a goal of reducing stunting from 30 per cent to 15 per cent by 2026.
The CM and the visiting World Bank regional chief discussed other factors to reduce stunting. They agreed to adopt a revised theory of change that includes all the critical drivers of stunting from ‘nutrition-specific’ to include the critical environmental factors that drive a large part of the biological process underlying stunting. These include, in particular, access to safe water and sanitation and the safe management of animal and solid waste.
The chief minister said that UNICEF was supporting the Sindh government through Rolling Workplan for two years 2023-2024 with a grant of $50.573 million in the sectors of Health, Nutrition, Education, Water Sanitation, and hygiene.
The European Union has recently initiated a project for “Strengthen Local Civil Society and Community-based Organizations and their Capacity in Nutrition Sector in Sindh” with a grant of Euro 6.1 million in six districts – Sukkur, Ghotiki, Naushero Feroz, Kashmore and
The CM urged the World Bank to support Sindh in the reduction of stunting so that the province may have healthy children and productive human capital.
The World Bank team pointed out that some of their projects have been facing slow progress. At this, the CM said that due to the induction of the caretaker government, a large number of officers were transferred which might have affected the speed of the projects.
Chairman P&D Shakil Mangnejo pointed out the delay in the release of funds by the World Bank which was the main cause of the slow progress of the project. It was agreed that the P&D and the World Bank team would remove all snags and speed up the progress of the ongoing projects.