& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

WB funds rise despite Padma bridge hiccups

Star Business Report
The World Bank's lending to Bangladesh rose over the past four years despite strained relations between the multilateral lender and the government over the Padma bridge funding.
Also, improvements have been seen in various projects financed by the WB, reveals a mid-term review of the bank's 2011-2014 country assistance programme.
The results of the review, conducted jointly by the government of Bangladesh and the WB, were shared at a programme at the Planning Commission office yesterday.
A third-party monitoring and evaluation report on some projects was also presented at the event. Manusher Jonno Foundation, which promotes human rights and good governance, prepared the report.
The amount of fund release may rise about 60 percent to $800 million in fiscal 2012-13, compared to the previous year, according to the government and WB estimates.
The WB disbursed $500 million in fiscal 2011 -12, a rise of 11.11 percent from the previous year.
Disbursements are at record levels in the first half of fiscal 2013 which bodes well for the full year if the pace can be maintained," the WB said in a statement.
It said the bank and the Bangladesh government found progress from the baseline for 76 percent of programme indicators, with another 14 percent showing no change and 7 percent showing deterioration.
This is an improvement over the previous year, with a notable upswing in data availability for indicators from only 56 percent to an impressive 97 percent, it said.
“It gives me immense pleasure that the
government and the World Bank were able to deliver results in most of the areas in our strategy," said Ellen Goldstein, WB's country director for Bangladesh.
"We have piloted innovative approaches and scaled up where wehaveseenmeasurableresults."
Positive results were measurable for an array of programmes, with particularly good results achieved at all levels of the education
system, in the provision of health, population and nutrition services, she said.
Public expenditure management and community participation and empowerment also showed progress, according to the WB.
Goldstein said the bank scaled up its support to solar home systems remarkably, finding its success.
What started as a project to install 20,000 systems per year is now installing 60,000 new systems every month in rural areas, making this one of the fastest growing solar home system programmes in the world, she said.
Under the WB's country assistance programme, the lender has made commitments to provide $4.3 billion for 33 ongoing projects.
Of the money, a total of $1.1 billion has been disbursed so far, said Arastoo Khan, additional secretary of Economic Relations Division, in a presentation.
Khan, however, said four projects are at risk. Performances of projects relating to urbanisation, water and sanitation, social protection and environmental degradation are also good, accordingto the review.
But projects for infrastructure development, agriculture and food security and disaster preparedness are moderate, said Lisandro Martin, senior operations officer of the WB.
The official, however, said sluggish structured reforms have raised concerns over enhancing competitiveness, with Bangladesh's ranking in Doing Business
report falling in the last three years.
There has also been deterioration in the overall governance environment, he said.
The weakening of governance signifies less available credit from International Development Association, the WB's concessional arm.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said the government, in general, appropriately utilised the WB funds for the public projects.
She said the utilisation of the WB funds increased people's access to health and education services, safe drinking water and economic opportunity. The multifunctional shelters saved thousands of lives in the recent cyclones, she said.
"However, there are obviously certain gaps. The focus on beneficiary satisfaction, quality and sustainability of delivered public infrastructure and services in some cases needs further attention," Shaheen Anam said.
"The maintenance of rural roads and multi-purpose shelters is an issue," she said, adding that land acquisition and compensation also came as an issue as there is some dissatisfaction over how this was done.