Multi Donor Trust Fund: Danish govt injects $5m

The institute’s total commitment to Pakistan runs into $164.6 million.

ISLAMABAD:

For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Balochistan, news of countries willing to invest in their development is a breakaway from the regular plethora of negative news coming out of there.

The Danish government and the World Bank signed an agreement on Friday which states that the former will contribute a sum of $5million for developmental initiatives in the regions through the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), an institute established in 2010 to help an estimated 2 million displaced people.

The fund is financing 11 projects that support local services, growth and job creation while its overarching principles support reconstruction, rehabilitation, reforms and other interventions needed to build state-citizen trust and create an environment that ensures sustainable development.



The fund works through provincial governments of K-P and Balochistan, and the FATA Secretariat on needs prioritised by them and based on the framework provided in the Post Crisis Needs Assessment (PCNA).

“The Fund has been a coordinated effort in supporting the three regions in their efforts to uplift their communities and help them prosper,” said Jesper Moller Sorensen, the ambassador of Denmark. The MDTF is also an important resource mobilisation mechanism to an area, which has been affected the most by the militancy crisis.”

So far, the fund has been used in efforts such as the rehabilitation of the Swat provincial highway, strengthening of governance structures to facilitate the implementation of the PCNA programme and institutional support to institutions including the K-P Judicial Academy among others. Rehabilitation of small and medium enterprises and off-grid solar lighting projects has also been sponsored by the MDTF.

The fund is administered by the World Bank and has eleven donor countries: Australia, Denmark, European Union, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, UK, and the US.

World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Reynold Duncan thanked the Danish government fortheir  continuous commitment to development in Pakistan.

Denmark had also contributed $7.1 million to the fund in 2010 to supports rehabilitation efforts in Pakistan’s western areas and with the latest contribution; the MTDF now has commitments totalling $164.6 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2013.