New funding partnership with World Bank by Dec

The World Bank is expected to provide over $2 billion annually to Pakistan for five years under its next Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), which will likely be finalised by December. This was indicated to journalists on Tuesday by a World Bank team led by Country Director Najy Benhassine that also confirmed that two years after the devastating floods in 2022, only 104 bank accounts have been opened in Balochistan against an estimated 250,000-280,000 potential beneficiaries of the $213 million (about Rs60bn) Integrated Flood Resilience and Adaptation Project. Responding to a question about the World Bank’s concessional lending window to Pakistan under the Inter­national Development Assistance (IDA) for the future, Mr Najy said he did not have exact information about allocations for the next CPF that would be finalised in December but hoped it would remain more or less around the same level as in the current 2022-26 CPF.