ZCZC
BSS-08
SAARC-DEVELOPMENT-FUND
SAARC Development Fund Board approves two projects in Member States
COLOMBO (Sri Lanka), Aug 25, 2019 (BSS) – SAARC Development Fund held it
31st board meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka 23-24 August taking decisions on key
issues to further promote regional integration and economic cooperation among
its eight member states.
Two projects -Consortium for scaling up climate smart agriculture in
South Asia and Second phase of Inter-professional Master’s Programme in
Rehabilitation Science were approved, said a press release issued here
earlier.
With International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and through
SDF’s funding, the ‘Consortium for scaling up climate smart agriculture in
South Asia’ project will promote sustainable and resilient agricultural
intensification in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka through
enhanced Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) capacity and technologies.
The project will be implemented by National Agricultural Research and
Extension Systems (NARES) and SAARC Agricultural Centre (SAC).
CEO of SAARC Development Fund Dr Sunil Motiwal said that, “This project
worth USD 3.32 million will directly benefit over 7,500 smallholder farmers
as well as researchers, extension workers, and policy makers in Afghanistan,
Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka”, added the release.
“Impacts of climate change are felt across South Asia and we believe
that there is a need to enhance adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers,” he
added.
The second project approved by the board named ‘Second phase of Inter-
professional Master’s Programme in Rehabilitation Science for USD 1.5
million’ will develop highly qualified professionals in the area of
Rehabilitation Science, said the release.
This will enable the provision of quality rehabilitation policies and
services to people with disability in all the eight SAARC member states.
The Masters Programme is offered at the Bangladesh Health Professions
Institute (BHPI), Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP).
Through this project, there will be 150 direct beneficiaries and 234,432
patients or the disabled or people with chronic health conditions per year as
ultimate beneficiaries.
The SAARC Development Fund, since its inception in April 2010 by heads
of the eight SAARC member states, is mandated to build regional integration
and economic cooperation through project funding in all the SAARC member
states – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka.
Currently SDF is implementing 80 projects under its Social Window
funding scheme worth USD 197.4 million.
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