Government of the Punjab is implementing the 5-year Punjab Cities Governance Improvement Project (PCGIP) with financial assistance from the World Bank in five major districts including Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan. The project is focused on strengthening the governance system in partner City District Governments (CDGs) and entities for improved government service delivery.

PCGIP is a USD 150 million, five-year results based project. The PCGIP has evolved from a comprehensive urban sector dialogue between the World Bank and the provincial government over the last several years. The project builds on the policy reforms already undertaken by GoPunjab, and focuses on the stage 2 of the urban agenda: strengthening urban governance – the institutions and management systems.

The dialogue has centered on a review of the province-led reform process aiming to improve urban management; remove impediments at the operational and structural levels; and plug any gaps that might exist in terms of monitoring and control mechanisms required for transparent and streamlined operations at the city level. The urban agenda has supported several critical reforms, and the GoPunjab now seeks to foster results, especially at the city level. There is a general agreement between the World Bank and GoPunjab that any major increase in resources for urban areas needs to focus on the results that can be achieved by strengthening the planning, expenditure and accountability frameworks. The achievement of the development objective will then help the provincial government and cities to address the third stage of GoPunjab’s urban strategy, i.e. to improve delivery of municipal services in the medium to long term on a more sustainable basis.

The project utilizes a results based approach and, consistent with this focus, the disbursement decision will be based on achievement of pre-specified results, referred to as Disbursement linked Indicators (DLIs), determined in partnership with the government. The DLIs reflect priority elements in furthering the government’s urban agenda, critical at the provincial level, within the existing legislative, regulative and policy framework of the government. They include intermediate outcomes, incremental steps and results contributing to improved efficiency and effectiveness during and beyond the project.

The PCGIP project development objectives include providing support to the Province of Punjab’s cities in the following major areas:

• Strengthening systems for improved planning, resource management, and accountability, and,

• Improving the Province of Punjab’s capacity to respond promptly and effectively to an Eligible Crisis or Emergency.