Balochistan Rural Development and Community Empowerment (BRACE) Programme

Balochistan is the biggest Province covering 44% of the total Pakistan area, but it has less than 5% of the total population, spread over 33 districts, 725 UCs, and 7,480 villages. of the total population in Balochistan of more than 12 million, 85% is living in the rural areas. Thus, the Government is keenly focusing on Rural Development, but the Province is facing huge logistics- and fiscal-resource-challenges, and the rural people are often facing hardship when basic social services cannot be provided. Our aim is to respond to the rural needs, through reforms in our Local government Act that will result in devolution of power to grassroots level, and empowerment of municipalities and local councils, financially and administratively.

The GoB appreciates the European Union support, as the EU-funded BRACE Programme is fully aligned with our focus on Rural development. BRACE targets 9 districts and directly supports and invest in sustained socio-economic benefits through social mobilization of 300,000 Rural Households. The BRACE Technical Assistance supports the GoB to develop a Community-Driven Local Government and Rural Development Sector Policy & Fiscal Framework, that will enable institutional and fiscal empowerment of the (Sub)-District Authorities, to work hand-in-hand with the mobilized and empowered local Communities.

The EU-funded BRACE Programme supports the Government of Balochistan in reducing the negative impact of economic deprivation, poverty and social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, and to turn this into opportunities to build and empower resilient communities participating actively in identifying and implementing socioeconomic development activities on a sustainable basis in partnership with local authorities. We will endeavour to build on the positive experiences and impact of the BRACE Programme, and to scale up this type of Rural Development throughout the Province. These reforms will then contribute to provincial, national and even regional stability.

The domain of Local Government encompasses virtually every problem and all affairs that a citizen experiences in his/her day to day life. The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan under Article 32 & 140-A requires the State to encourage Local Government Institutions so as to facilitate expeditious disposal of its business to meet the convenience and requirements of the public. The “Local Government Structure” constitutes the third level of Government. Our Local Governance vision is all about Community engagement and empowerment through their representation in the system.

The BRACE Programme was co-designed with the European union, keeping in mind our Local Governance Vision, and is implemented by the GoB with support from RSPs and the Technical Assistance by the Implementing Partners. The Overall Objective of the programme is to minimize the negative impact of economic deprivation, poverty, social inequality, and environmental degradation, and to encourage and enable empowered resilient communities to participate more actively in identifying and implementing socio-economic development activities through an institutionalized partnership mechanism with Local Government authorities.

BRACE Community-Mobilization and Empowerment models build on RSPs’ experiences to bring communities together around a common agenda. The mobilized and empowered community is the key to sustainable socio-economic development of the rural poor. The BRACE Program supports the Government of Balochistan in reducing rural poverty in 9 Districts. The programme will directly empower 19,129 COs, 3,103 VOs, 249 LSOs and 31 tehsil level and 9 district level LSO Networks.

BRACE Technical Assistance supports the GoB to develop a Community-Driven Local Government and Rural Development Sector Policy & Fiscal Framework, that clarifies the complementary roles to be played by Local Government, RSPs and Development Partners committed to Poverty Alleviation through Community Empowerment. To enable GoB Local Government, a Strategic Policy & Fiscal Framework is being developed, which include strengthening of Institutional and PFM Capacity that will facilitate further scaling up of the BRACE Programme, to cover the whole of Balochistan, with increased Development Partner support, in the form of future Sector Budget Support.

I am delighted to write this note for the European Union supported Balochistan Rural Development and Community Empowerment (BRACE) Programme website being jointly hosted by the Local Government and Rural Development Department (LGRDD), Government of Balochistan and the BRACE Programme.

 After reviewing 200 years of global experiences, Dr Akhter Hameed Khan concluded that three institutional pillars are necessary for making transformative change in the lives of the rural poor. These pillars are: i) the Administrative Pillar (central, provincial, and local governments and departments, judiciary, police and other institutions – from the president to the patwari); ii) the Political Pillar (national and provincial assemblies, district and union councils); and iii) the Socio-economic Pillar (people’s own institutions i.e. COs, VOs, and LSOs). Pakistan possesses the first two pillars but the socio-economic pillar is missing, and without fostering this pillar and linking it with the political and administrative pillars, poverty cannot be sustainably reduced. Fostering the socio-economic pillar requires an institutional mechanism, which has the resources of the government and flexibility of an NGO – such as the Rural Support Programmes. The RSPs, through social mobilisation and organisation of rural people into their own institutions, are able to reach out to each poor household. Without the economic empowerment of individual households, poverty cannot be eliminated. The RSPs, thus complement and supplement the work of the government.

