Activity Description: The Pakistan Mortgage Guarantee Facility, a $5 million credit enhancement program, enables participating commercial banks in Pakistan to extend mortgages to lower-income citizens, with no current access to home mortgage financing (over 80% of residents in Karachi earn less than $2 per day).

Activity Description: 30% of Pakistanis now live in urban slums due to a scarcity of affordable housing (a shortage of 4.5 million homes in 1998). Saiban is a market based solution that provides home ownership for urban squatters; the program builds housing developments on land it has secured and inspected, then sells the houses to the poor with reduced rates and an affordable down payment: total cost is 30% less than informal housing over 10 years.

Activity Description: Kashf began in 1996 as a microfinance institution that aims to alleviate poverty and to economically empower women from poor households in Pakistan. By September 2004 the Foundation had a network of 30 branches and more than 65,000 clients, most of whom earn between one and two dollars a day.

Kashf provides collateral-free loans (general and emergency) and savings services designed to cater for the needs of poor women. Kashf also provides accidental and life insurance and capacity training programs. These programs are organized by local Kashf centers (run by a core group of 25 women) and teach leadership, gender and reproductive health skills.

Activity Description: The non-profit Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) works with 56 partner organizations in 96 districts of Pakistan, as it seeks to alleviate poverty and empower the rural and urban poor, by providing them with access to resources and services.

PPAF's Credit and Enterprise Unit provides loans to partner microfinance organizations (POs) who in turn offer microcredit lending services to individual or group customers. POs must meet satisfactory performance and compliance standards, set by PPAF, in order to receive the 6-10% interest rate loans from PPAF. A PO's microcredit customers must also meet criteria established by PPAF to receive services.

Activity Description: Launched in 2001, Pakissan.com is the first and largest agricultural Web portal in Pakistan, providing a platform where the entire agri-community can connect with each other, sharing ideas, experiences and information. Viewable in both English and Urdu, the portal offers features like the latest news and issues from around the world as well as inside the Pakistan. There are also advisory, report and business center sections, including a regular special report, which features stories related to important aspects of the agricultural field.