Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) has been working to tackle poverty and extreme poverty through employment generation since it was established by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) in May 1990. Over the last three decades, this apex development organisation has implemented various pro-poor projects/programmes successfully with assistance from the Bangladesh government and other bilateral and multilateral development partners.
Over the years, the PKSF has diversified its programmes in line with the changing needs of the heterogeneous poverty-struck segments of the society. PKSF’s current appropriate financing programmes support the moderate poor of both urban and rural areas, ultra-poor, micro entrepreneurs as well as marginal and small farmers.
To enable the poor and the low-income segment of the society to come out of the low productivity trap, the PKSF has also integrated capacity building, technology transfer, skills training, value chain development, enterprise development and other technical services in its development programmes. It has also been implementing a number of projects to enhance the capacities of the poor to increase their resilience to the adverse impacts of disasters and climate change.
Over the last three decades, the PKSF has implemented more than half a dozen programmes exclusively for the poor and extremely poor people. These programmes/projects for skills transfer and capacity building include Integrated Food Assisted Development Project (EU, 1999), Financial Services for the Poorest (World Bank, 2002) and Ultra Poor Programme (GoB, 2004) and FSVGD and Ultra Poor Beneficiary project (EU, 2007).
Two of its recently concluded ultra-poor programmes, namely Programmed Initiatives for Monga Eradication or PRIME (DFID, 2006-2016) and Ultra Poor Programme or UPP Ujjibito (EU, GoB & PKSF, 2013-2019), have seen great success in lifting some of the country’s extreme poor out of the lower poverty line.