Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 22:

The practice of allocating huge funds for populist programmes will come to an end once the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) moves in more and more districts and starts running projects by involving local communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“Of course, the PAF was set up to institutionalise development efforts. This marks the end of the practice whereby the incumbent government used to come up with populist programmes,” said Raj Babu Shrestha, executive director, PAF.

He was referring to hugely populist budgetary announcements like Bisweswor with the Poor (BWP), Build Your Village Yourself (BYVY) and “One Family, One Job (OFOJ),” said Raj Babu Shrestha, executive director, PAF.

The CPN-UML kicked off the trend of launching populist programmes. The Nepali Congress followed suit.

Shrestha, shedding light on the strategy, which is based on Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), explained how the community organisations and local non-governmental organisations would work together to achieve targets to ameliorate the lot of the targeted group in selected districts.

The PAF has been implementing poverty alleviation schemes in the districts of Darchula, Mugu, Pyuthan, Kapilvastu, Ramechhap and Siraha.

Dwelling on the strategy, which was evolved after holding a series of interactions, he said the PAF would fund the projects prepared by involving local communities.

The $15 million fund, which came from the International Development Agency (IDA), would be used in funding projects for the next four years, he said, adding that the budget could rise as projects are launched in more districts.

Predictably, stress shall be on social mobilisation, capacity building, income generation and creating infrastructure, with the Dalits, members of the ethnic communities and women at the centre. Meanwhile, the PAF is engaged in signing contracts with 54 local partners.

Altogether 240 organisations had shown interest in signing the contract. It may be said that other programmes under the PRSP comprise broad-based development, social development and good governance, all of which reflect efforts taken as part of economic reforms going back to 1992, the year which saw titanic changes in development administration.