Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), Pakistan INCLUDING THE POOR IN THE PRSP PROCESS BY CONSULTING THE POOR AT THE GRASSROOTS Islamabad March 2003 CONTENTS Foreword Part 1 Introduction Summary Chapter One The starting point Chapter Two Why should the RSPs get involved and how The community consultation process Chapter Three Main Findings Part 2 RSP’s Community Dialogue Reports Chapter Four Leading from the Frontier – strategies by the poor, for the poor (SRSP) Chapter Five Grassroots, nationwide (NRSP) Chapter Six The Balochis talk about their poverty (BRSP) Chapter Seven How economic growth bypasses the poor in the Punjab (Punjab RSP) Chapter Eight The desert poor speak out (TRDP) 2 Chapter Nine Voices of the displaced (GBTI) Chapter Ten Perspectives from Rural Sindh (SGA) Chapter Eleven Taking the I-PRSP to the remote mountains (AKRSP) Part 3 Suggestions for the government’s PRSP document NGOs & Civil Society Monitoring of the PRSP Part 4 Annexes Annex-I. Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Board of Directors of the RSPN, 24 Sept. 2002. Annex-II. Minutes of the RSPN meeting on I-PRSP, 9 November 2002. Annex-III. List of districts where community consultations held. Annex-IV Workshop report on I-PRSP. Annex-V Presentation on I-PRSP. Annex-VI About the RSPs and the RSPN 3 Foreword The largest network of non-governmental rural development organizations in Pakistan is that of the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs). Historically known for their work with poor, rural communities, the RSPs have pioneered a highly successful approach to participatory rural development which has been widely acknowledged internationally and by the Pakistan government. There are currently nine RSPs in Pakistan which are members of a Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN). The RSPs have fostered the largest network of grassroots, civil society organizations in Pakistan through their social mobilization efforts - 39,000 Community Organizations (COs) of women and men, as of December 2002. The RSPs conducted consultations with some of these COs for input into this PRSP. The basic premise of the RSPs’ work is to enable the poor to reach their potential, through social guidance and organized community forums. The objective of the RSPs is to create a countrywide network of COs that can undertake certain development activities themselves. The RSPs have long understood that working with the government is the way to realize the goal of countrywide poverty eradication. Now with the government actively coming round to the RSP view that participatory development through social mobilization is the only way to address poverty at the grassroots, the RSPs naturally see a role for themselves in facilitating participatory community consultations on the I-PRSP. The RSPN coordinated pilot community dialogues on the government’s I-PRSP by the RSPs, during November 2002 to February 2003. In view of the importance of the I- PRSP document and the absolute need for community consultations, on their own initiative the RSPs began these consultation dialogues with communities. As a first step, in November-December 2002, the RSPs invited concerned government officials (from the Planning Commission) to brief them about the I-PRSP document and the process. Towards the end of January, 2003, in recognition of the RSPs’ initiative, the Finance Division of the GOP wrote to RSPN to undertake community dialogues on the I-PRSP and to provide input into the process. 4 The work of the RSPs over the past two decades and the results of consultations with COs on the PRSP have shown that social mobilization and the work of the RSPs provides some simple but critical answers to issues of services delivery and governance raised by communities. The RSPs found the I-PRSP community consultation process extremely useful in further understanding the situation and the community needs and priorities. The RSPs have also learnt much from this experience about how to better conduct such a dialogue process. In case the government wishes to have further dialogues done or to repeat such a process at a later stage, the RSPs would be more than willing to undertake the community dialogues process. I hope the government of Pakistan will seriously consider the results of our dialogues held in 49 districts of the country. I want to thank the Planning Commission, in particular Dr. Pervez Tahir, and the Finance Division for taking a keen interest in our community dialogues process and for always being available whenever we sought their assistance. Shoaib Sultan Khan 5 INTRODUCTION This report contains the views of rural communities in Pakistan on why they think there is growing poverty in the country. It also contains their solutions to their poverty, as active contributors and participants in the development process. These voices are those of communities who have organized to address micro-development issues in their own villages and neighborhoods. Through consultation with these community organizations, they have provided invaluable input for Pakistan’s future development