ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The first lady, Sehba Musharraf, will lead a 11-member Pakistani delegation to the ‘Microcredit Summit + 5’ to be held from November 10 to 13 in New York.

This was stated by the federal minister for rural development and local governments, Barrister Shahida Jamil, at a press conference held here on Thursday.

She said Begum Musharraf, being chairperson of the regional steering committee of Asia-Pacific region for the Economic Advancement of Rural and Island Women (RSC-AP), would represent the region at the summit.

The minister contended that the summit would help Pakistan to improve its image among countries of the world as it had successfully undertaken a number of programmes aimed at empowerment of women. These programmes include food support and W3 project for political awareness among women, she added.

Underlining the role of microcredit schemes in empowerment of women, the minister said, over a couple of years the programme had helped a number of women entrepreneurs in the country to set up their own businesses.

Calling for a pragmatic approach to eradicate poverty, Barrister Shahida said, the small loan disbursement and skill development at grassroots level could effectively help better the lot of women.

The minister remarked that the summit would provide an opportunity to the developing nations to have better understanding of the affects of poverty in the region and evolve a mutually agreed strategy to address the problem.

“Poverty has become an international issue and both the developed and developing nations are equally focussing on it,” she said.

However, the minister regretted that Pakistan lost an opportunity to join the nations who set out for poverty eradication by not taking part in the first microcredit summit held in 1997.

She also emphasized on more interaction between the international and local NGOs to wage a multi-pronged war against poverty.

The press briefing was also attended by the federal secretary for women development, social welfare and special education, Parveen Qadir Agha; Waqar Ahmed, additional secretary, economic affairs division; Ghalib Nishtar, president Khushali Bank; Kamal Hayat, chairman of the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Ali Javed, general manager of the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP)

It was also explained at the press briefing that the summit which was an update of 1997 summit would include events like release of the ‘State of the Campaign Report 2002; outlining progress since 1997; around 60 official breakout sessions at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels for both developing and industrialized countries.

About 40 additional small group sessions would be organized by the delegates besides presentations of two institutional action plans at the plenary session.

This summit will also offer opportunities for microcredit practitioners, advocates, donors, and others committed to the summit’s goals to assess progress, discuss challenges and identify strategies for overcoming those challenges.