PKSF

As we know, the poor people of Bangladesh who mostly depend on their daily income for survival contend with changes on a regular basis. Whether it is the fluctuation of commodity price, political or social disturbance at the national or local level, or fickle weather, the adaptive capacity of the poor gets very often challenged. Although there are some theories claiming that the poor are more adaptive to any change than non-poor in Bangladesh. However, in reality, it is not always true. 

In view of the accelerating difficulties of the poor to confront some adverse realities, PKSF considers alteration as an essential aspect of system dynamics. Therefore, it explicitly embraces any kind of modification for taking up inclusive and effective approach to address the needs of the poor. PKSF has the strength to handle systemic shocks with resilient efforts. During FY 2010-11, PKSF took a number of activities that created a favorable environment for the poor so that they can increase their income and also protect themselves from any kind of income erosion. With a view to increase the level of the income of the poor, PKSF has catered diversified and poor-friendly microfinance programmes with more flexibilities in terms of grace period, loan installment, duration and above all, the pricing of a loan.

The loan disbursement from PKSF-PO in FY 2010-11 is BDT 19.31 billion. Last year it was BDT 19.42 billion. Whereas from PO-Beneficiaries, loan disbursement is BDT 119.11 billion in FY 2010-11 compared to BDT 96.76 billion in FY 2009-10. Excluding Institutional Development (ID) Loan, the loan outstanding for PKSF in FY 2010-11 is BDT 31.99 billion, which was BDT 31.63 billion in the last financial year. Similarly, POs’ loan outstanding in FY 2010-11 is BDT 65.02 billion whereas it was BDT 55.99 billion in FY 2009-10 exclusive of ID Loan.

Most of the districts in the country are covered by the POs of PKSF reaching 268 in numbers in FY 2010-11. As of FY 2010-11, the total number of members is 10.80 million, which shows a declining tendency of 4.02% with respect to FY 2009-10 while the total number of members was 10.96 million. 93% of the members were women in FY 2009-10 that was 92% in FY 2010-11. Total number of borrowers as of FY 2010-11 is 8.23 million, which was 8.39 million in FY 2009-10. Among the borrowers, the number of women borrower is quite significant (91%) i.e. 7.53 million.

As mentioned before, PKSF believes that providing credit might not be solely sufficient to generate income, the poor need to have sufficient skills and favourable opportunities to utilize the credit. In this regard, the Value Chain Development under Finance for Enterprise Development and Employment Creation (FEDEC) project has been developed to provide non-financial support and to establish strong market linkages both backward and forward. In addition, a wide range of training and other social development support, such as cash for work; safe drinking water and sanitation; vaccination and medication camp; primary healthcare support; building and repairing community infrastructure; community radio; disaster management; educational support to prevent drop out from primary schools; scholarships for the disadvantaged student; and livestock insurance are provided to the poor under different programmes and projects such as Programmed Initiative for Monga Eradication (PRIME), Microfinance and Technical Support (MFTS) project, Microfinance for Marginal and Small Farmers (MFMSF) project, and Microfinance Support Intervention for Food Security for Vulnerable Group Development (FSVGD) and Ultra Poor (UP) Beneficiaries project.

The training department of PKSF has continued to facilitate the POs staff along with the poor borrowers and the number of beneficiaries is on the increase. PKSF is committed to create a pool of well trained, efficient and motivated development workers with different skills at the local level. In addition, PKSF has continued to finance pro-poor ventures and innovations for poverty alleviation under Learning and Innovation Fund to Test New Ideas (LIFT) programme.

Despite all these interventions to increase the income of the poor, it is one of the most challenging tasks to keep the income of poor at a sustained level. With that reality, PKSF is taking necessary preparation to launch some new projects, such as Community Climate Change Programme (CCCP) under Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) and Developing Inclusive Insurance Sector Project (DIISP). Apart from its conventional operations, Enhancing Resources and Increasing Capacities of Poor Households towards Elimination of their Poverty (ENRICH) intends to enhance the household resources and human capabilities by providing wide-ranging facilities including health, education, direct linkages with employers and innovative microfinance. Besides, PKSF has recently formed Special Fund and Programmes-Support Fund with its own fund to facilitate the capability of the poor.