Japan, which is the top donor to Pakistan, has to date provided 10.5 billion dollars under the grassroots assistance (GRA) programme for 209 projects.
This was stated by the Senior Economic Consultant of the Embassy of Japan in Islamabad, Sardar Wasimuddin Khan.
He was speaking at an exclusive briefing session held here on Saturday afternoon for the representatives of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Wasim pointed out that the GRA scheme had commenced in the year 1989. He informed that of the 209 projects funded so far, the 70 percent pertained to health, education and women in development. The remaining covered environment, vocational training, water supply etc.
Eighty of these projects were in the Punjab, 42 in NWFP, 31 in Northern Areas, 26 in Balochistan, 24 in Sindh and six in Islamabad.
Wasim described the GRA scheme as the Japanese peoples' support to the NGOs in Pakistan. This, he added, is aimed at fostering friendship between the people of the two countries and to assist in the development activities at the grassroots level. The very objectives of the GRA scheme is to assist the NGOs, community based organisations as well as the local government bodies by covering the cost of relatively small projects which find it difficult to obtain effective assistance under the general grant aid programme and to provide flexible and timely support to development projects at the grassroots level.
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