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Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled nearly US$40 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. The first economist who had invented the idea of microloans was Jonathan Swift in the 1720s. Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983 by their current Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation."
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private, not-for-profit international development agency, which was founded in 1967 by Shah Karim Al Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, the 49th Hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. AKF seeks to provide long-term solutions to problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ill health in the poorest parts of South and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa, and the Middle East. In these regions, the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal and resource poor areas are given particular attention. The Foundation's activities often reinforce the work of other sister agencies within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). While these agencies are guided by different mandates pertaining to their respective fields of expertise, their activities are often coordinated with one another in order to "multiply" the overall effect that the Network has in any given place or community. AKF also collaborates with local, national and international partners in order to bring about sustainable improvements of life in the 14 countries in which it implements programmes. The Foundation's head office is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of both commercial and non-profit ventures. It was first established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of the organizations in the Grameen group have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it began attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.
Drinking water supply and sanitation in Pakistan is characterized by some achievements and many challenges. In 2020, 68% Pakistanis, 72% Indians, 54% Bangladeshi had access to the basic sanitation facilities. Despite high population growth the country has increased the share of the population with access to an improved water source from 85% in 1990 to 92% in 2010, although this does not necessarily mean that the water from these sources is safe to drink. The share with access to improved sanitation increased from 27% to 38% during the same period, according to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation. There has also been considerable innovation at the grass-root level, in particular concerning sanitation. The Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi and community-led total sanitation in rural areas are two examples of such innovation.
Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services—which include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. It provides paths to enhance inclusiveness in economic growth by enabling the unbanked population to access the means for savings, investment, and insurance towards improving household income and reducing income inequality.
Strengthening Participatory Organization is the largest rights-based national support organization in Pakistan working since 1994 to strengthen and support community organizations and public interest institutions for promotion of democratic governance, social justice, peace and social harmony. SPO engages civil society networks, faith-based organisations and groups representing a wide range of stakeholders.
International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF) is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to linking Canadian and Muslim communities with overseas development projects, both humanitarian emergency assistance and long term development projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Americas, based on Islamic principles of human dignity, self-reliance, and social justice.
The Public-Private Alliance Foundation (PPAF), a non-profit organization based in New York, works with collaborators to support teaching and fieldwork opportunities on solar cooking and bio-digesters for biogas and garden fertilizer in Haiti. The Public Private Alliance Foundation (PPAF) promotes the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and uses a business approach for poverty alleviation while focusing on renewable energy, public health, and entrepreneurship; this is achieved through projects and seminars involving multi-stakeholder cooperation with both USA and Haitian based organizations. As a special focus, PPAF builds evidence to increase the impact of innovations for clean cooking in Haiti. Most families in Haiti depend on charcoal for daily cooking, leading to respiratory disease and massive deforestation. PPAF and collaborating organizations conduct research & introduce development activities to improve the lives and livelihoods of all, especially for women and girls, through solar, biogas and ethanol fuel and cookstoves and related small business. The aim is to help families escape the poverty-respiratory disease-deforestation trap, by reducing the heavy dependence on charcoal for daily cooking.
National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) is a poverty alleviation programme established by the Government of Pakistan in 1991. In 1995, NRSP established Ghazi Barotha Taraqiati Idara with funding from the World Bank.
The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) is a ministry of the Afghan government. Its main headquarters is located in Kabul, Afghanistan, but has offices and employees in all the 34 provinces of the country. MRRD's mission is to contribute to poverty alleviation in rural areas by empowering communities and fostering economic and social opportunities.
Community-driven development (CDD) is an initiative in the field of development that provides control of the development process, resources and decision making authority directly to groups in the community. The underlying assumption of CDD projects are that communities are the best judges of how their lives and livelihoods can be improved and, if provided with adequate resources and information, they can organize themselves to provide for their immediate needs. CDD projects work by providing poor communities with direct funding for development with the communities then deciding how to spend the money. Lastly, the community plans and builds the project and takes responsibility for monitoring its progress.
China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) is a nongovernmental charitable organization in Beijing, China, registered under the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1989 and professionally supervised by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
Shoaib Sultan Khan NI is one of the pioneers of rural development programmes in Pakistan. As a CSP Officer, he worked with the Government of Pakistan for 25 years, later on he served Geneva based Aga Khan Foundation for 12 years, then UNICEF and UNDP for 14 years. Since his retirement, he has been involved with the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) of Pakistan full-time, on voluntary basis. Today, the Rural Support Programmes have helped form 297,000 community organisations in 110 districts including two Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) was a project funded by the German technical cooperation agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the early 1980s which was converted into the Balochistan Rural Support Programme in 1991. It is a Non Government Organization (NGO), part of the Rural Support Programmes Network, working in rural areas of Balochistan, Pakistan.
The Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) is a non-governmental organization dedicated to alleviating poverty in North West Pakistan. Established in 1989, its mission is to reduce poverty and promote sustainable livelihoods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
The Prime Minister's Youth Programme or Kamyab Jawan Program, initiative launched by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2013, and it ran from 2019 to 2022. The program aimed to provide quality education and meaningful employment opportunities to the youth through integrated, sustainable initiatives. It offered government-subsidised business loans of up to 25 million rupees, divided into three tiers: the first tier for loans between 10,000 and 1 million rupees, the second tier for 1 million to 10 million, and the third for 10 million to 25 million rupees.
The Nigerian Capital Development Fund (NCDF) is an organization dedicated to impact investing and promoting economic development in Nigeria. Established with the aim of fostering a resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem, NCDF provides essential support, capital, and resources to entrepreneurs, start-ups, and early-stage businesses. The organization's efforts are focused on facilitating job creation, product development, market expansion, and overall economic growth within the country.
The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) is the largest development network in Pakistan with an outreach to over 34 million rural Pakistanis. It consists of a network of 12 Rural Support Programmes (RSPs). The RSP’s rely on a community driven model of development. Communities are mobilised around their needs and organised to stimulate more effective demand for services.
Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Project(ERRP) was a project undertaken by the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) for the relief and rehabilitation of the people of Hazara, Pakistan following the devastating earthquake of 8 October 2005 in the region.
Khawar Mumtaz is a Pakistani women's rights activist, feminist author and university professor. She is the Former Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) who served for three consecutive terms from 2013 to 2019.
References
- 1 2 Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund wins award at GDIB moot Daily Times (newspaper), Published 29 April 2017, Retrieved 6 September 2020
- ↑ Rupees 122 billion allocated for poverty alleviation, The News International (newspaper), Published 5 June 2016, Retrieved 6 September 2020
