By the looks of it, selling misery is a fairly profitable business in Pakistan. Everyone in public, non-profit and private sectors is cognisant of its potential and is ready to exploit it at the drop of the proverbial hat.

There are several thousand people, if not more, who make a living out of the poverty alleviation agenda. This includes those at the top of hierarchical structures, experts serving as consultants in collaboration with key lenders, and those working in the field down the pecking order.

They gobble up a sizeable share of the total spending, including the aid inflow, meant to serve the poverty-stricken multitude. The lenders are not beyond blame either: they knowingly depend on sub-optimal national data and do little, if anything, to force the government to produce something credible.

“Multiple UN agencies, World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other key lenders that have a history of engagement in Pakistan can’t be absolved of the responsibility. They are bureaucratic, high on paperwork and low on performance audit. That they are incorruptible is a myth,” said a retired top bureaucrat who cared to share recently the insight that was earned while working closely with the lenders.

Our poor ranking on HDI exposes the bankruptcy of ideas in the social welfare sector

Images matter. Children feeding on leftovers at dumpsters, beggars in tatters, young pregnant mothers carrying toddlers chasing cars for alms on traffic signals, stunted children staring vacantly at the zoomed-in camera, long lines of people with containers waiting for their turns at the community water tap, half-clad children playing around overflowing gutters, open-air schools with pupils squatting on jute mats, people falling over each other for a free bag of atta (wheat flour), labour sitting on the roadside waiting for work… such images are used in reports dealing with poverty, some strategy to end it, or making out a case for donations. These are the images that catch the eye of the lenders. Simple.

The online projection of poverty tends to be more effective than reports as the wretchedness in action drives the point home successfully. It serves to signify direct connection with the community and arouse sympathy better.

Although reliable statistics are not available on the collective spending on social welfare by the government, non-profit and private sectors, it runs into hundreds of millions of rupees every year. More difficult is to get some sense of its distribution. For instance, the percentage of disbursed money that actually reaches the target population. Quantifying the benefits of such efforts with social, political and economic opportunity costs is next to impossible because of the complexity, overlapping and poor transparency across various tiers.

The low standing of Pakistan on human development scales, however, exposes the bankruptcy of ideas and flaws in the mechanisms at work in the social welfare sector. Indeed, there surely would be some improvement in poverty parameters over the years. But for the most part, it is a result of the survival instinct of the poor rather than anything else.

No one can deny that certain enterprising good people might have helped some desperate segments somewhere, but the scope of such efforts by their very nature is too limited to make a significant impact on the countrywide scenario. There are about 150,000 NGOs and charities in the country, according to the Pakistan Centre of Philanthropy — about one NGO for every 1,400 people.

There are hordes of ministries and departments at different government tiers responsible for providing amenities with dedicated budgets. CSR activities of the corporate sector, covered in glossy reports and sympathy-evoking documentaries, have also expanded in an age where the corporate image itself can make or break a company.

The outcome, however, is not impressive. Over one-fourth of the population continues to have a sub-human existence. Pakistan is ranked 150th on the Human Development Index (HDI) that measures progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

According to a report by the Ministry of Planning and Development, about 55 million Pakistanis, 29.5 per cent of the population, live below the poverty line.

For politicians and their parties, populist rhetoric cherishing the cause of the poor is a compulsion of their trade. Irrespective of their real agenda and orientation, all parties pledge to feed, clothe and shelter the poor. They stop just a shade short of promising the moon ahead of the elections in Pakistan like their counterparts elsewhere.

Successive governments, primarily with eyes on the global financial pool dedicated for pro-poor spending, have fashioned their programmes to serve the vulnerable. The aim is clearly to get access to the funds available, which may or may not have much to do with the cause of the poor.

“Remember the ‘stellar’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) strategy that the General Musharraf/Shaukat Aziz team laid out in 2001 and its outcome in 2015? Pakistan was credited globally for coming up with one of the most comprehensive policy paper on MDGs in 2002. It stood exposed in 2015 for underperforming on each of the seven goals,” said an economist who wished not to be named.

The MDG conundrum did not stop the PML-N government from engaging expensive consultants to develop the next set of policy documents for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. Will the results in 2030, the termination year of the SDGs, be any different? As the economy shrinks, the cost of living goes up and jobs become scarce, there is little to hang one’s hopes on.

Did the sorry situation affect the class involved in the business of dealing with poverty? Not quite, it seems. On the contrary, the situation has become even more conducive for consultants as the spike in poverty will increase their demand and value in the market for Ehsaas and other novel nomenclature.

“There are scores of development practitioners and experts using various dimensions of poverty to gain attention, contracts and funding. Mostly they work for NGOs or join the growing club of indulgent intellectuals capitalising on the theme,” noted a lawyer critical of the exclusive closed clubs of the intellectual elite in Lahore.

For the ‘miserables,’ broad-based relief is tied to GDP growth and their ability to influence its quality by exerting pressure through collective action. The role of self-professed champions of the poor in improving their lives and living conditions is marginal at best.

How keen such souls are can be seen by the fact that a simple question on the topic that was emailed to a couple of dozen development practitioners and self-acclaimed thought leaders across the country could not elicit a single response until the filing of this copy. Quite a commitment to the cause, one must say.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 4th, 2019