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The objective of this book is to explore the problems of the poor with special focus on the people living in rural areas of Pakistan. The book emphasizes that lack of access to financial services is not the only barrier to growth. Lack of access to markets, poor infrastructure, lack of information and inefficient marketing system all hold back the poor rural communities from coming out of the vicious cycle of poverty. There is a need to construct a new development tier to address the non- financial constraints of the rural economy. The creation of such a new tier would not only boost the agriculture-based rural economy but also develop and diversify their economic base in the non-farm sector. The proposed model of provision of financial and non-financial services provided by an efficient delivery system would create an environment to achieve UN Millennium Development Goals of poverty alleviation. This book gives clear and practical recommendations to policymakers, government officials, NGOs, Development Agencies and other stakeholders to make poverty a subject of history for our children.

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Dr. Mian Nadeem Akhtar obtained his Doctorate Degree from University of Graz-Austria and currently working as Assistant Professor at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Sahiwal-Pakistan.

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