Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Project: Project Appraisal Document

The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) Project seeks to alleviate poverty and empower the rural and urban poor, by providing them with access to resources and services.

There are five project components:

• Micro-credit will provide loans to partner organizations (POs) for on-lending to individuals or groups of individuals who meet the eligibility criteria of the PPAF at rates that ultimately cover their directly attributable credit administrative costs, loan loss, cost of funds and reasonable profit to maintain real value of equity;
• Community infrastructure will support, in the form of grants on a cost sharing basis, small scale community infrastructure sub-projects to improve the quality of life of the poor;
• Capacity building of partner organizations will support, in the form of grants, capacity building of communities and POs to improve their effectiveness in implementing poverty alleviation programs;
• Capacity building of the PPAF will support operating costs, staff training, technical assistance for various studies and cost of fixed assets;
• World Bank contributes a soft loan of US $90 million, the Government of Pakistan provides US $10 million to serve as equity. Interest earned will support PPAF's core institutional costs.

[Adapted from the author's abstract]