| The World Bank’s South Asia Region strategy has two pillars, accelerated growth and faster human development. Both require new ideas and approaches as much as new money.
Accelerating growth will require addressing the region’s vast urban and rural infrastructure needs, needs that have been ignored for lack of resources and effective policy frameworks that could promote public-private partnerships. South Asia is the least urbanized region in the world but already has five mega-cities with more than 10 million people; and it is the only region that has no city that can provide 24x7 piped water. In India, private investment in infrastructure has remained well under the projected 2 percent of GDP. Other deficiencies in the region’s investment climate also need addressing, including corruption and red tape. In forging public-private partnerships to meet these needs, our strategy is not simply to help in building new infrastructure assets but, more important, in building institutions that can maintain them.
Faster human development has different meanings for different parts of South Asia. In Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and parts of India such as Kerala, where basic goals such as universal primary enrolment have been achieved, the focus is on improving quality. In other parts of the region, such as Pakistan, there has to be a concerted effort to meet these basic goals, especially for women. In all cases, in supporting public expenditures for faster human development, our strategy emphasizes increasing the accountability of service providers and policymakers to poor people.
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