A New Development Partnership with Pakistan
4 December 2006
Image courtesy of BBC
During
his recent visit to Pakistan, the Prime Minister signed a new 10-year
Development Partnership Arrangement
 (182
kb) (DPA) between the UK and Pakistan. The Prime
Minister also announced a doubling of UK aid to Pakistan, from £236 million for
the period 2005 to 2008, up to £480 million for the period 2008 to 2011. This
new development partnership reaffirms our resolve to help Pakistan and its
people to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Government of Pakistan has made progress in fighting extreme poverty and
hunger, but very real needs remain. One in ten children die before their fifth
birthday; around eight million children do not go to school; approximately 50%
of the adult population are illiterate, two thirds of whom are women; and at the
last count in 2005, some 38 million were living below the poverty line. As part
of the DPA, the Government of Pakistan has made specific commitments to work
towards achieving the MDGs, including in health and education.
We will set out our priorities for the increased aid allocation in a new
Country Assistance Plan (CAP) for Pakistan. DFID officials are now preparing for
the consultation process. We will seek as wide a variety of views as possible
and ensure they are fed into our CAP thinking and planning. We will explore with
Government of Pakistan partners how we can provide more support to their plan to
reduce poverty, including increasing support to education and doing more on
health, and water and sanitation. We also anticipate extending the geographic
coverage of our programme to all provinces. We will consult Pakistan civil
society, Pakistan Provincial Governments, other key donors, the Pakistan
Diaspora in the UK, and other UK government departments.
Our development assistance for Pakistan, including the significant increase
just announced, is separate from the support we are providing for
post-earthquake relief and reconstruction, which totals some £124 million
following this major natural disaster in which over 70,000 people were killed.
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