SARHAD RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAM

(Formerly known as Sarhad Rural Support Corporation (Guarantee) Limited

Licensed under Section 42 of Companies Ordinance, 1984 by SECP)

Regional Program Office Kohat

H # 7, Sector-IX, Paracha Street, KDA, Kohat

NWFP, Pakistan

Tel # + 92-922-513398, 513950

Fax # + 92-922-513340

E-mail: srsckt@brain.net.pk

Vision:

Poverty reduction and promoting sustainable means of livelihood in rural NWFP

Mission:

Harnessing people’s potential to help themselves through establishing a network of grassroots institutions for poverty reduction, sustainable and equitable development.

Objectives:

Develop institutional and technical models for poverty reduction, sustainable and equitable development.

Raise the income and quality of life of people, especially the poorest of the poor men and women, living in its program area.

Provide an effective and cost efficient service delivery mechanism for the government and the donor agencies in order to reach the rural poor.

The conceptual package of Social Mobilization

Social mobilization is based on the assumption that people especially the poor, landless and the asset lessare willing to do many things themselves to help improve their situation and the community as a whole is interested in helping the poor to attain their potential through

Social Organization

Bringing the poor into organized fold

Human Resource Development

Upgrading of human skills of the poor, such as managerial, productive and cooperative skills to enable them to make best use of available resources

Capital Formation

Generation of capital by the poor, through the discipline of savings as capital is power without which the poor can never hope to be self-reliant.

Project Area of Kohat Region

Parameter	Unit	Distt. Kohat	Distt. Hangu	Distt. Karak	Total
Area	Sq. Km	2,545	1,097	3,372	7,014
Rural population	No.	410,731	250,312	402,903	1,063,946
Average HH size	No.	7.4	10.4	10.0	9.27
Annual growth rate	%	3.25	3.25	3.26	3.25
Literacy rate (rural)	%	34.52	26.20	41.10	33.94
- Men’s literacy	%	57.95	49.80	67.60	58.45
- Women’s literacy	%	13.94	5.90	17.20	12.35
Total Land	Ha	298,875	132,266	264,775	695,916
- Cultivated land	Ha	65,100	34,498	77,476	177,074
- Uncultivated land	Ha	233,775	97,768	187,299	518,842

SRSP Kohat Region – An Introduction:

SRSP was established in November, 1989, as a private, non-government, non-profit organization without share capital with the assistance of Govt; of N.W.F.P, AKRSP and USAID.

The purpose of initiation of SRSP is aimed at facilitating the rural populace in NWFP for alleviating poverty in the rural communities.

SRSP's innovative development model evolved from the experiments in participatory rural development initiated in Pakistan over the last 35 years, like the rural development initiatives by Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan in Commilla, IRDP Daudzai (NWFP), the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Karachi and also with experience of participatory community development programs in the Northern Areas and Chitral.

Program components of SRSP

SRSP is engaged in a wide range of development activities through the following program components:

a. Institution building at grassroots.

b. Capital generation through regular savings.

c. Productive Investment Schemes (Physical Infrastructure Development).

c. Gender & Social Sector Programs.

d. Credit and Enterprise activities.

e. Agriculture & other Natural Resource Management.

f. Human Resource Development / Skills Enhancement.

g. Environment related programs.

h. Food security, Health, Education & nutrition.

Social Guidance Approach:

SRSP draws upon experience of other participatory rural development programs initiated in Pakistan and elsewhere. SRSP's approach emphasizes the participation of the marginalised rural communities at all levels as planners, designers, implementers and maintainers for a process of sustainable development. SRSP believes in a people centered participatory approach. Through social guidance, the potential of rural people especially the poor is harnessed to undertake and implement initiatives themselves. Experience has shown that rural people are willing to do many things themselves but they need social guidance to identify and execute such activities. SRSP has learnt through its approach evolved over a period of several years to be sensitive and responsive to cultural norms and social structures and to respond with flexibility to a variety of development needs. The other important aspect that emerged is the effectiveness of the union council-wise concentration in scaling-up of the program. The third aspect in SGA is the importance of the activists that lead the organizations and share the burden with the SO. The pre-requisites for extending social guidance to rural communities are:

c. Willingness of the community to help poorest of the poor as first priority.

PROJECT AREA:

The project area of SRSP's Kohat region consists of three districts i.e. Kohat, Hangu and Karak and Frontier Region (FR) of Kohat (FR is a transition area between a tribal agency and a settled district). Brief introduction of these districts of the region is as under:

KOHAT :

The word Kohat is a combination of two words KOH & HAT, meaning a Bazar situated in mountains.

Kohat District is bounded on the North by Peshawar, on the North-West by Orakzai Agency, on the South-West by Waziristan, On the South-East by Karak/Bannu and on the East by the River Indus. The district consists of a succession of ranges of broken hills between which lie open valleys seldom more than 4 - 5 miles in width. The population consists mostly of Bangash, Orakzai, Khattak, Afridi and a few Awan tribes.

