A number of promising approaches to education emerged in 1990s including that of community-based schools promoted in OPP, where local entrepreneurs serve the poor and recover their costs, while donor support is provided for improving the quality of education.
A variety of models with low cost budget increased community participation and focus on low income and working children and adults are functioning at present. Although materials and methods of teaching used here are old or have been imported from the formal sector and teachers have little or no training yet these models offer the possibility of financial sustainability and replication on a large scale.
Home schools for children in low-income areas and male and female adult literacy centres in rural areas are run in teachers' homes. Such schools initially sprung up in Karachi, Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Lahore.
IN BALOCHISTAN: a USAID survey in 1980s revealed that there were 100 primary schools for girls and 500 schools for boys but girls were attending all the 500 primary schools. This showed that it was not gender insensitivity but lack of access which explained the low level of female participation in schools.
In many cases in Balochistan and elsewhere selection of site and appointment of teachers on the recommendations of local influentials led to closure of schools. In most of the cases selected sites were used as guesthouse or donkey stable for the chief and teachers considered their job to please him not to teach the kids.
An alternative approach was to build one room, one teacher schools with a view to turn them into formal schools through incremental development and make them a part of the mainstream. This approach was followed by the Society for Community Support for Primary Education (SCSPEB).
The Society (SCSPEB) promoted government-community partnerships by establishing female schools with community participation. Under this approach community would donate land, agree to send girls to the school and initially one teacher would be appointed to start teaching. After regular functioning of school for a specific period it will be handed over to the Government.
The Book Group (TBG) in Karachi took over and improved the management of a school through a notification of the government. The success of The Book Group in one school has persuaded the government to hand over a large number of schools for the introduction of better management.
TBG as well as Teacher's Resource Centre (FRC) produced new reading materials for children and training programmes for school teachers in line with the age and cognitive development of children. This made reading a very joyful and creative activity for children. TBG's reading materials are being taught in schools ranging from Builqis Edhi Schools to Karachi Grammar School and Beacon House School System.
National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) made two interesting innovations in improving enrolment and retention of children in primary schools. First innovation relates to the management of an NGO programme in partnership with the government and second innovation relates to community participation in improving school attendance. Dr Nasim Ashraf, Chairman of NCHD registered an NGO in Human Development Foundation (HDF) to raise funds for his work in education and health sector.
Then he got NCHD notified from President of Pakistan to implement his initiative through an official body. This gives him freedom and flexibility of an NGO and influence and authority of government to work for his social development objective. By keeping financial resources with HDF he has the freedom to move out of NCHD if adverse political changes create hurdles in his work.
His second innovation has been to engage communities for strengthening government's delivery. The NCHD's Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme targets the out-of-school children, by carrying out data collection of each and every household through door to door survey, with the help of village volunteers and teachers of schools, thus ensuring wider community participation through broad-based community meetings.
Once the list of out of school children are prepared from the data collected, names of out-of-school children are handed over to the village volunteers for visiting the homes of out-of-school children, for motivating the parents for in time enrolment, and ensuring their enrolment in nearest schools. Where there are no schools within commuting distance, NCHD opens formal community primary based schools, and thus ensures access to schooling.
In formal schools, where the number of students increased because of intensive enrolment campaign, NCHD has provided additional teachers to cater for the learning needs of new students. A system of dropout prevention was devised, which hinged upon private-public partnership; the teacher and the community volunteers followed up a persuasion strategy, following up on students absent without intimation.
The UPE programme is implemented through the public sector institutions. The strategy for UPE remains capacity building of the District Education Department through demonstration and on-job training. For providing support to the Education Department, a field team is made responsible for social mobilisation for enrolment and dropout prevention, and is attached with the Education Department for the capacity building of the Education Department.
These field tiers also carry intensive monitoring of the activities, and also build the capacity of the Education Department for effective monitoring. The overriding concern remains provision of quality education, which is effected through rigorous teachers training and intensive monitoring of learning achievements of the students.