framework ie the Pakistan PRSP. Their key input into this framework are the simple solutions they have identified to address some aspects of their poverty and they are willing to contribute their share of a partnership with the government in order to improve their own condition. Their priority is that they first be organized into small, development organizations, as a first step in this long journey. The largest network of non-governmental rural development organizations in Pakistan is that of the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs). There are currently nine RSPs in Pakistan which are members of the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN). RSPN was set up in April 2001 as an institutional mechanism to bring the RSPs together on a common platform. The Network is currently funded by the Department for International Development of the government of the United Kingdom. It serves as an operational think tank for the RSPs, a policy advocacy body on behalf of the RSPs with the government, donors and others and undertakes selected research with the RSPs on issues that have bearing for overall, RSP strategies. The RSP Network has been instrumental in undertaking work with the Pakistan government on the PRSP process. It has also been active in providing programmatic support to the RSPs in various sectors of their work and in assisting the government in integrating social mobilization into its new devolution plan. To effectively include poor people in the PRSP process, the RSP Network coordinated an all-RSP effort in Pakistan to conduct dialogues with organized communities. The RSPs of Pakistan undertook 121 dialogues with Community Organizations across the country. The results of these consultations show that social mobilization and the work of the RSPs provide simple but critical answers to the two main constraints to poverty identified by the people ie poor services delivery and poor governance. Details of 6 findings as well as dialogues with communities are included in this report. The RSP Network has also prepared a short documentary on the consultations held across the country which is available upon request. The RSP Network and the RSPs have received meaningful support from the Government of Pakistan during this consultation process. The Government has acknowledged the consultative process undertaken by the RSPs and this report has been presented to the Government’s PRSP Secretariat. This report also contains suggestions from communities for inclusion in the final Pakistan PRSP. The Government has welcomed these suggestions. The RSP Network and its member RSPs would like to thank the Government for its support to this process, without which significant input from poor communities could not be reflected in the Pakistan PRSP. The RSP Network also offers to the Government its support in future PRSPs by arranging similar, broad-based consultations on this important development framework. This has been a learning process for the RSP Network and the RSPs. Our challenge in future is to collaborate with the Government in refining these consultations and in supporting Government to make the changes that the people have themselves suggested as answers to addressing their poverty. Shandana Khan Chief Executive Officer Rural Support Programmes Network Pakistan 7 Summary 1. The RSPs have a presence (as distinct from full coverage) in 82 districts of the country and, as of December 2002, had helped form 39,000 Community Organizations (COs). About one third of these organized forums are women’s COs. At present, by far the majority of these COs are in rural areas. This vast outreach in rural areas, close contact and credibility with organized forums, and staff trained and experienced in participatory consultation with communities, gives RSPs a unique opportunity to contribute to the I-PRSP community consultation process. In view of the importance of the I-PRSP document and the absolute need for community consultations, on their own initiative the RSPs began these consultation dialogues with communities. In recognition of the RSP’s initiative, the Finance Division of the GOP wrote to RSPN to undertake community dialogues on the I-PRSP and to provide it input. The RSPs undertook community consultation dialogues in 49 districts of the country, in all provinces and in the Northern Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In all, 121 dialogues were held, with a total of some 4,500 participants, including 3,000 males and 1,500 females. 2. Reasons for poverty: Major findings from the grassroots that need to be included in and supplement the content of the Pakistan PRSP relate largely to the issue of effective implementation. Organized communities not only spoke of poor access to and quality of public services across all sectors, they also spoke of poor governance affecting such services. Hence, whereas the implementation level was of immediate concern, they were very clear that it is a failure of governance, eg, corruption, mismanagement, lack of accountability, etc, that leads to wastage of resources and hence poor services for the poor.