The World Bank’s (WB) Economic Revitalization Project has provided funds to pandemic-hit small businesses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), resulting in the direct and indirect creation or restoration of over 13,000 jobs.
It also provided matching grants to 2,723 SMEs, of which 206 are owned by women.
The bank’s latest report, ‘South Asia & the World Bank: Stories of Resilience & Recovery,’ revealed that COVID-19 had aggravated Pakistan’s underlying health challenges such as malnutrition, low immunization rates, and maternal mortality. The closure of all non-essential businesses in April 2020 and the disruption of local supply chains hindered the already-struggling micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) besides threatening jobs, especially those in the informal sector.
The Economic Revitalization of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Project (ERKP) is financed via a multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) and provides matching grants to crisis-affected MSMEs. In doing so, it benefits many small businesses, including private schools, tour operators, and salons. The pandemic led to the restructuring of the ERKP in June 2020 to align it with the provincial government’s social and economic strategy for coping with COVID-19.
WB offered flexibility in the matching grants program under the ERKP so the clients could process the grant applications from the pandemic-affected MSMEs on a priority basis to support the immediate restoration of jobs. The project cost $39 million (a grant from the Multi-donor Trust Fund for Crisis Affected Areas of KP/ Fata/Balochistan).
Matching grants for 15 SMEs affected by COVID-19 were approved in November 2020. The project also procured and deployed 55 ventilators, personal protective equipment, and nebulizers to health facilities across the province between June-October 2020.
