Ms Ruven Menikdiwela, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Thursday acknowledged the efforts of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) for assisting the Poverty Graduation Pilot Project worth US 1.2 million dollars for Afghan Refugees and their hosting families. An asset/certificates distribution ceremony was held at Barakai Camp, Swabi under the Poverty Graduation Pilot Project for Afghan refugees and their hosting families. The ceremony marked the completion of Pilot project at Swabi, under which 900 households, including 273 women recipients have been provided with productive assets, while 100 households got provided with technical and vocational training from certified institutions. The recipients for the assets were selected by community members following formation of community organizations, participatory wealth ranking exercise followed by poverty scoring card exercise in the area. These organizations determined the most deserving households eligible for receiving the assets based on their poverty score. The pilot project has been successfully completed at Swabi. The project was funded by UNHCR and implemented by PPAF through CERD.

The initiative aims at making an effort to graduate the Afghan refugee population and their host families up the poverty scales and simultaneously providing them with sustainable livelihoods. The 21-month project, worth $1.2 million will eventually benefit 2,000 households. 70% of the people benefiting from the project are Afghan refugees, whereas 30% include host communities in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pishin, Balochistan.

The ceremony was attended by Ms Ruven Menikdiwela, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, and Dinesh Shrestha, Head, UNHCR Sub-Office, Peshawar.

Addressing the ceremony, Ms Ruven Menikdiwela said: "This is the 40th year since Afghan refugees came to Pakistan. The project that we are implementing and the results we are seeing address this protractive situation. We value our partnership with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, which has been our partner in implementing this project".

During the asset distribution ceremony, Qazi Azmat Isa expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the local community which has been hosting Afghan refugees for the past four decades.

Expressing his gratitude to the local community he said: "I would like to thank the local community who fully participated to make this project a success. The most important aspect of this project is that the community itself was fully engaged in the entire process of identifying asset recipients based on their poverty scorecard.

Furthermore, the inclusion of women in the process has ensured that both segments of the community were empowered to take the necessary action to uplift the community."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019