MURREE: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Marvi Memon on Sunday stressed the need for a joint venture with the rural support programmes (RSPs) across the country to forward the goal of her organisation to pull the vulnerable families out of poverty by empowering them through self-employments.

She was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the two-day annual meeting of the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) here.

Ms Memon said the BISP had 5.4 million women beneficiaries who got quarterly stipend as a part of the social safety net. But there is a need to bring these women out of the poverty line through innovative interventions.

“BISP has been mainly doing poverty management but the RSPs have focused on poverty alleviation. I have seen the successes of the community-driven development approach of the RSPs and we want to work together to replicate this approach to alleviate poverty.”

Marvi Memon says her organisation mainly engages in poverty management

She said BISP was establishing committees, comprising women recipients of the quarterly grants, and the experience of RSPN would help their empowerment not only in poverty eradication but also in imparting higher education to their children.

“Social issues are not limited to poverty only but a collective approach is needed to address the challenges of climate change, water and sanitation, immunisation and sustainable development,” she added.

Ms Memon also said BISP was introducing e-commerce for women communities to sell their local goods in the main markets of the country. She expressed the confidence that the experiences of RSPs would help carry this initiative forward.

Ambassador of Nepal Sewa Iamsal Adhikari suggested that women activists should establish cooperatives to collectively sell their goods through another cooperative working near the target markets, and share the profit by eradicating the middlemen.

She also said Nepal was interested in learning and replicating the BISP model and in this regard a delegation from her country was expected in Pakistan in the near future.

Earlier, members of the RSPs working in different provinces said around eight government departments worked separately in each district to eradicate issues in their respective domain.

They said polio immunisation cost around $1.50 per person in some remote areas but the government teams taking part in routine immunisation worked separately. Those working in the field of family planning are separate, the education department has its own programme, water and sanitation is under a different department and they all have separate programmes to meet the same people to inform them about benefits of various programmes.

Ambassador of European Union Delegation to Pakistan Jean-François Cautain called for bridging the gap between the government policies and its implementation.

“This is the reason we support the RSPs as the implementation is effective and on time,” he said adding: “There is a need to carry forward what has already been achieved by improving localised economies and organised communities to accelerate the implementation of these plans.”

The rural support programmes are the second largest EU fund recipients in Pakistan as their sustainable projects contribute to poverty alleviation and support to democracy in the country.

Members of local support organisations (LSOs) from various parts of the country, including Thar, RahimYar Khan and Fata, presented their success stories after they organised themselves to form community organisations (COs) which empowered them socially and economically.

Maria Kumari from Parachinar presented her case which brought her family and other members of Hindu, Christian, Sikh and even Muslim communities out of the extreme poverty during the siege of Parachinar in 2007.

“After getting organised, we imparted various skills to women on tailoring, beautician etc., to enable them make some money for their families,” she said. “And now there is negligible opposition in Kurrum Agency to girls’ education, immunisation and even the administration takes advice from the women members of COs.”

Another RSP member from Thar said she had even become a member of the panchayat in her village.

Chief Executive Officer RSPN Shandana Khan said sustainability was achieved when the local project was linked with the government network. She said the policy reforms were lacking at the provincial level.

“The idea is not to execute any project but to help people build up their institutions, plan them and even mange them,” she added.

RSPs provide social guidance as well as technical and financial assistance to the rural poor but they have to be flexible by being responsive to the local environment.

Currently, RSPs work with over 43.2 million people organised into 397,076 community institutions in over 125 districts, including Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017