Pakistan - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa : Public Expenditure Review

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is one of the least-developed and crisis-prone provinces in Pakistan. Located in far north of the country, the province covers 10 percent of the total land area and is a home to 13 percent of the country's population sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Public Expenditure Review
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/18028723/pakistan-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-public-expenditure-review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16034
Description
Summary:Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is one of the least-developed and crisis-prone provinces in Pakistan. Located in far north of the country, the province covers 10 percent of the total land area and is a home to 13 percent of the country's population spread over seven administrative districts. Majority of the population (83 percent) is rural, averaging 7.6 members per household-well above the national average of 6.6. The literacy rate remains low at 49 percent with more than half of population having no access to tap water while unemployment runs at 8.5 percent. KP's relative underperformance is primarily due to low levels of growth, socio-economic underdevelopment and lack of public services compared to other provinces of Pakistan. Cognizant of the challenges to growth in KP and acting upon the assessment of Pakistan Government's Post-Crisis Needs Assessment (PCNA) of the region in October 2010, the donors agreed on a harmonized approach to meet the short- and medium-term social and economic needs of KP, including the establishment of a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF). This Public Expenditure Review (PER) of KP was undertaken in partnership with the government of KP and is one of the important outcomes of PCNA funded by the MDTF. The report on Operationalization of Post Crisis Needs Assessment (OPCNA) highlighted the need for strengthening KP's public financial management (PFM) as fundamental to improving public services and therefore the quality of life in KP. The report acknowledges the strong government ownership of reform initiatives which are taken with a view of strengthening all aspects of public finances. KP adopted a comprehensive fiscal reform program in 2001-02 based on four pillars, namely: 1) enhancing resources; 2) strengthening ex-ante and ex-post PFM reforms; 3) fiscal decentralization; and 4) instituting an output-based accountability mechanism.