Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) is getting additional financial support of Rs. 15 billion to work on poverty alleviation programs in Nepal.

The aid amount for poverty alleviation was requested to the World Bank through the government, Nagarik Daily reported.

PAF expects to collect assistance of around US$ 200 million for the implementation of poverty alleviation programs, though the present need is US$ 325 million, said Bidhyadhar Mallik, vice president of PAF.

The assistance will be for 3 years starting from the fiscal year 2068/69.

PAF has been running poverty alleviation programs in 40 districts of Nepal and plans to further extend it to all 75 districts.

PAF had started to run alleviation program from 6 districts in the country in the initial period some 7 years back.

Around 360,000 people currently benefit from the poverty alleviation program implemented by PAF.

According to the 28 poverty indicators ascertained by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the districts are divided according to its poverty level and the programs are implemented in the districts affected by poverty the most.

After the implementation of this program, four of the districts were studied which showed 19 percent increment in the people's income.

Similarly, the purchasing capacity has increased by 23 percent, education expense by 45 percent and participation of women in the poverty alleviation programs by 73 percent, said Mallik.

Some 577,000 poor families have been brought above poverty level by PAF. Of them 29 percent belonged to so-called low caste families, 27 percent from Janajati communities, and rest were from other groups.

PAF has been helping in development of agriculture, livestock, cottage industry, business, skilled work programs and helping in developing infrastructure like bridges, irrigation, water mills, and micro-hydropower programs. nepalnews.com