The Rural Support Programmes’ (RSPs) social mobilisation approach to community driven development (CDD) is based on the belief that every poor household has an innate potential to overcome poverty. However, households face socio-economic constraints that hinder harnessing their potential and improving their lives.  Over forty-seven years ago my mentor Dr Akhter Hameed Khan gave me my first lessons in forging partnerships with communities. Dr Akhter Hameed Khan emphasised the need for fostering a Socio-economic Pillar, namely, a framework of grassroots institutions of the rural poor to support improvement in their livelihoods and lives. Unlike the existing Administrative and Political Pillars, the Socio-economic Pillar focuses at the household level. For it is at the household level that the pain of poverty is experienced on daily basis, and also that the potential of coming out of poverty resides there.

RSPs social mobilisation approach has been used extensively as a way to achieve sustainable development at the household level. It does this by bringing communities together in order to better achieve their common-goals and to meet their needs. At the heart of the social mobilisation approach, lies the belief that every individual, be they poor or rich, man or woman, has the capability and potential to carry out activities for their own benefit and for that of their own families. The social mobilisation approach to development enables communities to identify, prioritise, plan and think about their developmental needs jointly. Mobilised communities enter into a partnership with the RSPs under which they are provided social guidance, financial and technical assistance. In addition to this, the RSPs help build their capacities and skills in order to help them start functioning as independent organisations and fostering development linkages with government, donors and private sectors agencies.

The RSPs are not meant to deliver services, instead their objective is to foster the Socio-economic Pillar to act as a receiving mechanism for the Administrative Pillar (Line Departments) to extend their outreach to the household level. In short, RSPs’ mission to is create the missing link: the third pillar; the Socio-economic Pillar through social mobilisation. With the Socio-economic Pillar in place, it can contribute significantly to towards inclusive development, strengthening citizen-state engagement and women’s empowerment.

The BRACE Programme is being implemented in nine districts by the Balochistan Rural Support Programme and National Rural Support Programme, with Rural Support Programmes Network providing technical support to the implementing partners. DAI is providing Technical Assistance to the overall BRACE Programme with a focus on strategic work for community-led local development policy development.

Already there are thousands of emerging examples of households initiating income generating activities, as well as many examples of linkages between the Socio-economic Pillar and the Administrative and Political Pillars. The BRACE website highlights many of these success. My request to the Balochistan Government is to use the Socio-economic Pillar to deliver services effectively and that the Line Departments will be able to reach each and every household to get maximum benefit.

I want to thank the European Union, the Government of Balochistan and the Local Government and Rural Development Department for their continuous support, and I hope that further support will be forthcoming for the fostering of the Socio-economic Pillar in the other districts of the Province.

Devolution of power to grassroots level, to provide better relief to the masses at their doorsteps, is a key governance principle of Local Government in Balochistan. It is therefore appreciated that the European Union has joined the Government of Balochistan to design and implement the Balochistan Rural Development and Community Empowerment (BRACE) Programme (2017-2022) 

The GoB Policies and Reforms of the Local Government and Local Bodies systems, aim at the further Devolution of Power, and the mobilization of all grassroots stakeholders through the BRACE Programme, is therefore fully aligned with our reforms.

The BRACE Programme has made a start with further empowering citizens and communities and providing them with means, enabling them to implement community-driven socio-economic development interventions, develop increased voice and capability to influence public policy decision making, through active engagement with local authorities for quality, inclusive, and equitable service delivery, and civic-oversight. Through the BRACE programme we will directly reach out to 9 Districts, 300,000 households with 1.9 million Pakistani citizens. The Government still has a long way to go in empowering the local communities, and through the BRACE programme we will foster an enabling environment for strengthening the capacities of local authorities to manage and involve communities in the statutory processes of the local public sector planning, financing and implementation process, with complementary roles to be played by local community, village and rural support organizations.