November 16: The government is all set to restructure the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), which was established on the joint initiative of the World Bank, International Fund for Agriculture Development and the government for supporting people living under extreme poverty. Sources privy to the latest development said that a cabinet meeting on Sunday decided to approve the work plan to restructure PAF, which has been working as an autonomous body so far.

The cabinet meeting has decided to keep PAF under the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation after the World Bank’s agreement to provide grant assistance to PAF since the last 14 years expired since the beginning of the current fiscal year.

PAF, which was established in 2003 with the grant assistance from the World Bank (WB), has invested almost Rs 32 billion in the rural areas of the country to improve the livelihood of the poor people. In 2004, PAF initiated the work by starting different projects in six districts of the country.

PAF claims that 900,000 people of 62 districts have been benefitted from its projects. According to Shree Ram Subedi, spokesperson and information officer of PAF, the fund identifies the marginalized people, Dalits, indigenous groups and women to uplift their livelihood and financial condition.

A study of the WB in 2017 shows that the projects of PAF have uplifted the financial conditions of rural community by 19.5 percent.