UNDP doubles grant to Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 18. The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) has doubled its grant to Pakistan from $84 million to $168 million. This was announced at a joint press conference here by the Pakistan Finance Minister, Mr. Shaukat Aziz and the U.N. Assistant Secretary General and Director of the UNDP Bureau of Asia Pacific, Dr. Hafiz Pasha.

The grant is for different projects including poverty alleviation, governance, environment, disaster management and gender. The UNDP had provided $271 million as assistance since 1997 for different social sectors programmes, including poverty reduction, agriculture, gender equality and human resource development.

Dr. Pasha said the grant would be utilised for poverty alleviation through community empowerment in the North West Frontier Province and Punjab; through agriculture skills and infrastructure development in Balochistan, AJK and Northern Areas and through small-scale grants in Sindh.

He said tens of thousands of community organisations had been established and hundreds of thousands of people trained in income generation activities so far. Poor communities in the mountain areas of northern Pakistan had been empowered to manage their natural resources to improve their livelihoods.

The U.N. system in Pakistan had also undertaken drought assessment in 2000 and 2001 and helped mobilise relief support totalling nearly $96 million. The UNDP had provided strategic inputs in the reconstruction initiatives of the Pakistan Government, including the devolution plan, through the National Reconstruction Bureau totaling $8 million, he added.

The UNDP carried out a feasibility study, which paved the way for a major government investment for the creation of a virtual IT University. With UNDP support, a national strategic framework on HIV/AIDS had been elaborated through participatory approach. Dr. Pasha said a new trust fund, the Devolution Trust for Citizen Empowerment (DTCE) was to be established and expressed the hope that $50 million would be contributed to the trust over the next three years.

The UNDP had offered full support to the Election Commission of Pakistan in mobilising support for conducting the 2002 general election. Through the electoral support project, the UNDP would assist in creating a supporting environment for women's participation and representation in the provincial and national election due in 2002.

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Section  : International
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