Virtual bilateral meeting with Ghufran Memon, Federal Secretary for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety of Pakistan

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu had a bilateral virtual meeting with Ghufran Memon, Federal Secretary for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety of Pakistan.

The Secretary, appointed in December 2022, introduced national policies and his vision on poverty alleviation. He praised FAO’s work in Pakistan and stated that in Pakistan, the majority of support is provided through conditional or unconditional cash transfers to over 50 million people through the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund. The Secretary expressed the strong willingness to strengthening cooperation with FAO in poverty alleviation, proposing three main areas for collaboration: 1) conduct joint projects to improve the livelihood of the rural population, particularly the women; 2) mobilize other international partners to work together with Pakistan; and 3) share lessons learnt on poverty alleviation with other countries through FAO.

The Director-General appreciated the Secretary’s introduction and supported his ideas, and congratulated the Ministry for its fundamental work on poverty alleviation. The Director-General suggested working together on providing accessibility of rural people, especially women, to transferring from data collection to a data economy, as well as in designing policies holistically.