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By Shabbir Hussain
ISLAMABAD, Feb 11 (Alliance News): Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) in collaboration with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) has played a remarkable role to usher in a new era of socio-economic development and uplift of the communities in the remote areas of country.
The PPAF under the Programme for Poverty Reduction (PPR) proved to be one of the most impactful development cooperation examples for bringing a visible change in the lives of people from 14 remote and less developed districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This was reflected by the participants at the closure event of PPR ‘Celebrating the Impact of Community Driven Development,’ organized by the PPAF on Friday evening here at a local hotel.
The members of diplomatic fraternity, government, academia, civil society organizations, and the representatives of the communities that benefitted by various initiatives under PPR made their presence on the occasion.
Sharing their stories, the representatives from the beneficiary communities informed about the multi-sectoral transformation, initiatives to strengthen indigenous culture, empowering youth, and creating value chains in fisheries, dates, and olive cultivation.
Besides, developing community structures and providing quality health and education facilities to the local communities led them to achieve integrated transformation.
Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan Andreas Ferrarese said, “Italy wants to enhance cooperation and ties with Pakistan in diverse areas including economic development and cooperation. It is heartening to observe that PPAF is bringing real change in the lives of less privileged people which has been the main objective of the Italian government for lending this support to the government and people of Pakistan.”
Director AICS Pakistan Emanuela Benini was of view that the collaboration under PPR had provided target communities better access to income-generating opportunities and improved civic amenities.
She said, “AICS aspires to lay the foundation for a strong developmental network in Pakistan and the development initiatives taken under PPR were the key reflection of our commitment toward this objective.
PPAF Chief Operating Officer Nadir Gul Barech said, “I am thankful to the Italian government, the people of Italy and AICS for trusting the Pakistan government and PPAF for providing valuable support to uplift the communities living in the remote and most underserved areas of Pakistan.”
He said with the generous support of Italian government, the PPAF successfully implemented the PPR in target districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as one of the major integrated local development initiatives.
The PPR was implemented as an integrated programme focusing on social and economic development of communities at grassroots level through development of small infrastructure, provision of health and education services, skill development trainings and sustainable livelihoods opportunities for the target communities.