PKSF’s Prosperity programme working for sustainable poverty alleviation
Finance division Senior Secretary tells webinar
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The PKSF’s Prosperity programme’s multidimensional interventions is addressing poverty and its causes in a sustainable way, Abdur Rouf Talukder, Senior Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance has said.
He said this on Wednesday while speaking at a webinar as chief guest organised to share the progress of a multidimensional extreme poverty programme, titled Pathways to Prosperity for Extremely Poor People, being implemented by Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) with joint funding from UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO; formerly DFID) and European Union, according to a statement.
If people are poor or extreme poor, it is because they lack choices, and PKSF is relentlessly working to diversify their choices and come out of extreme poverty, PKSF Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said.
Financial Institutions Division Additional Secretary Arijit Chowdhury, FCDO Development Director Judith Herbertson, and EU Head of Delegation to Bangladesh Maurizio Cian were special guests.
Popularly known as ‘Prosperity’, the 6-year programme is working to lift 1.0 million people belonging to 25 0,000 households out of extreme poverty by 2025. The programme, launched in April 2019, is covering nearly 200 unions of 43 upazilas under Kurigram, Thakurgaon, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Magura, Patuakhali, Bhola, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, and Habiganj districts.
People living in these districts face present and future climate shocks that threaten their lives and livelihoods. During the first year of the Prosperity programme, more than 30,000 extreme poor households have been brought under its coverage.
Delivering the welcome speech, PKSF Managing Director Moinuddin Abdullah hoped that the Prosperity programme will make significant contributions in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 7th Five Year Plan of the Bangladesh government.
Speaking at the webinar, Judith Herbertson of FCDO and Maurizio Cian of EU acknowledged Bangladesh’s impressive progress in poverty reduction and reiterated their commitment to support poverty alleviation programmes.
High officials of different line ministries and departments, deputy commissioners and Upazila Nirbahi Officers of the programme’s working areas, representatives from development partners and development organisations, extreme poverty experts, and academicians also spoke at the webinar.