KARACHI: A total of $536 million has been committed by the Unit­ed States Agency for Interna­tional Development (USAID) for various programmes in Sindh, including a project meant to improve municipal services.

This was stated by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah while talking to a delegation of USAID led by its mission director John Groarke, who met him at CM House on Monday.

The USAID has launched a $66m Sindh Municipal Services Progra­mme (MSP) aimed at improving public infrastructure and municipal services in northern Sindh. The MSP’s centrepiece is the Jacobabad Municipal Project, which is working to improve water, sanitation and solid waste infrastructure. The MSP is expected to deliver clean drinking water to more than 250,000 people. Since 2014 USAID has also partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund to support the MSP through social mobilisation and capacity development initiatives.

The chief minister said that over 80 per cent work on the Jacobabad project had been completed. He urged the USAID mission director to replicate the same programme in Johi, Mehra, K.N. Shah, Shahdadkot and Qambar Ali Khan as the original project included those five towns for improving municipal services with Jacobabad.

The mission director said he would go through the project again. However, the Sindh government would be extended technical support.

Mr Shah also discussed the economic growth and agriculture project which supports the development of livestock, vegetable and horticulture sectors in Sindh. The project is designed to increase exports by $265 million, raise income by 20pc for 16,000 producers and create 30,000 jobs. He said this was an important project and his government was paying special attention to its implementation.

The other project which came under discussion was the wind energy project for which USAID has committed $43m for the construction of transmission lines to connect wind projects to the national grid. Once completed, these transmission lines will benefit up to 2.6 million people.

They also discussed some other projects, including education, health, scholarship programme, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences (JIMS).

Under the Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP), partnering with the Sindh government USAID is providing up to $155m to increase and sustain student enrolment in schools across seven northern districts and five districts of Karachi. Under the SBEP about 100 new schools would be built and reading skills of over 200,000 children improved.

The programme would also address malnutrition. Under it the Maternal and Child Health programme was launched for $400m in 2012, supporting reproductive health and family planning as well as an innovative approach to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality and morbidity. Under the programme 21,596 people would benefit.

The JIMS is a USAID-funded 133-bed hospital which annually provides high-quality medical services to more than a million people.

The United States has supported the JPMC since 1950. The USAID completed the construction of a 60-bed fistula and OB-GYN ward in 2012 which is capable of providing care for 140,000 women and training to over 1,300 healthcare professionals every year.

Published in Dawn February 7th, 2017