Given all the terrible headlines in our newspapers these days, it is so heartening to hear stories of progress and achievement from the rural areas of this country. At the recently held National Convention of Civil Society Organisations in Islamabad, the audience heard one success story after another from Local Support Organisations (LSOs) — set up by rural Pakistanis with the help of various Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) — ranging from Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Gwadar in Balochistan. An LSO from Swabi described how they had built a sports stadium for the local children; another LSO from Mardan explained how they organised seminars on women’s rights. Thanks to their efforts for ending discrimination against women in the area, there was a 10pc increase in women’s votes in Mardan in the recent elections.

Another LSO from Gwadar described their work on child labour issues; how they were trying to educate children working in the fishing industry. They are also introducing solar energy products to the local community. A maulana from Siran Valley near Abbottabad explained how his LSO was giving interest-free loans to women in his area. The LSOs’ representatives, who had been invited to speak at the National Convention, were all keen to share their stories and show that people can achieve progress on a self help basis.

According to Berend De Groot, head of Cooperation at the European Union (EU) delegation to Pakistan (the EU is a big donor to various projects initiated by the RSPs), “The RSP movement, which is backed by Pakistani society, is very impressive … and its membership base is rarely seen in the developing world”. He emphasised that the most impressive aspect of the RSPs was that it is a national programme, with committed Pakistani citizens running it. He described the success of the Balochistan Rural Support Programme in both social mobilisation and in delivering humanitarian assistance and also commended the Sarhad Rural Support Programme for all the good work they have done during the earthquake and the floods. The EU is now funding a programme in Malakand division to expand and enhance the work of LSOs.

The idea for the LSO was actually conceived in 2005 and informal dialogue was initiated with community organisations (both men and women’s organisations) in the mountainous north of Pakistan (where the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme [AKRSP] has been working since 1983). LSOs are people’s own institutions, managed by them, mainly at the Union Council level. This level of social organisation encourages links with the government and other actors in development, as LSOs represent thousands of households to whom they are accountable. In 2006, five LSOs were formed in the region and provided with technical, financial and management support by the AKRSP. There are today a total of 805 LSOs spread throughout Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a few in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

The LSO is the highest tier of the RSP mobilisation process which starts with a community organisation (CO) of about 20 households in a neighbourhood which then sends representation to a village organisation (VO) at the village level, followed by them sending representation to the union level, to form an LSO. The idea is to operate as a central office in the union council where the local people can come with their problems and seek help — especially in poverty alleviation. The concept seems a bit complicated on paper, but it works quite efficiently on the ground — it’s like a grassroots NGO, run by the local people for the local people but representing thousands of households under it.

The EU now recognises these LSOs as ‘development partners’ and hopes that the provincial and local governments will step in and partner with them to do the same, since the EU is “only here temporarily”. Local bodies’ elections are due in KP at least, so many of these LSOs will form some sort of linkages with the emerging structures of local government. The LSOs are ideal to link to the Union Councils to work with and strengthen them.

The chairman of the Rural Support Programmes Network, Shoaib Sultan Khan, spoke next about how the activists of the LSOs (with roots in every household) and CSOs (civil society organisations) were like “diamonds” and if you were lucky and selected your diamonds properly, then they would take the programme forward and make it shine. The RSPs’ model is now being emulated in India, where the central government has completely owned it (which is not the case in Pakistan). Shoaib Sultan Khan stated that it was his dream that “some leader in Pakistan will one day own this programme and take it forward” [nationally].

The head of India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission, Ministry of Rural Development, Vijay Kumar, described how with Shoaib Sultan Khan’s help the state of Andhra Pradesh first started the work of the RSPs with a pilot project. This proved to be so successful that they spread the work to the entire state with a loan from the World Bank. Vijay Kumar joined the programme in 2000 and was instantly impressed: “It is important work, it is low-cost and it can be done … we can get rid of poverty!” But to realise it on a large scale “you have to reach every single poor household”.

“People surprised us with their capability … This is rights-based development, it is not charity — it is the right of every poor household,” explained Vijay Kumar. Now the Indian government has decided to spread the programme all over the country through the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. Both India’s Planning Commission and finance ministry have told Vijay Kumar, who is the mission director, that his mission can have all the resources it needs to achieve this goal. The Indians learnt something positive from us and are taking this programme forward nationally. Is anybody in our government listening?