The document discusses the role of the Aga Khan Foundation and Participatory Rural Development Society (PRDS) in supporting rural development in Pakistan. It notes that AKF focuses on reducing rural poverty through programs that promote community participation, sustainable resource management, infrastructure development, and skills training. It aims to build local institutions and support communities in prioritizing their needs. PRDS is a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian relief and promotes social development. It was established in 2004 to provide a platform for development workers. The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) is also discussed, which supports 11 rural support programs across Pakistan and helps communities manage basic services. Several current projects involving RSPN and participatory approaches are briefly mentioned.

1. Rural Support Projects Role In Rural Development
Lecture 17
Aga Khan Foundation
Development in Rural Areas
Before the KarakorumHighway was built in the late 1970s, the areasof Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral were
isolated fromthe rest of Pakistan. Most people lived fromsubsistence agriculture. When AKDN first came
to the area, it made community mobilization,experimentation and innovation hallmarks of the early
programme. Later,when solutions were found for development challenges, these programmes scaled up
with the help of national and international partners.
AKDN and Rural Development
The Aga Khan Foundation is committed to reducing rural poverty, particularly in resource-poor,
degraded or remote environments. It concentrateson a small number of programmes of significant scale.
The model of participatory rural development it has pioneered combines a set of common development
principles with the flexibility to respond to specific contexts and needs
Programmes typically link elements such as rural savings and credit, natural resource management,
productive infrastructure development, increased agricultural productivity and human skills development
with a central concern for community-level participation and decision-making. The ultimate goal is to
enable community members to make informed choices from a range of appropriate options for sustainable
and equitable development.
A central strategy has been to create or strengthen an institutional structure at the village level through
which people can determine priority needs and decide how best to manage common resources in the
interests of the community as a whole. Whether broad-based or task-specific, these village organizations
also serve to represent the community to the government and to other development partners, including
NGOs and the private sector.
Lesson Learnt
Social capital built at the local level provides a supportive environment for enlarging the economic assets
of a community and for harnessing individual self-interest to generate income growth in an equitable and
sustainable manner.
Assets are typically built through community management of natural resources - water storage,irrigation
infrastructure, soil conservation or forestry - or the construction of basic economic infrastructure, such as
rural roads or agricultural storage facilities.
Income growth is promoted by increasing agricultural productivity through improved farming methods,
input supply, marketing, land development and management reform or by increasing off-farm incomes
and supporting enterprise development.

2. Local capital is mobilised by promoting savings and developing financial services to enable broad access
to credit on a sustainable basis.
Training programmes support the effectiveness and sustainability of the village-level institutions by
providing the management and technical skills needed to plan, implement and maintain local development
activities.
The Foundation is committed to building the knowledge base in rural development through learning,
analysing and disseminating lessons learned from field experience. Models it has promoted have already
been adapted and replicated by governments and international donors in a wide spectrum of environments
and economies.
Participatory Rural Development Society (PRDS)
Participatory Rural Development Society herein referred as (PRDS) is a non-profit, non-governmental
and non-political Humanitarian Relief and Social Development Organization working to help all affected
by Disasters,Emergencies and Conflicts and Poverty in Pakistan. The Organization was established in
2004 and registered under section 20 of Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Prior to the establishment of PRDS,a consistent need for a transparent,accountable and solutions based
universal platform was steadily felt amongst like-minded social, developmental, and humanitarian
workers with indications to their respective fields, specialties, competencies, professional experiences,
social interactions, knowledge foundation and distinct intrinsic intellectual and proficient capacities.
Rural Support Net Work Pakistan (RSPN)
he Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) was registered in 2001 under Pakistan’s Companies
Ordinance (1984) as a non-profit company by the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) of Pakistan. RSPN
is a network of 11 RSPs (AJKRSP, AKRSP, BRSP, GBTI, NRSP,PRSP, SRSO, SGA, SRSP, FIDA
and TRDP), and N-IRM. The RSPs involve poor communities (mainly but not exclusively rural) in
improved management and delivery of basic services through a process of social mobilization. RSPN is a
strategic platform for the RSPs: it provides capacity building support to them and assists them in policy
advocacy and donor linkages. Currently, the RSPs have a presence in 108 out of 131 districts (districts
include those in the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK) and 2 out of 13 Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) and Frontier Regions. The RSPs collectively work with a rural membership of
community organizations of 4.16 million rural households
Current Projects Where participatory approach exists
ISET-RSPN Post Indus Floods Research
Scoping long-termresearch agenda forclimate change adaptation in the Indus basin through locally
embedded capacities

3. The Indus basin in Pakistan is home to the largest contiguous surface irrigation system in the world and
probably has the most highly regulated hydrology globally. The extent of human modification of the river
system renders Indukkksfgujuyghos’ hydrology more cultural and social....
APF-RSPN Early Recovery in Remote District ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Project
On March 2011, the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) launched a 7-month long early
recovery project in three remote districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province - Swat, Kohistan and
Shangla to rebuild micro infrastructure.
USAID-RSPN Assessment and Strengthening Program (ASP)
Launched on 27 October 2010, the ‘Assessment and Strengthening Program (ASP) for Civil Society
Organizations and Government of Pakistan’ is a five-year $45 million USAID-funded initiative that will
strengthen the capacity of local...
USAID's Small Grants and Ambassador’s Fund Program (SGAFP)
USAID’s Small Grants and Ambassador’s Fund Program (www.sgafp.org.pk) is a United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) initiative with the key objective of “providing an accessible
framework of support for community-based and non-governmental organizations across Pakistan”...
USAID's Pakistan Children’s Television (PCTV)
The Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW) and Sesame Street Workshop – USA have been awarded a
project titled “Pakistan Children Television (PCTV)” for a period of four years by USAID....
USAID-RSPN Sindh Agriculture Recovery Project (SARP)

4. In late July 2010, devastating floods hit Pakistan. In Sindh, 7 million people were displaced and 2.6
million acres of standing crop were destroyed. The United States Agency for International Development
(USAID)’s....
USAID-RSPN BAHAALProject - Emergency Reliefand Early Recovery Project for Flood
Affectees Across Pakistan
In late July 2010, devastating floods hit Pakistan. These floods affected more than 20 million people. In
the aftermath of these floods, the American people took an initiative to help the people of Pakistan
through the provision....
BISP-RSPN Nationwide Rollout ofPoverty Targeting Survey in Pakistan 2010-2011
RSPN’s advocacy over the last two years to improve poverty targeting gained official recognition when in
February 2009 the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) agreed to pilot World Bank poverty
scorecard in 16 districts through its 3 Partner Organisations: Rural Support Programmes Network ...
EKN-RSPN Pakistan Domestic Biogas Programme (PDBP)
PDBP’s vision for the next 8-10 years is to foster and support the creation of a commercially viable
biogas sector in Pakistan.During the period the vision is to set up 300,000 biogas plants across Pakistan
which will adhere to all guidelines required for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) so that
Carbon Credits ....
USAID-PC-RSPN Family Advancement for Life and Health (FALAH)
FALAH is a five year (2008-2012) USAID funded project, implemented by a consortium led by the
Population Council, with the objective of promoting birth spacing among married couples as a new
approach in achieving sustainable family planning in all cultural contexts. RSPN has engaged six RSPs
for the social mobilisation, awareness raising and counselling work with a target of reaching out to 57,000
married couples in 10 districts. The RSPs work in tandem with the service delivery partners of the
consortium including Green Star Marketing and the Government’s Family Planning Departments.