HEALTH: Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) started a community health initiative Appna Sehat (AS) in 1990s. Programme's innovation consisted in focusing on prevention rather than treatment. Appna Sehat prompted preventive health through health and hygiene education among low-income communities in Pakistan.
Their community health workers educated female members of the household on preparation of home-made oral rehydration solution by mixing salt and sugar in water, on administering ORS and on identification of signs of dehydration. Due to these simple interventions in their project areas, the diarrheal deaths among children are virtually non-existent (0.36% of the total under five mortality rate).
Mothers' ability to prepare home-made ORS increased from 1.5 to 85%, whereas in the corresponding control villages it is just 2%. Whenever 17 children had diarrhea prior to Appna Sehat, only 33% of them were given ORS. Whereas, after being included in the project, 98% of them are receiving ORS. The ability to administer oral rehydration therapy is also increased from 2.8 to 88%.
NGOs like Hand, SGA and others focusing on access to treatment introduced the concept of home clinics run by trained paramedics with referral to hospitals for complicated problems; Friday clinics for bringing doctors to the village at least one day a week and medical camps for specialised treatment.
Two programmes tested management innovations to create access to professional medical help for low-income patients through changing hospital management practices in government owned health units and hospitals.
They are known as Rahim Yar Khan pilot project of Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) and Gujrat Pilot Projects of NCHD. Both projects have been expanded on a large scale with the financial assistance of Government of Punjab. Last but not the least is consumer education on rational use of drugs by The Network for Consumer Protection.
MICRO FINANCE: History of micro finance in Pakistan goes back to co-operative movement during British rule and Village AID programme in 1960s. However various innovations in microfinance sector emerged during 1980s and 90s. AKRSP introduced the concept of using CO savings as collateral for opening credit line with formal sector banks. AKRSP further facilitated provision of micro credit by becoming co-signatory for bank loan with COs and using COs for receiving and paying bank loans. This reduced the loan administration cost as well as the risk of the bank. ORIX leasing Company in Karachi introduced the concept of micro leasing to micro enterprises and RSPs the concept of micro insurance in Pakistan. Microfinance has provided financial services such as savings, credit and insurance to low income households not serviced by formal financial markets and exploited by informal sector. Microfinance reaches the poor - by providing financial services which are scaled to then needs and abilities. Microfinance in Pakistan is dominated by the provision of credit through some 100 NGO-based programmes scattered across the country. The Microfinance Group (MFG), a small association of microfinance practitioners and sponsors dedicated to improving the outreach and sustainability of their activities and of the sector in general. Sustainability of micro finance services is a major challenge to micro credit organisations. An interesting response to this challenge is introduction of Islamic Microfinance by a Punjab based NGO Akhuwat.
Akhuwat charges borrowers an administration fee of five percent of their loans, irrespective of the timing of the repayment. This administration fee, however, is exempted on loans for less than Rs 4000. By the end of 2003 Akhuwat was employing six people, and the pool of funds had increased to four million rupees, or approximately $40,000.
They had lent out almost six million rupees ($100,000) to a total of 900 men and women in about forty groups, by recycling the funds. There had been no defaults. In the three years from early 2002 to 2005 Akhuwat raised donations of about 20 million rupees (a third of a million dollars); in the following one year they raised 30 million rupees (half a million dollars).
From July 2005 to June 2006, around 6200 loans were disbursed amounting to 63 million rupees. By June, 2007 Akhuwat was lending Rs 220 million to over 21,000 clients. Akhuwat instituted a policy of lending to households. Wives and husbands are required to sign loan agreements, or mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters, and the loans are known as family loans.
In case of death or permanent disability, outstanding loan balances are waived, and needy families receive a 5,000 rupees cash payment as well as a stipend of 3,000 rupees a month for three months. The balance of half of one per cent is treated as the fee for managing the insurance operation.
