PESHAWAR: Six international donor agencies have agreed to finance the education sector plan of the provincial government devised for improving indicators in the education sector as well as achieving Millennium Development Goals.
In this regard, a memorandum of understanding was signed on Tuesday by officials of the NWFP government and representatives of partner agencies, raising the hopes for future foreign assistance that was on decline for a couple of years in the province, an official told Dawn.
The memorandum was signed at the Frontier House in Islamabad because international donors have not been sending their officials to Peshawar for the last one year for security reasons.
The donor agencies that signed the MoU include the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the United Nations. The Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID) and Norway would sign the agreement later, as their country representatives were not present in Pakistan, the official said.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Community, Netherlands and the World Bank were also invited to the event, but their representatives did not turn up.
These four development partners would announce their support after holding deliberations with the authorities of the NWFP elementary and secondary education department, the official quoted representatives of the donor agencies as saying.
The Italian government, he said, had also shown willingness to join the coming joint initiative of the development partners.
The Education Sector Reform Unit of the NWFP government recently chalked out the education sector plan, which focuses on improving access to education, enhancing enrolment, reducing dropout rate and improving the retention ratio up to secondary education.
Similarly, establishment of schools, improving the quality of education, governance and management of schools, tackling regional and gender disparities and promoting public-private partnership are some of the pillars of the plan.
The targets set out in the plan are aligned with the United Nations’ MDGs meant to be achieved by 2015. Per year cost of the projects identified in the education plan, the official maintained, had been estimated between Rs20 billion and Rs35 billion.
As per the agreement, he said, the donor agencies would put their resources as budgetary support at the disposal of the provincial government, which would accordingly utilise them for implementation of the projects incorporated in the education plan.
He said the objective of the MoU was to harmonise the support and cooperation of the development partners with the elementary and secondary education department for development of school education in the Frontier province.
It signified a major step towards aligning donor programmes and initiatives with the government’s education plan, thereby strengthening ownership of the government, improving coordination and creating more chances of financial and technical assistance to the province, the official added.
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