She will receive the award from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at New York on October 17, on the occasion of ``International poverty eradication day''.

This was disclosed by UNDP resident representative in India Brenda Gael McSweeney at a press conference here yesterday.

Brenda was in the city in connection with the release of Human Development Report, 1998 in the southern Indian region. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will formally release the report at Jubilee Hall on Tuesday.

Fatima's pioneering work in organising self-help groups among the village women, her efforts to improve the literacy rate and her achievement in mobilising the villagers for community development earned her the award, Brenda said.

She said that various poverty alleviation programmes initiated under the aegis of UNDPin Andhra Pradesh two years ago achieved substantial progress. The programmes focussing mainly on social mobilisation in the development process are currently underway in about 700 villages in three districts -- Mahboobnagar, Kurnool and Anantapur in the state.

Brenda, who is also coordinator of the UN system in the country, announced that the UNDP will spend two million dollars for the poverty alleviation programmes in the state shortly. ``Besides UNDP, all other wings of the UN will extend their full cooperation in developing Andhra Pradesh,'' she said.

A state-level human development report, as suggested by the chief minister, would be prepared soon, she said adding that efforts are on to collect the required data for the purpose. Senior UNDP officials were present.