SWABI: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ representative for Pakistan, Ruven Menikdiwela, said on Thursday that the UN agency had provided consistent assistance to the Afghan refugees during their stay in Pakistan.

She was speaking at a ceremony of an asset/certificates distribution ceremony held at Barakai Camp under the Poverty Graduation Pilot Project for Afghan Refugees and their Hosting Families.

Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and Dinesh Shrestha, head of UNHCR sub-office, Peshawar, were also present on the occasion.

“The project that we are implementing and the results we are seeing address this situation. We value our partnership with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, which has been our partner in implementing this project,” said Ms Menikdiwela.

The ceremony marked the completion of pilot project at Swabi, under which 900 households, including 273 women recipients, had been provided with productive assets, while 100 households were provided with technical and vocational training from certified institutions.

The recipients for the assets were selected by community members following formation of community organisations which determined the deserving households for receiving the assets based on their poverty score.

The pilot project was funded by UNHCR and implemented by PPAF through CERD.

The initiative aims at making an effort to graduate the Afghan refugee population and their host families up the poverty scales and simultaneously providing them with sustainable livelihoods.

During the asset distribution ceremony, Azmat Isa lauded efforts of the local community which had been hosting Afghan refugees for the past four decades. The important aspect of this project is that the community itself was engaged in the process of identifying asset recipients based on their poverty scorecard.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2019