Pakistan seeks fourth restructuring of $393.73mn WB-funded higher education project
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government has requested the World Bank (WB) for restructuring of the Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project worth $393.73 million for the fourth time to allow for completion of critical information technology (IT) and IT-related activities at the universities whose impact will be seen beyond the project period.
The project is in its sixth year of implementation, and its project development objective (PDO) is to support research excellence in strategic sectors of the economy, improve teaching and learning, and strengthen governance in the higher education sector.
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The Economic Affairs Division has requested a four-month extension through a letter as the project requires restructuring to complete five remaining packages under IT and IT-related services, which are at an advanced stage of contract implementation.
The additional time is sought following several disruptions and procedural delays, which delayed the delivery of IT hardware to ports and, subsequently, of deployment of related software and services packages.
An extension of the closing date is needed to enable the project to complete the establishment of critical IT activities at the universities whose impact will be seen beyond the project period.
The overall project implementation progress is rated moderately satisfactory.
Key results achieved by the project:
(i) Thirty one research grants awarded in Year 2 achieved 80% of their outcome and 28 research grants awarded in Year 3 achieved 60% of their outcome target, and nine RTTG awarded in Year 5 have achieved 50% of their outcome targets.
(ii) The National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) conducted training for 1,113 faculty and 903 higher education managers.
(iii) 50 Quality Enhancement Cell in Affiliated Colleges (QECACs) completed SARs.
(iv) Twenty affiliating universities or ACs implement the career and internship framework.
(v) 300 higher education institutions connected to the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN).
(vi) HEC developed, approved and rolled critical policies including the Undergraduate Education Policy and the Open Distance Learning Policy. Nine out of 11 intermediate results indicators have been met and two others will be met by June 30, 2025.
(vii) The disbursement as of June 10, 2025, from International Development Association (IDA) Credit is $375.70 million, including $319 million against PBCs and $56.70 million for the IPF component. The final disbursement of $12.3 million against the PBCs has been approved and is being processed. The balance of the IPF component will be disbursed in fiscal year 2026.
This restructuring will only involve the extension of the project closing date by four months to October 31, 2025. The work plan will be adjusted with the proposed closing date. There will be no changes in PDO, PDO indicators, any activities or any components of the project as a result of this restructuring. No revision of implementation arrangement and M&E mechanism will take place. There will be no modification or scale-up of any activity of the project.
The extension of the project's closing date does not involve any modifications to the current Financial Management (FM), procurement, and environmental and social safeguards arrangements, which have been deemed adequate and will continue to effectively support the project's operations. The existing FM systems, including budgeting, disbursement, accounting, and financial reporting, including the reporting frequency, will remain unchanged and will operate according to the established procedures.
The project has been restructured thrice. The first restructuring was approved on June 14, 2021, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic impacts and involved: (a) introduction of Component 6 to support continued learning for all in case of unpredicted crises and university lockdowns and provision of special funds to universities to increase their financial autonomy, (b) reallocation of funds between Components to better address ongoing needs, and (c) revision of the Results Framework to reflect the changes in activities.
The second restructuring was approved on June 15, 2023, to repurpose the unutilised funds from lapsed targets under Performance Based Condition (PBC) 1 and PBC 2 toward: (a) a new round of Rapid Technology Transfer Grants (RTTGs) focused on emergency response, climate change, extreme weather event preparedness and import replacement research (PBC 1, Component 1); (b) a new target to track RTTG outcomes (PBC 2, Component 1); and (c) an increased target for universities participating in the framework for improvement in financial autonomy (PBC 10, Component 6).
The third restructuring was completed on April 1, 2024 to: (a) extend the project closing date by 12-months to June 30, 2025; (b) adjust four PBC targets to align with implementation of activities; (c) drop two PBCs associated with activities no longer relevant and reallocate the associated US$ 4 million to support funding required for Information Technology (IT) and IT related activities and conduct a tracer study to inform labor market outcomes of higher education graduates; and (d) refine the Results Framework to reflect the activity changes, set more ambitious targets given the 12-month extension, and add a corporate scorecard indicator.
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