Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) cumulative operational activities entail over 7.1 million micro-credits with 59 percent loans to women and 80 percent to rural areas (with 100 per cent recovery rate). Over 33,000 educational, health, water and infrastructure projects have been completed. The PPAF has also provided productive assets to 63,000 (47 percent women) poorest of the poor, according to PPAF CEO.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Thursday, Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO of the PPAF shared the latest data on the outreach and operational activities of the Fund. In terms of its output - PPAF's outreach extends all over Pakistan as it has partnered with over 120 organisations working in over 99,000 villages/settlements with more than 125,000 community organisations and 414,000 credit/common interest groups at the grass roots level in 121 districts. Over 17,000 skill development and managerial training events were organized for 918,000 trained individuals, of which 51 percent were women.
In practical terms, the PPAF facilitates access to funds through on-lending funding and grants. On-lending funding is available for provisioning of microfinance and enterprise development through partner organisations based on a thorough analysis of their ability to manage funds and demand from the field. Grant assistance is provided, also through partners, for the purposes of supporting communities to achieve their identified developmental objectives and outcomes, the CEO of the PPAF said.
He said the grants of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) focus on integrated approaches that use social mobilisation/institutional development as the base for entering a specific village or union council, accompanied by one or more programmes including livelihoods, health, education and community infrastructure.
The CEO of the PPAF said we ensure that our work positively impacts social inclusion, gender, and environment and have created mandates which require the active participation of the poorest households, women and people with disabilities in the community institutions that are created.
He said the PPAF is a premier national institution that has built up its credibility, track record and strategic position over time. Operational since 2000, we are registered under the Companies Act as a not-for-profit and have a robust governance structure. We have extensive national outreach, and work in the most remote and marginalized areas across the four provinces and other regions. We have taken community-driven development to scale through our work with 120 partner organisations across the country. We have also built the capacity of civil society organisations in a way that no one else has done.
From a different perspective, the PPAF also has the ability to crowd-in investments, convene alliances, partnerships and relationships with various entities be it the federal government, provincial governments, expatriate communities, global research and academic organisations as well as national and international organisations.
About the success story of the Fund, Qazi Azmat Isa said PPAF has had the distinction of being a sector developer as it has played an integral role in creating the ecosystem for microfinance in the country. When we started there were only 5-6 organisations catering to 60,000 microfinance clients. Today there are over 2 million clients and 60 microfinance institutions including banks - and there is an acknowledgement that our work with the State Bank, SECP and the Pakistan Microfinance Network has created a very strong sector.
Isa further highlighted that the PPAF promotes an effective approach to poverty alleviation, which is aligned closely with Pakistan's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We work with institutions of the poor that exist at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid to empower them to make a sustainable dent in poverty.
PPAF is dedicated to reducing poverty all over Pakistan. Under our current strategy we have identified four levels of priority districts for our grant-funded interventions, based on objectively assessed classifications (using the SPDC Human Development Index (HDI) scores and the Food Security Index of the WFP), he explained.
Over the years, a substantial amount of fund was provided as loan for microfinance with PPAF as the apex body assuming the entire responsibility of returning them timely to the government. This novel approach limited the risk for the donors and the government while allowing a specialised entity to focus on expanding the scope and outreach of microfinance services in the country.
As a result, in 2013-14, the Economist Intelligence Unit stated Pakistan ranked third best in the world in the enabling environment for microfinance. This ranking took into account two broad categories: Regulatory Framework and Practices, which examines regulatory, and market-entry conditions, and Supporting Institutional Framework, which assesses business practices and client interaction.
Other than the obvious advantages of having the ability to specialise and focus action, the apex body is also able to respond effectively and immediately to natural disasters, he further said.
About the governance of PPAF, Qazi Azmat Isa stated that the PPAF has a Board of Directors of which 8 members are drawn from the general body and 3 members of the BoD are government nominees. The Board is mandated to determine the direction and scope of activities of the organisation. Regulatory oversight is provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. There are also three board sub-committees related to audit, compensation and risk.
All of PPAF's programmes reflect our mission to serve as a facilitator, helping to alleviate poverty in Pakistan through empowering poor people by providing equitable access to opportunities for increased incomes and improved quality of life. Our core values are the foundations of the way we work and, while our intervention vary from community to community, the values of democratic governance, transparency and accountability, social inclusion and sustainability remain an integral part of our work, Qazi Isa added.
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