ISLAMABAD, April 23: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a technical assistance grant of $400,000 to conduct research on the determinants and drivers of poverty reduction and the bank's contribution in rural areas of Pakistan.

According to a press release, the assistance will be administered by the ADB and financed on a grant basis from the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund. Rural poverty rose sharply in Pakistan in the 1990s while the gap in social indictors also increased significantly.

Researchers have found that the rural poor lack access to adequate land, water, finance and have little human capital and face limited job opportunities. Against this background, the research seeks not only to identify the major determinants of rural poverty, but also to recommend designing the most effective rural poverty reduction interventions by the government, the ADB and other development agencies.

"It will analyze the relationship between agricultural growth and rural poverty as well as the link between rural poverty and transformation of the rural economy," said Marshuk Ali Shah, the country director for the ADB. From this, the assistance will recommend both farm and non- farm interventions and job generation schemes that would benefit the rural poor.

Naved Hamid, senior economic adviser at the ADB, added that an important aim of the assistance would be to assess the effectiveness of interventions for rural poverty reduction and social safety programmes to identify interventions having the greatest impact. The research has been divided into economics of rural poverty, social structures and access to social services for the poor.