Initial Assessment of Karachi Economy and Role as a Growth Center

Project Summary:

With a metropolitan population of 17 million, which is expected to rise to 28 million by 2030, Karachi contributes 20% of the GDP and nearly 45% of the national economic value-added, despite many challenges to competitiveness and livability. The Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP) 2020 lays a foundation for future policy and investment planning. The Plan is guided by principles safeguarding quality of life, promoting inclusivity, and fostering sustainability, and includes green initiatives in trans- port, drainage, solid waste management, and other sectors. The program aims to support analytical work and knowledge exchange on master infrastructure investment planning to move the KSDP along from simply a vision to a true operational business plan.    

List of Activities:

• Conducting a Rapid City Assessment that identifies the specific nature of constraints to Karachi’s livability and competitiveness, based on historical trends and projected growth over the next two decades in terms of population, economic, and spatial characteristics
• Documenting constraints to unlocking land and bringing housing on to the market, meeting the shortfall in services, increasing investments, and providing effective policies and institutions for Karachi’s sustainable growth
• Reviewing of the background studies and inputs into the preparation of the KSDP to be undertaken to identify whether additional analytic work is needed to tackle the constraints identified and mainstream principles of green growth
• Preparing a detailed investment financing plan based on the final set of initiatives (from the KSDP and supplemented by additional analytic work), which culminates in the final business plan that brings together an integrated approach for implementation of specific initiatives to make the city more livable and competitive

Outcomes:

Output 1:

• Rapid City Assessment 

Output 2:

• Evaluation of KSDP and Supplemental Studies 

Output 3:

• Investment Plan  

Output 4:

• Business Plan

Output 5:

• Implementation Mechanism

Output 6:

• Capacity Building

Outcomes:

The expected outcomes of the project include the completion of a rapid city diagnostic report, evaluation report of KSDP, additional analytic reports necessary to supplement the KSDP, an investment plan to supplement the KSDP, a business plan that reflects green growth principles, and stakeholder consultation events to obtain buy-in. The ultimate goal of the project is to support the analytical work and knowledge exchange on core themes related to master planning and infrastructure investment planning needed to move the Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP 2020) from theory into an operation-able business plan.  

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

The work will be undertaken in close coordination with the Pakistan Urban Sector Assessment and the South Asia Regional Urbanization Flagship, as well as through a partnership with the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS).