1.5b need assistance to escape poverty
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Asian Development Bank representatives highlighted the continuing prevalence of poverty in the region during discussions over the replenishment of the Asian Development Fund (ADF), an endowment used to provide grants and low-interest loans to some of Asia and the Pacific’s poorest nations.
Despite the impressive progress made by Asia-Pacific nations over the past decade in fostering economic growth, 1.5 billion people in the region still live on less than $2 a day, said an ADB press statement received here on Thursday.
Since 2001, the Asian Development Fund has provided more than $1 billion a year for programs that help poor families escape poverty, it added. Over the past seven years, the Asian Development Fund has helped educate millions of children, and helped keep them healthy, by supporting the construction of 38,000 schools and 6,700 health facilities. According to the press statement, during the same period of time, the Asian Development Fund has supported the construction of 42,000 kilometers of road - more than the circumference of earth - linking isolated and impoverished communities to regional and global markets.
Between 2001 and 2008, the Asian Development Fund has also provided over one million people with clean water connections, and provided 820,000 households with new energy connections.
This week’s ADF meeting is the third in a series of meetings to negotiate replenishment of the Fund for 2009-2012, discuss means of improving the fund’s effectiveness, and identify priority action areas. The next ADF meeting is scheduled for May 2008 in Madrid, Spain, it added.