Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad on Wednesday said people remain poor or extreme poor because they lack choices.
For this, PKSF relentlessly is working to diversify their choices and come out of extreme poverty, he noted.
Abdur Rouf Talukder, Senior Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance, spoke at the webinar as chief guest while Financial Institutions Division Additional Secretary Arijit Chowdhury, FCDO Development Director Judith Herbertson and EU Head of Delegation to Bangladesh Maurizio Cian were special guests.
Popularly known as ‘Prosperity’, the 6 year programme is working to lift 10 lakh people belonging to 2.5 lakh households out of extreme poverty by 2025. The programme, launched in April 2019, is covering nearly 200 unions of 43 upazilas under Kurigram, Thakurgaon, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Magura, Patuakhali, Bhola, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and Habiganj districts.
People living in these districts face present and future climate shocks that threaten their lives and livelihoods. During the first year of the Prosperity programme, more than 30,000 extreme poor households have been brought under its coverage.
Delivering the welcome speech, PKSF Managing Director Moinuddin Abdullah hoped that the Prosperity programme will make significant contributions in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 7th Five Year Plan of the Bangladesh government.
The Chief Guest noted that the Prosperity programme’s multidimensional interventions is addressing poverty and its causes in a sustainable way.
High officials of different line ministries and departments, deputy commissioners and Upazila Nirbahi Officers of the programme’s working areas, representatives from development partners and development organisations, extreme poverty experts and academicians also spoke at the webinar.
