Project launch: K-P, German govt join hands for social uplift

60,000 people in K-P, Fata to benefit in three years.

A newly-launched poverty alleviation project will benefit an estimated 600,000 people over the next three years, said a press release on Friday.

The project has been financed by Germany at a cost of Rs4 billion through the German Development Bank and will be implemented by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF).

A ceremony to mark the project launch was held at a hotel in Islamabad on Friday.

The three-year-long project will be implemented in five districts: Swabi, Buner, Charsadda, Chitral and Dera Ismael Khan.

Its objective is to increase access to and sustainable utilisation of social and economic infrastructure, creating employment and income-generation opportunities for the poor and strengthening of local civil society and enhanced participation of population in the decision making process.
The project also aims to prepare communities for disasters.

The districts have been selected on the basis of their low human development index and high food insecurity. They are also prone to natural disasters and vulnerable to poverty due to difficult terrain, geographical location, small landholdings and limited economic opportunity.

Under the project, small scale community-based infrastructure schemes such as drinking water, irrigation, sanitation and drainage, roads, culverts, bridges, slope stabilisation, draught mitigation and flood management will be rehabilitated. Renewable energy is also an important component of the design.

Provincial government officials, especially those in the health department, will be trained and community-based health management committees will be strengthened.

The project also aims to equipment basic health units with laboratories and medicines. Teachers’ training, and additional staffing for government primary schools are also integrated in the project.

K-P Governor Barrister Masood Kausar said that the step will not only help in poverty alleviation, but would also open up new vistas of opportunities for the poor of K-P and the Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.