U.N. Agency Supports Microfinance In Pakistan

November 23, 2007 7:46 a.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has announced that it will provide a $35 million loan to a new $46 million program making microfinance services available to about 160,000 new clients -- at least half of them women.

"It is a pivotal time for microfinance in Pakistan," says Nigel Brett, IFAD's Country Program Manager for Pakistan. "Future growth in this sector will depend partly on microfinance institutions and commercial banks forging successful financing partnerships. This program will work to build such partnerships."

The IFAD-supported program will work with small farmers, livestock owners, traders and micro entrepreneurs; women and households headed solely by women; and vulnerable rural households living below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the IFAD announced a project worth more than $14 million aimed at boosting the market value of Bolivia's millions of llamas, alpacas and undomesticated vicu?as in products like meat, hides and wool-based handicrafts, as well as eco-tourism. The agency will contribute a loan of $7.2 million for the initiative.

"The project will give poor rural people better access to financial services and provide them with technical assistance, knowledge and information, so that they can start small businesses," says Roberto Haudry de Soucy, IFAD's Country Program Manager for Bolivia.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. Although gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew during the 1990s, it was insufficient to reduce poverty, inequality and social exclusion, according to the IFAD. Poverty in rural areas is almost double the rate it is in capital cities, and extreme poverty is nearly triple.