Writing Sample-Awab-June 2015

WRITING SAMPLE
M. Awab

Excerpts from

Implementation Progress Report

The World Banks Tertiary Education Support Program
Higher Education Commission Islamabad
(October, 2014 to March, 2015)

Introduction and Background

Tertiary Education Support Project (TESP) is supported by the World Bank to
assist the government of Pakistan in implementation of Mid-Term
Development Framework for Higher Education for 2011-15 (MTDF-HE II). The
aim of the project is to support the Government reforms in tertiary
education under two components: Component 1 - Program Financing, and
Component 2 - Capacity Building, Policy Design and Monitoring and
Evaluation (M&E). Component 1 consists of four subcomponents, aligned
with the Governments overall program: (i) improved fiscal sustainability
and expenditure effectiveness; (ii) enhanced quality and relevance of
teaching and research; (iii) improved equitable access; and (iv)
strengthened governance and management. Component 2 is aimed at
strengthening capacities for program implementation and M&E systems in
the tertiary education sector. It finances essential technical assistance (TA)
and capacity building activities, sequenced with the implementation of
Component 1.
In order to coordinate and provide operational support for carrying out
different activities of the Project, TESP Secretariat has been established at
the Higher Education Commission (HEC). TESP Secretariat also coordinates
with various Focal Persons from different organs of the HEC and reports the
implementation progress to the Bank.
As prescribed in the Project Appraisal Document (PAD), Implementation
progress report (IPR) is submitted to the Bank biannually. The report provides
the activities completed and/or initiated during the said period, against each
one of the DLIs and KPIs, as given in the Results Framework, and as reported
by focal persons from different components of the HEC. Also, the report
accommodates critical inputs provided by the TESP secretariat team on
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Writing Sample-Awab-June 2015

capacity building, financial performance, procurement management,

monitoring and evaluation and the status of implementation of legal
covenants.
The last IPR was submitted in October, 2014. The report was meant to feed
into the Implementation Review Mission which visited the HEC in February,
2015. Following its visits, the mission issued aide memoire and awarded the
following rating to the key indicators of project performance:
Key Project Performance
Areas
Development Objective
Implementation Progress
Financial Management
Project Management
Counterpart Funding
Procurement Management
M&E
Safeguards

Rating
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately
Moderately

Satisfactory
Satisfactory
Satisfactory
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Satisfactory
Satisfactory
Satisfactory

The table above shows that the project continued its moderately
satisfactory1 rating during the reporting period on all indicators, except for
Counterpart Funding, which refers to the Governments contribution to the
implementation of the Program in line with an agreed Medium Term
Budgetary Framework and which is beyond the control of the project
implementation agency.

Executive Summary
This report provides the implementation status of Tertiary Education Support
Program (TESP), in its fourth year of operations, and especially the progress
made during October, 2014 to March, 2015, highlighting the achievements
made on 22 indicators; 10 DLIs and 12 KPIs. It also includes the summary
financial performance and the progress made on legal covenants and the
component of technical assistance.
The HEC facilitated the HEIs and TEIs to achieve noteworthy results which
included the following: (i) 139 Quality Enhancement Cells have been
established, with 65 of them working satisfactorily, on the basis of scorecard
assessment; (ii) 40 Offices of Research Innovation and Commercialization
(ORICS) have been established in universities against the projected target of
30; (iii) 669 academic programs have been accredited surpassing the target
1 Moderately Satisfactory is the second top category in the World Bank rating
system.
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Writing Sample-Awab-June 2015

of 400; (iv) 2,325 postgraduate indigenous scholarships and 747

postgraduate foreign scholarships have been awarded which meet the
project requirements; (v) 86 curricula have been revised at undergraduate
and postgraduate levels; (vi) 13 Directorates of Distance Education (DDE)
have been established in higher education institutions; (vii) 67 technology
companies have been established and incubated in HEIs; (viii) 14,347
additional need based scholarships have been awarded, which is more than
double the target of 6000; (ix) More than 1,000 officials have participated in
staff development programs, much beyond the target of 100.
The project continues to place a strong focus on monitoring the results and
providing technical assistance to the HEC. For the purpose, a team of experts
has been brought on board, including the M&E Specialists, Procurement
Specialist, Quality Improvement Specialist, Communication Specialist,
Financial Management Specialist, Training Specialist and College
Improvement Specialist.
There are certain challenges faced by the HEC to achieve the project targets
such as: (i) Lack of financial resources impedes financial support to
additional TEIs under Public Private Partnership Program; (ii) lack of financial
resources and training opportunities hinder in optimal performance of
Business Incubation Centers; (iii) Lack of sensitivity on quality assurance led
some universities to be reluctant to adopt Institutional Performance
Evaluation Standards. Generally, the HEC divisions complained of shortage of
staff and lack of capacity to achieve some of the targets.
In order to improve the performance on MTDF, it is recommended that the
required financial resources be allocated to implement the Public Private
Partnership Program and encourage the performance of Business Incubation
Centers. Since the government has lifted the ban from recruitment, the
process of hiring the staff be expedited so that the delays, caused by
shortage of staff, can be avoided. Also, the HRM division should conduct the
training needs assessment of the existing staff and plan their training
accordingly, so that the human resource capacity gap can be overcome.