Afghanistan government to replicate PPAF projects

From the Newspaper | National | By Our Reporter 8th June, 2011

ISLAMABAD, June 7: The Afghan government has decided to replicate multiple interventions being carried out by Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund for the benefit of marginalised and ultra-poor people in several parts of the country. A three-member delegation of Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Programme is currently visiting Pakistan to get first-hand knowledge about PPAF programme for increasing sustainable microfinance (PRISM), Microfinance Innovation Outreach Programme (MIOP), Islamic financing and products as well as monitoring and evaluation practices for poverty alleviation. The Afghanistan delegation comprising Ikramullah Qureshi, Khalilullah Zafri and Shafiullah Rasikh is particularly interested in following the PPAF experience in developing Islamic and risk-based model of microfinance, a press release of PPAF said here on Tuesday. The objective of Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Project is to improve employment opportunities and income of rural men and women, and sustainability of targeted local enterprises. Over 75 per cent of the people of Afghanistan live in rural areas where agriculture is the primary activity. Lack of access to finance and business know-how, poor infrastructure, inadequate marketing and poor post-harvest practices are limiting economic development and constraining onfarm and non-farm employment opportunities, thus perpetuating poverty in rural areas. The PPAF-funded PRISM has five components of credit enhancement, equity fund, technical support/institutional strengthening fund for microfinance institutions, knowledge management & policy dialogue and programme management. In an effort to enhance the access of poor rural women and men to productive assets, skills, services and improved technologies, PPAF launched Microfinance Innovation and Outreach Program (MIOP), which has played a key role in designing, implementing and funding projects to improve the livelihood and productivity of poor people of rural areas. The objective of the programme is to improve and increase poor people`s access to a wide range of financial services and products. Set up as a fully autonomous private sector institution, the PPAF enjoys facilitation and support from the government, the World Bank, IFAD, USAID, USDA, KfW and US corporate sector. Outreach of the PPAF now extends throughout Pakistan and its micro-credit, water and infrastructure, drought mitigation, education, health and emergency response interventions have been widely recognised.