ISLAMABAD, June 17: International donor agencies and other creditors have agreed to provide additional $1 billion to help alleviate poverty from the country. Official sources told Dawn that positive negotiations had been held with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United States’ Agency for International Development, Canadian International Development Agency and other supporters in this regard.

They added that Pakistan was being expected by the donor community to reduce the level of poverty by half by 2015 in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

According to the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, conducted in 2001, 32.1 per cent of the population was in the grip of poverty.

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Dr Salman Shah, when contacted, confirmed that Pakistan had been assured by the donor community to get $1 billion for alleviating poverty.

Answering a question, Dr. Shah said that $1 billion foreign funding will be a blend of soft loans and grants and, as such, would not be a burden on the government.

The government, he said, planned to initiate development projects of international standards to be regularly monitored by the government to ensure proper utilization of funds.

The overall poverty related expenditure in 2005-06, he said, would be Rs324 billion, including funds for the Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP) aimed at providing clean drinking water, basic health and education facilities, vocational training and micro credit to people.

“We have allocated Rs20 billion for the KPP which will be increased to over Rs60 billion, for which the government is seeking $1 billion from the donors,” said the adviser.

The challenge, he pointed out, was to direct the benefit of economic growth to the poor, especially as the government was under obligation to spend at least 4.5 per cent of GDP on the pro-poor sectors.