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.
