[Pakistan] UK Pledges more 236m pounds to Pakistan for Poverty Alleviation Programmes

From On Line News Pakistan

British High Commissioner to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant has said United Kingdom (UK) will give 236 million pounds to Pakistan over the next three years for poverty alleviation programmes.

He went on to say that the pledged amount would help bolster income of the poor, improving delivery of education and health population services to the poor and greater accountability of the state to its citizens.

"The UK government’s department for International Development (DFID) is committing 10 million pounds to the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) phase 11 in Pakistan to improve the quality of life of poor people in Pakistan," he stated this while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the RSPN 11 inception here on Tuesday.

He said that DFID had previously contributed to the RSPN phase 1 to the tune of 11.3 million pounds and that phase had been completed successfully. "Our purpose is to mobilize society and the state to meet the development needs of people in Rural Support Program (RSP) areas," he added.

He informed that in the last three years DFID’s development cooperation with Pakistan had increased substantially and financial we expected to spend around 7.7 billion rupees and had so far committed 48.5 million pounds out of 58 million pounds pledged towards relief work in quake-hit areas.

High commissioner said that British government was committed to help Pakistan to counter the poverty in the country elevating the living standards of the "UK total aid pledged for earthquake victims has reached 200 dollars," he added.

poor by providing basic facilities of life and commitments for the alleviation of poverty programmes was the proof.

He said that DFID’s programme in Pakistan would focus its efforts on three strategic outcomes reflecting both the key themes of the government of Pakistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and these outcomes included increased income of the poor, improved delivery of education and health population services to the poor and greater accountability of the state to its citizens.

He maintained that RSPN and its members had played an important role in bringing people and decision-makers closer for sustainable development at the grassroots level.

"RSP’s are alive to the ground realities and were one of the first few organizations that quickly mobilized to start relief and rehabilitation activities after the devastating earthquake of October 8, 2005 and for these reasons DFID has been supporting their programmes for over two decades," he said.

He said that RSPN was one of the influential policy advocacy, capacity building and advisory bodies in Pakistan that was established as a support and coordination for the Rural Support Programmes but had broadened its scope to undertake pro-poor policy advocacy with federal, provincial and district governments.

Head DFID in Pakistan Dr. Yousuf Samiullah said that we were focussing on improving the living standards of the poor in Pakistan and priority was being given on improved delivery of health and education facilities to the masses.

He said that DFID was working for the betterment of the people in Pakistan focussing on enhancing the capacity building of the institutions to boost their performance to ensure the provision of services to the poor.