Pakistan
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Pakistan has a population of 150 million and the highest population growth rate in South Asia. The country has made slow progress towards achieving its Millennium Development Goals, especially those for infant mortality, child malnutrition, and primary school enrolment. Its social sectors require more resources. The country is also facing major environmental problems, including serious water shortages due to demographic pressure, deforestation and degradation of rangelands. Social inequity and governance are further issues to be addressed. Although Pakistan has experienced growth in its economy in recent years, this appears to have had little impact on poverty, which affects over a third of the population. The earthquake in 2005 caused widespread destruction, killing about 80 000 people and leaving nearly 3 million without shelter.
EU assistance 2007-2013
The overall aims of the European Commission’s support to Pakistan are to fight poverty and help the country towards sustainable growth. This will succeed only if growth is founded on political stability, social cohesion, the creation of productive and decent work opportunities, human and social development, the rule of law, and diversification of economic activity.
The EU-Pakistan Country Cooperation Strategy (2007-2013) 
[641 KB] 
sets out two main priority areas:
- Rural development and natural resources management in North West Frontier Province and Balochistan
- Education and human resources development
For the first priority, particular emphasis is on the deteriorating state of the environment and declining water resources. The objective is to improve livelihoods, income-generation and employment in rural communities, including those affected by refugees. The overall objective of the second priority is to increase access to basic education and to help improve the quality of education and human-resource development in support of the country's goal of becoming a knowledge-based growth economy.
Trade development, with a view to further integration of Pakistan into the world economy, human rights, and democratisation are also to be funded. The multi-annual indicative programme (2007-2010) [84 KB] allocates €200 million to address these priorities.
Commission programmes in Pakistan are designed to contribute towards these objectives in line with the targets set out by the Pakistani government in its five-year Medium-Term Development Framework and its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
Thematic and Asia-wide programmes also provide support to Pakistan.
Recent assistance
In the 1990s, the European Commission strengthened its support to government policy and supported social sector investment programmes, giving greater emphasis to human development and environmental management. It also provided support to smaller-scale operations with NGOs in areas such as population welfare, child labour, income-generation, drug demand reduction and rural health. More information... [58 KB]