It is Akhuwat's policy, however to recruit staff from the same communities as their borrowers and not to hire highly qualified professionals. This reduces costs money, and it also ensures that staff turnover is much lower than in other microfinance institutions.
Another important way in which costs are reduced and the general spirit of Akhuwat is supported is the use of local mosques as meeting places for loan disbursement and as avenues for imparting social guidance and capacity building.
It builds and strengthens the links between Akhuwat and the local communities. Akhuwat has also made use of a local church in the same way to serve its Christian clients. Akhuwat deliberately avoids grants from official foreign donors or other similar sources.
ENVIRONMENT: UNDP's Small grants programme has been nationally and internationally acknowledged for some of its very innovative projects on environment. SGP supported projects ranging from eco-tourism and trophy hunting to fuel efficient stove and energy efficient houses for the poor. SGP's intervention for protection of Indus Blind Dolphin has consisted of support to eco-tourism project at Taunsa and establishment of a Rescue Unit in Sukkur.
In eco-tourism project SGP's partner Adventure Foundation (AF) taught boatmen to renovate boats, build new boats, guided local crafts people for making souvenirs, trained local guides on handling tourists and sought permission from local government to allow boatmen to serve tourists.
Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP) established in 1985 generated finances by limited trophy hunt on sustainable basis by scientifically determining the off-take of the species based on intensive surveys and population estimates carried out by international experts sponsored by US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The proceeds from the trophy hunt are utilised to protect the wildlife of the area, improve the basic infrastructure and to provide limited medical assistance to the people of the area. In 1996 the chairman of the STEP was made "Knight in the order of Golden Ark" by His Excellency Prince Bernhard of Netherlands.
A Lahore based NGO Escorts Foundation introduced the Fuel-efficient Stove in numerous of villages in Kasur district of Punjab. 'The key characteristics of the stove are that it is Fuel-efficient, time-efficient, cost effective, energy saving and environment friendly.
To date 1893 women have been trained to construct the Smokeless Stove in training workshops conducted in 48 villages. 7986 stoves have been constructed in 48 villages where 14.6 kt wood is saved annually with carbon reductions of 7.3 kt C. The entire cost of the project is the equivalent of just three dollars for each household it services. The project received Ashden Award in 2004.
The Building and Construction Improvement Programme (BACIP) is a progressive and forward looking project of the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, Pakistan (AKPBS,P). It was initiated under the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)-PAKSID initiative and subsequently supported by other donors.
The project was initiated in 1997 and works in the Northern Areas and Chitral to analyse people's problems related to housing and developing realistic and cost effective solutions. The project has developed and tested 40 home improvement products.
Most of the products relate directly to fuel and thermal efficiency (products that conserve fuel wood and forest conservation) whereas 15 of these have been designed to help alleviate conditions of women. Impact studies indicate an average saving of 60 percent of fuel wood per household annually - 2.8 tonnes of fuel wood per year.
Among other fuel-efficient products, the roof hatch window in Gilgit can be cited as one of the most efficient technology that has lowered firewood and heating expenses. Lesser smoke, improved ventilation and lighting, lesser blackening of walls and reduction in dust, smoke and soot are some of the positive impacts on the community. It is noted that a combination of two to three housing improvement is expected to have a greater impact on the household energy and health conditions.
Expenditure reduction has been addressed in the form of reduction in the purchase of fuel wood for cooking and heating purposes, reduced expenditure on health due to a 50 percent reduction in illnesses and reduced recurrent costs of repair and maintenance of houses with BACIP products (especially the structural products).
Income generation has increased by training and small enterprise development, increased working capacity and productivity. AKPBS-P received Alcan Award in 2005 for this and another SGP supported programme. SGP supported Water and Sanitation project WASEP received UN Habitat award in 2006.