Kohat District comprises of two tehsils i-e Kohat and Lachi. Climatic condition of these tehsils vary from each another. Kohat receives low rainfall and is 80% rainfed. Residents of Kohat tehsil are very poor in terms of low income level, lack of civic amenities and land of development opportunities at all levels. Culturally as Kohat is situated on the boundary of tribal area and a lot of tribal customs and traditions prevail in the society and are followed.

The abundant available resource of the district is agricultural land. However, the agricultural land of the district is not utilized fully as a means of providing livelihood to the people. The reasons for this state of affairs are lack of collective management through community organizations, absence of modern agricultural technology, non availability of water for irrigation, low and poor returns and lack of manpower (as agri-returns are low, the men folk have to go out of the villages for other employments).

KARAK :

Karak was declared a separate administrative district on July 15, 1982. Consisting of three (3) tehsils, Karak, Takht-e-Nasrati & Banda Daud Shah.

District Karak is situated 78 kms to the South of Kohat City, connected by a very sophisticated, newly constructed Highway, which onward leads to Karachi. It takes less than one hour - mostly trouble free- travelling for reaching from Kohat Town to Karak Town.

The District is bounded by Mianwali District on South-East, Lakki Marwat District on South, Hangu and Kohat on North and Waziristan Agency and Bannu on West. District Karak has a total are of 3,372 Sq. km.

Overall the land of the district is dry and sandy and being a rainfed area the crop yields are very poor. The main source of income of the people is employment in the Armed Forces. Contrary to all the facts, the literacy rate is the highest as compared to the rest of the Province. It is reported that every child born after 1982-83 whether male or female is literate. Inspite of this high literacy there is no college for female.

Except for a flour mill and a Wood Working Centre established by Small Industrial Development Board, there is no other industry in the district. Likewise there is a scarcity of health facilities.

HANGU:

Hangu uptil the recent past was a Tehsil of Kohat District with Thall as its sub-tehsil. On July 15, 1996, Hangu Tehsil was upgraded to the status of a District. Hangu District receives a modest rainfall and the sources of irrigation are springs, dugwells and the Kurram River. This irrigation system is mostly private and also maintained by the people themselves.

Total population of the District Hangu is 314,529 souls. The people of Hangu are comparatively well off, due to their employment in the gulf.

District Hangu comprises of 12 Union Council in which there are 167 villages (settlements) and is bounded by Terah/Orakzai Agency in the North, by Kurram Agency in the West, by North Waziristan Agency in the South West and by Tehsil B.D.Shah, District Karak in the South, by District Kohat in the East.

As the area is situated on the border of different tribal areas, hence, a lot of tribal customs and traditions prevail in the society. The main tribes of the area are Bangash, Orakzai and Khattak and also Wazirs in the bordering settlements. The Wazirs are immigrants from the North and South Waziristan Agencies which lie adjacent to the South-West of Hangu.

As a result of the rush for the Middle East, employment in the late 60s the people of the area were getting some remittances from their gainfully employed family members in the Gulf. But now, especially after late 80s due to different crises/problems in the Gulf, many people

have returned permanently and are without jobs, therefore, there are a number of economic problems arising. Due to lack of proper planning, the money, earned by these people, unfortunately, has not been utilized / invested in income generating activities. Now the people have no choice but to look forward for their neglected lands/natural resources.

F.R. KOHAT:

This area is inhabited by about 60,000 souls and stretched over and area of more than 44600 Ha. These are mostly Afridi clan of tribals and their major source of livelihood is arms manufacturing and its selling to other parts of the country. SRSP, by way of its charter and registration, cannot operate in the tribal areas including F.R.. Kohat.

OPERATIONS:

SRSP operates in Kohat Region where there is a Regional Office, located at Kohat Township (KDA) and four (4) field offices (Social Organization Units - SOUs) in the region, namely:

1. SOU Kohat.

2. SOU Hangu.

3. SOU Banda Daud Shah.

4. SOU Karak.

PROGRAM ACHIEVEMENTS

(As of May 31, 2001)

Social Organization:

Human Resource Development:

Banking with the Rural Poor (Credit Program):

Productive Investment (PI) Schemes:

Poverty Targeting:

Events where SRSP works together with Government Line Agencies:

• Dialogue Process(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Manager Conference(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Coordination Meetings(GLAs + RSP)
• Training Sessions for Line Agencies(GLAs + RSP)
• Exposure visits(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Training Session for Communities(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Experiential Workshop(GLAs + RSP)
• Field Days & Campaigns(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Exhibitions / Functions(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• Poverty Alleviation Program (PAP)(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)
• De-silting Campaign(Comm.+ GLAs + RSP)

Key: Comm = Community Organizations.

GLAs = Government Line Agencies

RSP = Rural Support Program