1m people to be lifted out of extreme poverty
The Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) yesterday rolled out a Tk 673 crore project to lift 10 lakh people out of extreme poverty within six years.
The Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People (PPEPP) project was formally launched at a programme at the PKSF Bhaban in Dhaka.
The project will be implemented through 20 partner organisations of the state-run organisation in 150 unions under 13 districts, according to a statement from the PKSF.
Initially, the first phase of the project will be implemented from 2019 through 2025 with funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK and the European Union. The piloting will take place in the first year of the project.
The official website of the project, www.pksf.ppepp.org, was also launched on the occasion.
The project will work towards creating pathways out of extreme poverty for the extremely poor households by addressing multidimensional aspects of poverty, according to the website.
It will aim to deliver results and higher level changes through six interrelated and multidimensional components: livelihoods (resilience building and value-chain development); nutrition and health; community mobilisation; market development; policy advocacy; and life-cycle grant pilot.
Speaking at the launch, Md Ashadul Islam, senior secretary to the financial institutions division under the finance ministry, said the government was determined to bring down the extreme poverty rate down to 8.9 percent by 2020.
According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016, about 21 million people live in extreme poverty in Bangladesh and around three quarters of them are in rural areas.
Islam expressed his hope that the PPEPP project would play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 1, which aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030.
He said the Rohingya refugee crisis and the impacts of climate change were two major burdens for the economy of Bangladesh.
Judith Herbertson, head of the DFID Bangladesh, said economic growth does not always reflect the real picture of development.
Inequality, malnutrition, and climate change impacts are some of the acute problems Bangladesh is facing today. The UK will continue to support Bangladesh in these areas, she said.
Maurizio Cian, head of cooperation of the EU Delegation to Bangladesh, said discrimination was one of the biggest challenges facing economic development.
PKSF Managing Director Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah said the PKSF has so far supported at least six crore people in the country, directly or indirectly.
Comments