To empower communities at the grassroots level, DTCE is facilitating the formation of CCBs, with the support of Union Councils and their Monitoring Committees. The strategy comprises clear, simple information and operational systems in a consultative and participatory manner as part of learning processes, in consonance with its being an ends-oriented, information-intensive, knowledge-based organisation.
Operations are built around the concept of campaigns to increase motivational levels and goal achievement. The strategy entails making the Unions in each Tehsil the focal point for undertaking CCB mobilisation campaigns based on Union level CCB Mobilisation Plans that directly involve local civil society. This energises local social capital through public-private sector partnerships that gives impetus to the CCB movement.
To have maximum outreach DTCE is accomplishing its mission through a networked movement by outsourcing capacity building activities to partner organisations. After the first 15 months of the DTCE's operationalization the number of CCBs increased to 20,000.
The Network for Consumer Protection is activating local government through engaging citizens in making use of complaint redressal system in the government. However struggle of housewives living in Karachi Administrative Employees Housing Society (KAEHS) offers the most interesting and successful case of activating local government by a CBO. Experience of KAEHS can be summed up in seven cardinal principles.
i) You can only be effective if you act as a group. Go unannounced in a big group to visit government officers if you want to have maximum impact.
ii) Information is power. Government employees work as mafia and hide information from you to protect each other. However brokers and go between in these offices have access to all the necessary documents and officers and have full knowledge of functions of various departments. Activist groups should also collect and keep information like these groups.
iii) Members of Provincial assembly (MPAs) and Ministers do nothing other than signing the documents. Don't waste times with them. Go straight to the concerned officers and try to influence them.
iv) If government officers don't respond go for public interest litigation. Collect sound information to mobilise the court. Taking action on the complaint submitted by KAEHS, local judge summoned Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) officers to the court and told them that he will allow the petitioners to stop paying taxes if the government does not deliver service. It worked and KMC delivered.
v) Submit application to concerned official only. Keep a signed copy of the application in your records. The copy should be signed by the receiving authority and indicate date and time of receipt. You will need it for follow-up as it may disappear from the office during your next visit.
vi) Only the people affected by a problem will actively join you. Don't expect more than words of sympathy from others. vii) A local activist plays the key role in bringing people together.
UNDP's small grants programme LIFE made headway in motivating local government authorities to function like a CSO in district Lodhran and Islamabad. In the case of Islamabad LIFE provided a modest grant for preparing digital maps of 13 squatter settlements, marking and allotting numbers to squatter households, verifying numbers through a transparent community dialogue, regularisation of 10 settlements and relocation of the rest.
This process helped resolve a problem which was pending for past 30 years. The process was championed by Tasneem Siddiqi Director General Katchi Abadis Sindh.
In Lodhran district government selected Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) as its Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) to provide training and advisory support and Lodhran Pilot Project (LPP) as local non-government partner. OPP introduced the concept of component-sharing in Lodhran. This concept as opposed to cost-sharing creates community ownership in a cost-effective manner.
Internal development is the responsibility of the people and includes the construction and maintenance, with their own resources, and under their own management, of sanitary latrines, underground sewerage lines with manholes and house connections in their lane and collector drains.
External development is the responsibility of government and includes the main drains (trunk sewers) and the disposal stations and sewerage water treatment plants.
Some key innovations introduced in the procedures were: establishing a working partnership with local government; a comprehensive master planning process and complete documentation of city; eliminating supervisory costs and transference of O&M responsibility to the communities; adherence to local market rates for procurement; on-site supervision and technical assistance provided during excavation and construction, and; division of tasks in a well defined manner.
These new and improved procedures had cost reducing effects and made the project more transparent, simplified the steps of the project cycle. The entire project cycle that covets the technical aspects of the Lodhran sanitation model can be divided into six phases;
(i) surveying; (ii) levelling; (iii) mapping; (iv) design; (v) cost estimate, and; (vi) internal approval. The internal construction component of a sewerage project can be phased into four stages excavation, preparation of manhole covers, pipe joining and construction of manholes.
