PPAF AKHBARRestoring hope, securing the future, ending poverty

FridayJanuary 26, 2018

JAMADIUL AWWAL 08,1439 A.Hwww.ppaf.org.pk

ISLAMABAD

PPAF and ARI to provide technical training to farmers

PPAF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Agriculture Research Institute Balochistan (ARI, Quetta) to directly support livelihoods and improve quality of life of PPAF-supported grassroots communities in Balochistan. Under the five year agreement ARI will provide technical training to the beneficiary farmers through PPAF POs. It will also provide the best quality saplings and other agriculture inputs at reasonable price to the beneficiary farmers and will facilitate their access to their technological innovations for adoption. PPAF will facilitate ARI to engage with its POs and local communities at village level to

Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO PPAF and Mr. Ahmad Raza Khan, Secretary Agriculture & Cooperatives, Balochistan signing an MOU to provide technical training to farmers.

Orientation session on Scope of Procurement Guidelines & Challenges faced by Youth Organisation sta�

Raabiya Babar - Communications & Media

Orientation session on Community Procurement Jawad Alam - Procurement

An Orientation Session for Youth Organisation (YO) staff was organised by Procurement Unit for educating the participants on effective implementation of procurement policies through compliance with UNHCR and PPAF guidelines. The participants were trained on “Assets transfer to Afghan Refugees”, an impending activity to be carried out by YO. The session also covered scope of procurement guidelines, challenges faced by the PO in terms of community procurement, role and responsibilities of the PO’s procurement staff, audit compliance and expectations from PO’s and CIs (Community Institutions).

PMIFL to provide Interest Free Loan to Youth

More than 100,000 graduates of Prime Minister's Youth Skill Development Programme (YSDP) will get an opportunity to avail interest free loan under Prime Minister's Interest Free Loan Scheme on priority basis. This was said by Ms. Leila Khan, Chairperson Prime Minister's Youth Programme in a meeting recently held at Prime Minister Office in Islamabad. Ms. Simi Kamal, Sr. Group Head Grants Operations and PMIFL team members attended the meeting from PPAF. Ms. Leila Khan appreciated that under Prime Minister's Interest Free Loan Scheme, Rs 9.5 billion has been disbursed among 401,120 borrowers for establishing businesses. During the meeting, it was also decided that loan under PMIFL Scheme will only be provided to YSDP graduates (applicants) who fulfill the eligibility criteria and are also resident of the UCs where PMIFL scheme is being implemented.

Nazakat Hussain – Communications & Media

Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa – Member of BISP board

Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO PPAF has been appointed as a Member of BISP Board. Expressing his thoughts at a small gathering at the PPAF office, Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa congratulated Team PPAF for this success and said that this appointment is also the success of PPAF.

Congratulations

replicate the best agriculture practices, to support Demonstration Plots and to carry on farm adaptive research and transfer of technology.

Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO PPAF and Mr. Ahmad Raza Khan, Secretary Agriculture & Cooperatives, Balochistan signed an MOU. Dr. Muhammad Javed Tareen, Agriculture Research Institute Balochistan, Mr. Amir Naeem, Sr. Group Head Financial Management and Corporate Affairs, Ms. Simi Kamal, Sr. Group Head Grants Operations, Mr. Muhammad Tahir Malik, GM-Institutions and Integration from PPAF were also present on the occasion.

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New Joining

PPR CRPs after receiving their certi�cates at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa inaugurating the new daycarefacility for the children of PPAF sta�

Orientation session on MIS

Under UNHCR funded Poverty Graduation Pilot for Afghan Refugees and their Host Families Project, a day long comprehensive orientation session on MIS was jointly organised by MIS and PPAF Projects team for staff of Youth Organisation in Quetta. The session aimed at acquainting the partner's staff on the utilisation of project data in reporting, assessing the updated status of field coverage with respect to specific interventions, strategic planning for future and designing of pocket specific projects. The trainees were briefed on the working of MIS and its integration with other programmes and geographic areas. The impact of providing the geographical coordinates in MIS field on the GIS maps were also demonstrated which was highly acknowledged. The PPAF team appreciated the role played by partner's staff during past projects in sharing their feedback and giving valuable suggestion in making the MIS more user friendly and expected their similar response on the current project. It was a “learning by doing” session through practical LIVE entries in the MIS. Through two-way communication, the PPAF trainers advanced to every next segment upon sound satisfactory response of the audience on the previous one, they also confirmed to extend their full support to the PO’s staff for effective utilisation of MIS in future as well.

Ishtiaq Ahmad – PPAF Projects

The online application of POs watch list has been institutionalised after a go-ahead from the senior management. The application is helpful to holistically and systematically review performance of all PPAF partner organisations against certain standards with regard to their use of inputs (financial and other), processes, activities, outputs and contribution to outcomes. The application has been developed by MIS team in-consultation with MER on the basis of SOPs approved by the PPAF Board of Directors. All General Managers and focal persons from the relevant units within PPAF have been oriented on the application and input is being received from their side. Once response from all the relevant units are received, MER will extract a system generated report and present it to the senior management for their review and approval.

A new Daycare facility at PPAF

CRPs training on Agriculture and LivestockUnder the LEP component of PPR, 48 participants from 12 union councils of Balochistan have been trained as CRPs in agriculture and livestock extension services. The trainings were conducted in two batches (24 people in each batch) for livestock and agriculture extension services respectively. The 15 days training, comprising theory as well as practical work, was conducted at Ayub Research Center, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The trained CRPs are now capable of ensuring cost effective, better and faster service delivery at community level in their respective areas. These CRPs will further train other community members on agriculture and livestock management for a greater outreach.

Amid lot of excitement and praise, Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO PPAF inaugurated the new Daycare facility for the children of PPAF staff recently. The facility supports PPAF’s value of inclusion and participation and offers equal opportunities of work for both men and women. The beautifully decorated and well-equipped facility ensures provision of stress-free working environment especially to mothers of infants. This has helped in improving their ability to concentrate on their work while a team of dedicated and well-trained caretakers look after the individual needs of the children providing them a home-like environment. The new facility is also compliant with ISO 14001: 2004. Expressing their satisfaction, the mothers of children using the facility commented that the PPAF Daycare provides a comfortable and caring environment to their children where they not only enjoy their day but learn from each other also.

Muhammad Ashraf, Programme for Poverty Reduction

Zahid Hussain, Monitoring, Evaluation and Research

Session on overview of PPAF EMS Nazakat Hussain – Communications & Media

ISO & ESM Unit organised a short awareness session on “Overview of PPAF’s EMS” for the managers and above staff under ISO-14001: 2015. In a presentation, EMS Consultant, Mr. Qamar Ali Shah briefed the participants on EMS policies, manual, system & operational procedures. The ISO 14001: 2015 calls for enhanced role of management under new procedures and terminologies. To ensure compliance of this new environment standard, Team PPAF was encouraged to quit smoking in office premises, reduce paper consumption, save water, switch off the lights, computers & blowers when not in use.

Operationalisation of POs Watch List Online Application

Congratulations to Ms. Naz Gul on joining MER Unit as Assistant

Manager – Reports & Assessments

Raabiya Babar - Communications & Media