Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Justice Abdul Razak A Thahim on Monday said that Saarc countries are making steady efforts to achieve socio-economic progress and reduce poverty in the region.
Inaugurating a training course on "Management of Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes" organised by SAARC Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC), the Minister said the member states have initiated number of poverty alleviation programs, increase employment and income opportunities for the poor household particularly rural poor. He further said the government of Pakistan has implemented "Khushhal Pakistan Program" across the country to provide social safety nets to poorest of the poor and destitute.
In the spirit of SAARC Social Charter agreed in the 12th SAARC Summit, the Minister said, the plan of action launched by the Prime Minister, is another step of the government towards its commitment to reduce poverty in the region.
Abdul Razak Thahim said in recent days political and economic relations in South Asian region have improved significantly and hoped that the countries are now more eager to reap the growth benefits of regional economic co-operation for more than a billion people in this region. "The emerging environment in the region is expected to promote better political and economic ties among neighbours, especially India and Pakistan, just like the European Economic Community (EEC), which joined France and Germany in to a tight economic union and made future conflicts between them very costly", the Minister added.
He said it has been empirically witnessed that reforms in agriculture and rural development have accelerated the reduction in rural poverty in many countries adding the government of Pakistan has taken a number of steps in this regard. Razak Thahim said the survival of the majority of rural population is mainly on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood, either directly, as producer or hired workers, or indirectly in sectors, which derive their existence from farming activities.
About training course, the Minister said it is encouraging to note that SAARC through this e-training course has taken initiative to enhance knowledge and skills of the participants to manage and implement rural poverty alleviation projects/programmes effectively by using various techniques.
Thahim said it is indeed a great satisfaction that SAARC is strengthening its institutional capacity under its umbrella such as the "Human Resource Development Centre". The Centre is playing a key role in bringing the people closer to think on common problems and find pragmatic solutions and based on practical experiences.
The primary objective of the training program was to create managerial capacity in the SAARC member states to manage rural poverty alleviation programs.
The training would allow participants to enhance their managerial skills and capabilities to effectively manage rural poverty alleviation programs. Estimate financing requirements and develop monitoring and evaluation mechanism of these programs. The above course was attended by participants from SAARC Member States including Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Director SHDC, Dr Muhammad Aslam Khan and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.