LPP developed standard technical guidelines and work instructions for project execution and includes level marking, layout, excavation, excavation for pipe laying, excavation for manhole, bed level, preparation of manhole covers, central alignment of the sewer line, laying and sloping of pipes, preparation of concrete, jointing of pipes, construction of manholes, shuttering for manholes, concrete filling of manholes and curing.
LPP is not working as a substitute for the government service providers but as a support organisation that strengthens the existing capacity of the LG. Lodhran is an example of the failure of the government alone to provide basis sewerage facilities to the people without a working partnership with the communities because of cumbersome and rigid policies, complicated procedures, bureaucratic hurdles, financial constraints, lack of maintenance and repair budget, inadequate human resource management and complete lack of community participation.
BUILDING TRUST WITH THE GOVERNMENT: OPP has been able to make the most strategic breakthrough in winning support and co-operation of local government. While many CSOs have demonstrated effective means of achieving results to local government, working through the government has been a daunting task. OPP's experience has shown the way for winning government support.
OPP used mapping and documentation as a tool for advocacy on improvement of urban services. OPP's sanitation mapping is part of a wider process of scaling up people's initiatives.
The purpose of mapping is twofold. First, to document what already exists on the ground (in terms of sanitation infrastructure); and second, to influence the government to align its investments with what already exists rather than to ignore it - which it has done thus far.
Documenting katchi abadis has highlighted people's involvement and investment in sanitation development. As a result, planning agencies and local government are forced to respond to the need to support people's efforts rather than duplicating them this helps reduce costs (of laying pipelines) by developing low-cost designs that link up with peoples' own work at the lane and neighbourhood level.
The mapping process has also allowed community members to acquire skills and knowledge which allows them to engage in a more informed manner with government agencies.
Importantly, documentation of infrastructure has provided the foundations for bringing into question government and IFI planning policies and development projects, and for promoting viable alternatives based on a sound knowledge of ground realities.
An important part of OPPs principles is the idea of 'social preparation'. The general principles of OPPs social preparation, which is a continuous on-going process, are as follows:
i) Survey and document what exists ii) create a support organisation consisting of technicians and social organisers to support the community. Technicians develop the package of advice and social organisers extend it. Social organisers need to be from the community as this resolves any issues related to travel, language, culture, and rapport with the community which might arise. Technicians, however can be from outside the community.
Use of conventionally trained professionals such as engineers and architects for field implementation and interaction with communities is not advisable unless they subscribe to and/or have been initiated into a development approach which views communities as teachers and partners rather than passive recipients of funds, ideas and technologies.
iii) Support local activists. There are some people in the community who are aware of the problems, think about them, try to solve them, and are open to suggestions of others. There is a need to identify such people in the earliest stage of scoping work possibilities in a community.
These early adopters are key to extension of the programme and in fostering community ownership and identification with the programme iv) develop a conceptual plan, v) create manageable local social organisational unit, vi) treat local communities as repositories of knowledge, vii) Document and disseminate of experiences and programmes viii) Monitor, communicate and ask for constant feedback and transparency ix), Relate local issues and realities to wider urban realities, x) Avoid aiming for quick results.
Attention to these details in the process of dialogue with communities and government has enabled OPP to build a strong bond with government and transform the way that government deals with development challenges. Knowledge based advocacy-saying no to non-performing loans.
Urban Resource Centre (URC) and coalition of citizen's organisations have blazed the trail for knowledge based advocacy leading to cancellation of loan for Karachi sewerage master plan.
In 1997, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) were offered a big loan by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to implement a plan under which the sewerage and waste disposal systems of one area of the city were to be improved. The total cost of the project was estimated at almost a hundred million dollars.
When the local NGOs discovered this plan, they were extremely disturbed, how could the highly indebted KWSB justify such an expensive project? They realised that their problem was economic, so they thought of coming up with a solution that were technically as well as economically sound.
