Model
PAF was established in 2003 as an autonomous organization of GoN. PAF is involved in mobilizing resources form government and donors for implementation of poverty alleviation programmes through government and non-government agencies and DDCs and VDCs. PAF was set up for developing and implementing programmes that address the issues and problems of the poor people, by involving the deprived and the DAGs as partners in such efforts.
Goals and Objectives
The long-term goal of PAF is to create a democratic, just, equitable and sustainable Nepalese society. The immediate objective of PAF is to reduce extreme forms of poverty. PAF aims to enable poor women, janajatis and dalits other vulnerable groups to: gain access to resources for their productive self-employment and encourage them to undertake income-generating activities for poverty alleviation and improve quality of life.
PAF also seeks to address spatial exclusion through focus on most deprived districts, and reaching out to other poverty-stricken areas through innovative programmes through replicable Special Window Programme (SWP) that seeks to uplift the living standard of the target communities by adopting innovative concept, ideas, process, technology etc. Moreover, PAF also takes initiatives to strengthen DDCs and VDCs and support long-term decentralization process.
Programme Components/Activities
The programe components and activities of PAF are comprised of social mobilization, capacity building, income generation, construction of rural community infrastructure and social inclusion.
PAF’s social mobilization process is intended to create awareness among poor women, janajatis and dalits, help them to organize, empower them for decision-making. It also needs to build-up capacity for preparation, implementation, operation and management of community sub-projects to enhance their livelihoods. Capacity building initiatives of PAF wishes for skill development of community and partner organizations (POs – that may include COs, NGOs, private organizations, DDCs and VDCs) in order to improve their effectiveness in implementing different income/employment activities and monitoring poverty alleviation programmes.
Similarly, PAF's income generation activities are intended to support community groups, particularly poor women and DAGs through grants to undertake economically viable and sustainable income/employment generating activities. These activities need to be chosen by communities themselves and include agriculture including livestock keeping, crafts making, forestry, trade and services. Construction of rural community infrastructure is meant to increase the access of the communities to infrastructure for improving living conditions particularly of poor women and DAGs. Small-scale community infrastructures such as rural roads, trails, mule tracks, culverts, suspension bridges, truss bridges, short distance gravity cable ways, river bed land reclamation, drinking water systems including sanitation, water management - plastic tanks, sprinkler/drip systems, and farmer-managed small irrigation systems, collection centres and market including rural energy systems are supported through grant and on cost-sharing basis. Such infrastructures are implemented, managed and maintained by the beneficiaries themselves. Finally, through social inclusion, PAF intends to make efforts for the creation of an inclusive society, characterized by a widely shared social experience and active participation.
Size and Character of the Groups
The target group of PAF program needs to be Dalit, Janajati and vulnerable women. The members are to be selected from clusters of ward/settlements and need to cover more than 80 per cent DAG households from the community or village. For the formation of group, on the basis of pre-set indicators (that is assessed by undertaking PRA tools called social well being ranking) three categories of poor, viz. ultra poor, medium poor and poor are to be determined. The groups or COs are generally comprised of 20 - 35 members and among them, more than 50 per cent are needed to be women. The individual members are needed to contribute 10 percent for utilizing PAF fund.
Approaches
The approaches of PAF’s programmes and activities include: (a) Demand Driven Program by keeping the target communities at the driving seat to take initiatives to improve their livelihoods, particularly organizing them into COs (b) Direct Community Funding for the effective implementation of the sub-projects proposed by the community with allocation of resources directly to the poor to bring efficiency and transparency of the work, and ensure community ownership, (c) Community Cost Sharing for sustainability and ownership building of the sub-projects with 20 per cent for infrastructure sub-projects and 10 per cent for income generating sub projects, (d) Community Institution Building for planning, designing and management of the sub-projects by themselves, (e) High Transparency in Process with the provisions for maintaining display boards at the project sites and carrying out of Public Audit periodically or at the end of the sub-projects, (f) Co-ordination for networking with the local bodies and other line agencies as well as other development organizations, and (g) Capacity Building for enhancing the capacities of groups and individual beneficiaries through training, linkage, exposure visits and technical assistance.
Funding Mechanism
PAF’s funding process starts from settlement level project planning where the COs are needed to develop project proposals with the support from POs and submit it through the POs to PAF. Technical Appraisal Committee appraises these proposals and if needed, the proposals are revised. The proposals are then discussed in the PAF Board. The Board makes decision for the project approval. The COs enters into agreement with PAF for implementation of approved projects.
PAF directly funds to the COs. After signing the agreement between PAF and COs, there are two types of accounts to be opened in bank by COs; one is non-operating and other operating. Firstly, PAF deposits the fund in COs' non-operating account after the contribution of COs (20 per cent for infrastructure development and 10 per cent for income generating activities), the requested fund by COs is transferred to the operating account. During this process of planning, budgeting and fund flow, the local bodies (DDC/VDC) are nowhere in the picture.
The fund disbursed for income generating activities needs to be repaid in certain installments within stipulated time frame as decided by the group. The income generating fund needs to be a revolving fund.
Management Structure
PAF board governs PAF. The Prime Minister chairs PAF Board. The other board members include Vice-Chairperson (nominated by the government); Secretary from the NPC Secretariat; Chairpersons of ADDCN, Federation of VDCs, National Women’s Commission and National Dalit Commission as ex-officio members; a member of the NGO umbrella organization and two prominent persons including a woman who have contributed to poverty alleviation in the country. The Executive Director of PAF works as the Secretary of the PAF Board.
Based on the eligibility criteria set by PAF, qualified and eligible POs are selected from among COs, NGOs, private sector organizations (PSOs), and DDCs/VDCs for social mobilization, technical assistance, and capacity building programmes.
The POs work for social mobilization and capacity building of the community organizations as well as facilitate the COs in preparing proposals and implementing the sub-projects. Furthermore, the POs are responsible for the smooth implementation and monitoring of the community sub-projects. Table 2.2 depicts PAF's social inclusion, project formulation and implementation framework for reaching the target beneficiaries
