📋 Tender Overview
Project Name
Sindh Nursing and Health Workforce Strengthening Project
Project Number
56228-001
Country / Economy
Pakistan
Project Status
Proposed
Project Type / Modality of Assistance
Loan
Source of Funding / Amount
Loan: Sindh Nursing and Health Workforce Strengthening Project
Concessional ordinary capital resources lending US$ 100.00 million
Sector / Subsector
Health / Health sector development and reform
Gender
Description
The project will support the nursing and allied health sectors in Sindh Province, to strengthen the quality of nursing sector performance, and quantity of health human resources. The project outcome is: Availability of sufficiently trained and qualified health workforce with a focus on women's empowerment promoted. The project has three outputs including: (i) Governance, management, and planning of nurses and allied health professionals strengthened, (ii) nursing and allied health education facilities enhanced and; (iii) nursing and allied health professional education and competencies enhanced. The modality is an investment project loan. The project is aligned with the Pakistan Nursing & Midwifery Policy Framework (20252034) to strengthen HRH through improved regulations, accreditation standards, and targeted incentives to enhance retention and workforce sustainability. The project project is also aligned with the strategic objectives of Asian Development Bank's (ADB) country partnership strategy for Pakistan, 2021-2025, to build resilience, improve economic management, and boost competitiveness.
Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy
Pakistan was identified by the World Health Organization in 2006 as one of 57 countries with a crisis in human resources for health (HRH). Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world with an inverse ratio of nurses to doctors, with more doctors than nurses. As the second largest province in Pakistan, Sindh has a population of 56.3 million people (accounting for 23% of the country's population), which is projected to grow to 95.7 million by 2050 given its annual growth rate of 2.41%. Projections in Sindh show that at current nursing levels , and current nursing production levels, the expected gap in nurses will be over 164,008 nurses by 2030. The nursing and allied health sector in Sindh struggles with governance and management challenges and substandard quality of education, in terms of teaching methods, faculty, and infrastructure. Existing nursing and allied health college infrastructure is dilapidated with minimal maintenance of the facilities and equipment. This historical underinvestment in nursing facilities has led to compromised quality of education as well as less attractiveness to enter the profession. The insufficient retraining and refresher trainings for educators also compromises quality since there is no mechanism to ensure educators remain relevant and continue to update their knowledge and skills.
Impact
Improved health sector p
