KOHAT, March 8: Over half a billion rupees would be spent on poverty reduction and women empowerment in rural areas over six years with the assistance of foreign donors under the second phase of the Barani project.

The director of the Barani Area Development Project, Faisal Anwar, said this during a briefing for the district nazim here on Wedesnday.

District nazim Gohar Saifullah Khan stressed the need for close liaison between the district government and NGOs to achieve sustainable development.

He urged NGOs to keep the district government informed about their activities and future plans which, he said, would help the government in identifying areas that needed more attention.

During the briefing, representatives of NGOs gave presentations about their ongoing and future projects in family planning, health, poverty alleviation, community development and women empowerment for approval of the district government.

The district nazim said it would help the government in making budgetary adjustments and divert funds to reach out to people who had previously been neglected.

Appreciating the NGOs’ role, he promised them full cooperation and technical support needed to complete their projects.

Faisal Anwar said that over the next six years the Asian Development Bank would provide 53 per cent, International Fund for Agriculture Development 15 per cent while 20 per cent would be contributed by the NWFP government for schemes in education, irrigation, roads and health sectors.

He said that 11 per cent of the project cost would be borne by local communities and one per cent of the total amount would be distributed among skilled people as loans through the Bank of Khyber.

The government and the bank were negotiating to bring down the interest rate to make repayment of loans easier.

He said that schemes approved under the Barani project would be completed by 2009 and the project might be extended for one year.

The regional programme manager of the Sarhad Rural Support Programme, Umer Mohammad, said that over the past 10 years they had mobilised 1,800 community organisations in Kohat, Karak and Hangu districts.

Of these, 544 were working for poverty reduction and working for provision of better livelihood in Kohat district. They had completed development schemes, including construction of small dams, roads, pavement of streets, sanitation and installation of hand-pumps with an investment of Rs198 million. He said that 25 per cent of the amount had been contributed by the communities concerned.

Under the human resource development programme, they had trained 6,507 people and enrolled 45,382 social activists in Kohat. In the field of community infrastructure, they had completed 143 schemes in Kohat, benefiting 36,083 households with an amount of Rs72.05 million.

He said that the SRSP had disbursed Rs36.17 million under a microfinance scheme among 5,553 people with an additional portfolio of Rs1.3 million.

Its stuck up loans amounted to Rs 4.3 million, he said, adding that they had established nine community-based schools in the district which employed 12 teachers.

The SRSP planned to start two integrated infrastructure schemes with an investment of Rs6 million each. Mr Tahir Ali Shah, project director of the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), said that they had divided the Kohat district into four clusters.

He said that FPAP had opened a family health hospital in Kohat, catering to maternity and general health needs of women and children in Kohat, Hangu and the Orakzai Agency. The FPAP, with the financial cooperation of the Khushali Bank, had provided soft loans for women, enabling them to set up businesses.

Mr Asghar Ali Shah of the National Commission for Human Development’s district literacy support unit in Kohat said that they had four core programmes — education, health, capacity-building and volunteerism — for community development.

He said that they had been trying to control drop-out rates in schools and had achieved 100 per cent enrolment of children between the ages of 5 and 9 under the universal primary education.

Adult literacy centres had also been established with 90-day courses in Urdu and Mathematics, he said.

They had opened 373 literacy centres during 2003 to 2005, of which only 21 had been closed down. The number of beneficiaries was 5,397.

The in-charge of the UNFPA, Dr Rehman, said that 67.6 per cent of the local population had access to drinking water, 45.4 per cent adequate sanitation, awareness about HIV was 34 per cent while 63.2 per cent of the children were fully immunised.

The ratio of under-weight births was 32 per cent against a population growth rate of 3.05 per cent. About 27 per cent of the total population lived in urban areas while 73 per cent lived in rural areas. There were 45 hospitals, basic and rural health units and 277 midwives in 141 villages and city areas.

The area’s literacy rate was 44.06 per cent with 65 per cent of the total literate population being male and 23.48 per cent female.

The farming coordinator of the Lachi Poverty Reduction Project, Zakiullah Mian, said that after the construction of 53 water storage dams in the areai, the distance between drinking water sources had been reduced from two kilometres to 100 meters.

He also said that the income of 84 per cent of the people had increased between 35 and 101 per cent (an increase of Rs15,550 to Rs61,084 per household) because of release of small loans, establishment of vocational training centres and 92 breeding centres in the area.

He said the linkage rate with local representatives under the devolution plan was 61 per cent, which had changed religious resistance drastically and the traditional leadership had been replaced at all tiers.