PPAF celebrates Pak-Italy development cooperation

Islamabad: The Italian government’s development cooperation with Pakistan and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) has played a remarkable role to usher in socio-economic development and uplift the communities from remote areas of Pakistan.

The Programme for Poverty Reduction (PPR) supported by the Italian government through the Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by PPAF proved to be one of the most impactful development cooperation examples for bringing a visible change in the lives of communities from 14 remote and less developed districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This was reflected by the participants at the closure event of PPR Celebrating the impact of community-driven development, organised here by PPAF. The members from the diplomatic fraternity, government officials, academia, CSOs, and representatives from the benefitted community of various initiatives under PPR made their presence on the occasion. It was a unique function as all the participants attended while standing on the floor and almost every speaker ended his comments with “Shukriya Italy.”

Sharing their stories, the representatives from the beneficiary communities informed the participants about multi-sectoral transformation, initiatives to strengthen indigenous culture, empowering youth, and creating value chains in fisheries, dates, and olive cultivation. Besides, developing community structures and providing quality health and education facilities to the local communities led them to achieve integrated transformation.

Andreas Ferrarese, Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan, while sharing his views with the audience, said that Italy wants to enhance cooperation and ties with Pakistan in diverse areas including economic development and cooperation. It is heartening to observe that PPAF is bringing real change in the lives of less-privileged people which is the main objective of the Italian government for lending this support to the government and people of Pakistan.

Emanuela Benini, Director, AICS, Pakistan, was of the view that the collaboration under PPR provided target communities better access to income-generating opportunities and improved civic amenities. She added that AICS aspires to lay the foundation for a strong developmental network in Pakistan and the development initiatives taken under PPR was the key reflection of our commitment toward this objective. Nadir Gul Barech, COO of, PPAF thanked the Italian government, its people, and AICS for trusting the Government of Pakistan and PPAF for providing valuable support to uplift the communities living in the remote and most underserved areas of Pakistan. He observed that with this generous support, PPAF successfully implemented PPR in target districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as one of the major integrated local development initiatives.

PPR was implemented as an integrated programme focusing on the social and economic development of grassroots communities through the development of small infrastructure, provision of health and education services, skill development training, and sustainable livelihood opportunities for the target communities. Shahira from Kelash and Abdul Ghaffar, a fisherman from Gawadar, also narrated the work done in their respective areas.