Department for International Development (DfID)

Government of Punjab and Department for International Development have partnered to implement Sub-National Governance Program. Under this Program DfID plans to provide technical assistance and funds of upto £35.6m over 4 years (2012 - 2014) improve District Government performance in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of this an amount of £ 22.10 m would be directly managed by a Management Organization to be hired by DfID.

The programme will work in six focal districts in be implemented with the provincial governments in Punjab and KPK, providing a platform for other DfID programmes. DfID has proposed a single Subnational Governance program for Punjab and KPK which shall be flexibly tailored to each province and enable comparative analysis and cross-learning.

Objectives

  • Improve management of service delivery by strengthening the evidence based decision making, and responsiveness to citizens.
  • Enhance government transparency, local accountability and openness to citizens.

SNG Porgram aims to ensure that the government services better meet the needs of poor people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab at financial level in following 6 districts:

          South Cluster         North Cluster
          Hafizabad                Sahiwal
          Mandi Bahauddin     Vehari
          Sheikhupura            Bahawalpur

This SNG program will work directly with the above mentioned six districts Governments and tackle problems common to all service delivery such as:

  • Weak planning
  • Lack of evidence on which to base policies and budgets
  • Poor staff performance management
  • Corruption
  • Inadequate accounting to citizens and legislatures

Proposed Programme Interventions in Punjab

District Technical Assistance

DfID will provide district technical assistance to help districts collect better data and evidence, increase transparency, and consult the public on key decisions, thus improving planning, budgeting and coordination to reduce corruption. It will also help the districts development of public finance reform strategy.

Setting up a District Delivery Challenge Fund

DfID will set upa district delivery challenge fund to provide performance-grants for districts to fund fund pilot initiatives to encourage districts in Punjab to innovate with ways to improve service delivery. DfID will work with the provincial government and World Bank, to pick up existing pilots, evaluating their effectiveness, tweaking where necessary and taking the most successful quickly to scale.

Encouraging  the use of Mobile Phone Technology

DfID will fund the World Bank to lead other pilots, specifically using mobile phone technology to improve transparency and accountability and trialing performance-based funding for services delivered by the private sector.

GIS Mapping

DFID will help expand Punjab’s GIS mapping capability to help government track service provision across the Province and in other provinces.

Provincial Right to Information Legislation

DFID will help develop Provincial Right to Information legislation which will enhance government transparency.

Budget

Funds for programme would be provided by DfID as a grant to be managed by a hired Management Organization for program implementation. Out of the total program size of £35.6 m, an upper limit of £22.1m has been allocated for the Management Organization, including funds for Monitoring and Evaluation for both provinces.  Approximately, 23% of this budget shall be earmarked for the District Delivery Challenge Fund.

The break down of TA amount of £11.5 million for the SNG Program to be spent in Punjab over four years of the program is detailed below:

Challenge Fund in Six Districts £2.85 million
TA in districts at divisional H/Q £1.60 million
TA for provincial reforms including PFM, that can facilitate service delivery at  district  level £3.40 million
M&E £3.60 million
(MO charges would be paid mainly out of this component)  

Implementation Arrangements

DfID has contracted an international Management Organization selected by competitive tender to deliver most of the program in partnership with province and districts, and manage a consortium of local, national and international partners.

As outlined earlier the World Bank will manage DFID funding for some pilots. It has been agreed with the DfID that a high level Steering Committee headed by the Chief Secretary will oversee  implementation of the Programme in Punjab.  This would be the same committee that will oversee World Bank and PPMR program.

Presently, an inception phase spanning over 6-12 months has been initiated and the management organization is expected to do a situation analysis and need assessment for service delivery areas to be targeted under the program. During the inception phase, as agreed with the DfID, a working group chaired by the Secretary P&D would oversee activities of the programme.

DfID envisages SNG program to further stabilise democracy in Pakistan. The desired outcome by 2016 is that the poor Punjab and KPK find services better meet their needs. It expects the programme will achieve this by:

  • Enhancing the evidence-base used by sub-national government for key decisions about service provision (a first step towards accountability)
  • Encouraging sub-national governments to be more transparent and responsive to poor people’s needs
  • Strengthening the capability of sub-national government to ensure provision of decent services to poor people

Target Departments

  • Health Department
  • Higher Education Department
  • School Education Department