South Asia - Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund

Challenge

Poverty remains a serious concern in Pakistan, particularly in its rural areas. Inadequate access to basic services and financial and other resources; disempowered communities, particularly the exclusion of women from the public sphere and the development process; low social capital; ethnic and religious strife; a spate of natural calamities in recent years; have all contributed towards the persistence of poverty in the country.

The World Bank funded Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Project (PPAF) is designed to reduce poverty and empower the rural and urban poor in Pakistan through the provision of resources and services to the poor, especially women. This is being achieved through an integrated approach that includes building institutions of the poor and then providing them with micro-credit loans; grants for small scale infrastructure projects; training and skill development and social sector interventions. PPAF has also contributed significantly in rebuilding lives, fostering resilience and restoring assets of the poor who have suffered from the earthquake and drought.

Impacting People and Outcomes

The PPAF program is impacting over 10 million people. PPAF has mobilized over 66,000 community organizations (COs) in 27,000 localities across 111 districts in the country. Mobilized communities are helping themselves and accessing services from civil society, government and markets. PPAF’s investment in building institutions of the poor, that gives voice, empowerment and nurtures social capital and trust amongst communities is resulting in:

- increased collective and self-help initiatives;
- increased incomes;
- increased food consumption;
- increased expenditure on utilities;
- increased assets acquisition including household repair; and
- increased social outcomes including improved female mobility and their enhanced social status. (All verified through third party evaluations).

PPAF mobilized communities is also leading to their political empowerment. Community members have contested local government elections and more than 500 members have been elected.

Impacting Services

Infrastructure: More than 13,000 small scale village-based projects have been identified, constructed and maintained by communities’ right across the country benefiting nearly 6 million people. These projects mainly include drinking water supply schemes, drainage and sanitation, irrigation, roads, culverts and small bridges. PPAF is also doing more innovative schemes that include: Integrated Areas Up-gradation Projects, Drought Mitigation Projects and Technological Innovative Projects, including Micro-Hydels, Reverse Osmoses Plants, Drip Irrigation, and Solar Energy etc. Besides providing social benefits and improving the rural environment these projects have saved significant amounts in health related expenses in addition to providing job opportunities for local communities. PPAF supported projects are labor intensive and have generated significant amounts in wages.

Microfinance: 1.5 million micro-credit loans, (average loan-size US$ 150) provided by PPAF, benefiting nearly 9 million people. Over the last 7 years PPAF has driven the microfinance sector growth from 60,000 borrowers to more than 1.25 million active borrowers in the sector.

Skill Development & Capacity-Building: Over 200,000 people trained by PPAF in various skills including management, financial, mechanical and technical skills, water conservation, agriculture, horticulture, livestock, and marketing etc.

Health & Education (a recent pilot intervention): nearly 100 new education and health facilities opened by PPAF in the rural areas providing high quality services and benefiting primarily women and girls.

Earthquake Restoration and Rehabilitation: Over100,000 houses and 300 schemes being reconstructed in the earthquake affected areas, with a special focus on the vulnerable, and disabled. Nearly 20,000 people trained in earthquake resistant construction methods, directly resulting in over 70% compliance with earthquake standards for all houses under construction. PPAF is also regularly involved in relief work, including for the earthquake victims and more recently the flood affectees; and has also initiated a special program for the fragile coastal areas.

Impacting Policy

Impacting Policy: PPAF’s institutional mechanism is seen as a best practice public-private partnership model; with its solid governance structure, private sector management and transparent funding mechanism and is being replicated in other Government programs that are trying to deliver services to the poor. These replications range from education delivery in Balochistan, to rural telecom services across the country. Social Mobilization has been mainstreamed in public policy and is now part of the Poverty Reduction Policy and the Mid-term Development Framework of the Government.

PPAF has moved beyond being just a project and is now considered the private sector arm of the Government’s poverty alleviation agenda. The massive earthquake reconstruction work that the Government has assigned it, speaks of the trust and confidence that it has in the institution.

PPAF’s investment in civil society (it has 70 civil society partners across the country) has resulted in a new found confidence and greatly enhanced capacities and capabilities of the sector to do much more for the poor. It has also enabled them to leverage support from provincial and local governments; commercial banks and other donors.

Lessions Learnt & Remaining Challenges

Investing in building institutions of the poor that are inclusiveness; participatory; and well governed has high pay-offs; for it builds their confidence and social capital, gives them voice and empowers them to participate as active and informed citizens in the development and political process. It ensures better provision of services and delivers far more profound and sustainable development outcomes.

PPAF’s long term strategy is to cover all the villages and hamlets in the poorest districts of Pakistan through a comprehensive range of activities. There will be a major effort to build institutions of the poor in these districts, build their capacity and provide occupational skills training leading to exponential growth of micro-enterprises and meeting the key infrastructure needs of these villages.

The key challenges ahead include: ensuring that the institutions of the poor continue to be underpinned by the core values of inclusiveness, participation and good governance; the outreach of micro-credit in a potentially huge market; continuing support of the government and donors to this pro-poor agenda and meeting the expectations and galloping demands of the poor; and linking in a more meaningful and productive manner to the local, provincial and federal government structures and programs.

Additional Resources

- Pakistan Emergency Earthquake Recovery Project: This reconstruction is supported through housing reconstruction grants from the Pakistan government – a program partly financed by the World Bank through the Emergency Recovery Project (ERP).

- World Bank Program in Pakistan: Website maintained by the World Bank Office in Islamabad, a launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in the country (strategy, projects, publications, etc.)

- Analysis and Research on Pakistan: Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on Pakistan, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research on other South Asian countries.

South Asia: Development Data
A wide range of social and economic measures on South Asia, including links to the World Bank's most important online development databases. (Read More »)

South Asia: Analysis and Research
Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on South Asia, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research on other South Asian countries. (Read More »)

World Bank Program in South Asia
Launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.(Read More »)