Germany provides €31m for poverty alleviation fund

ISLAMABAD:
Germany has offered over 31 million euros to Pakistan for sustainable development, infrastructure, health and education and fighting poverty through the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), informed Dirk Niebel, the German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.

He said this during a visit to the PPAF-funded integrated facilities of infrastructure, health, vocational training and potable water supply in village Sareh, on the outskirts of Islamabad, on Friday.

Niebel said that Germany, during the last two years, had provided over 54 million euros for various development projects, for marginalised communities aimed at income generation and poverty alleviation in Pakistan.

He said that Germany believed in the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the marginalised segments of Pakistani society, particularly the women, and the PPAF was one of the best models to implement these schemes for the benefit of the poor communities.


He said that it was encouraging to witness an improved level of awareness among the rural Pakistani women about their rights and their participation in the development work was also a big positive sign.

Anna Christine Janke of KfW-German Development Bank said that over 600,000 individuals would benefit from the upcoming KfW-sponsored projects, which would be implemented through the PPAF in the militancy hit province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

She said that a cut in the public sector spending in Pakistan has resulted in low income generation, increased poverty and low literacy for the country’s people.

She said that the upcoming projects would be implemented with a holistic approach so that the poor communities could improve their living standards.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 5th, 2010.
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