More than six crore men, women, children, and the elderly depend on financial and non-financial support from the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), for livelihoods, primary health and nutrition, education, housing, climate risk mitigation, and women empowerment.
Making the remark at a press conference held at Dhaka’s National Press Club on Saturday, PKSF Managing Director Dr Namita Halder said, “Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in income growth, poverty alleviation, and human resource development in the last few decades.
“According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the poverty rate came down to 21.8 per cent in 2018 from 59 per cent in 1991. During the same time, the number of extremely poor people fell from 43 per cent to 11.9 per cent.”
The PKSF is working as a complementary force of the government in this journey of progress, she said, adding, “Although we initially started this journey as a lending organisation, over three decades, it has evolved into a family and people-centric sustainable development organisation.”
Dr Halder stated, “The main objective of PKSF is not only economic development, but to establish human dignity for all, where training, employment, healthcare, education, nutrition, social inclusion, appropriate credit, special programmes for the disadvantaged segments of society are emphasised to improve the quality of life of the poor and ultra-poor people.
“In an effort to modernise agriculture and ensure food security, the PKSF has established a full-fledged agriculture unit. This unit works with rural communities to enhance production in crops, fisheries, and livestock industries. Besides, as many as 23 lakh micro-entrepreneurs are now receiving various financial and technical supports from PKSF.”
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the barriers to sustainable development must be addressed. To remove these obstacles, PKSF has been working for sustainable development of the poor people since long before the official start of SDG implementation, she said at the event.
Established through presidential approval on November 13, 1989, the PKSF was officially launched by the government in 1990 with the goal to alleviate poverty through employment generation.
The PKSF formulated its first programme in 1990-1991 with the aim of achieving equity, social justice, and poverty alleviation.
The organisation is set to observe PKSF Day 2022 for the first time after 32 years of its establishment, with the slogan “Towards Development, with Equity,” on Sunday at Krishibid Institution in the capital.