According to the alternative plan, the government would only undertake 'external development which would consist of main disposals, nullah and treatment plants, while the neighbourhood level infrastructure would be developed by the communities.
This meant that the maintenance of these smaller sewers would be the communities' responsibility, which it was already doing. A detailed proposal based on this approach and relevant data, well researched design and technical specifications was put before the NGOs and the communities, which backed it to the fullest, rejecting the KWSB and ADB proposal.
By this time the public and the press uproar had attracted the attention of the provincial government, which invited the KWSB and members of the NGO network to a meeting in April 1999.
The alternative plan was placed before the Governor of Sindh who accepted it, rejecting the ADB loan. He also ordered the formation of a three-member committee consisting of Tasneem Sidddiqui, Arif Hasan, and Shaukat Omer, the local experts in urban development, to come up with a least-cost option, which would be financed through local resources.
But that was not the end of the problem for soon the Governor was changed and the new government requested the ADB to extend their deadline for loan approval. The NGOs and CBOs, realising that the deal might still be carried through, started campaigning more vigorously against it.
More meetings were held in Korangi and the impact of the project was once again discussed. Then in July 1999, a meeting was held in the URC, which was attended by all the people lobbying against the project.
As a result of this meeting, a signed petition was sent to the ADB with the help of CREED, voicing the strong opposition of the citizens of Karachi. Finally, in September 1999, the ADB responded to the public pressure and cancelled the loan.
Crime Control: In Karachi, citizens persuaded the Government to notify the transfer of a police station Ferozabad to a citizens' group that has managed to reform it and plans to replicate this effort in other police stations.
In the late 80's and early 90's, as the law and order situation deteriorated in Karachi, with theft, hold-ups and kidnapping for ransom at an all-time high, and the police failing to come to the help of the citizens, the well-to-do started putting barricades in their neighbourhood roads and keeping armed guards in their houses.
A group of citizens living in the PECHS (Block-6) area, in the Ferozabad Police Station jurisdiction, took a different approach. They organised the CPLC-Neighbourhood Care (NC) with a view to utilise the government system itself, and not to by-pass it. Initially, a select group of concerned citizens from the PECHS area started contributing Rs 3,000 per month.
A few months later, as the number of contributing households increased, the contribution was reduced to Rs 1,000 per month per household. In some cases, they were charging only Rs 500 per month in case of widows or retired people.
A small but well-equipped office was established in the annex of a house given free of cost by one of the residents. The office had a 24-hour hotline (452-8888), staffed round the clock who were in constant contact with the police mobiles through the radio.
The Sindh Police gave 22 policemen from the Ferozabad Police Station to patrol the area in two shifts. CPLC-NC provided them with two cat-s and two motorbikes (fitted with radio) for patrolling. They also paid for the petrol. Each policeman was paid Rs 1,500 per month in addition to his government salary. Even though only about 30-40 percent of the households were paying, CPLC-NC were raising over Rs 350,000 per month to look after the area.
MEDIA AS VOICE OF SILENT MAJORITY: Private media has emerged a very important member of the Civil Society on most challenging occasions in the recent history of Pakistan. From the severe earthquake in Northern part of Pakistan in October 2005 to the struggle for the restoration of Chief Justice free media has scaled unprecedented heights.
The broadcasting medium of FM, playing round the clock, remains the one which promotes cultural integration and social harmony. It includes programs for every age and group, designed primarily to attract attention of listeners on any topic and provides unlimited freedom of choice through simplest way of communication. There is a fairly wide choice available to Pakistani audience for watching television for information, education and entertainment needs.
There are five channels of state-run television and about twenty private which broadcast their programs in national and regional languages for about 10 million households with TV sets in the country targeting about 40 million individual, of which 69% are in urban areas and 37% in rural areas. It offers enormous potential as a partner in development for policy advocacy in scaling up of Civil Society innovations for achieving MDGs.
(Concluded)