Purpose

Standard of living of poor people in Chitral sustainably improved.

Capacity of the poor in Chitral to plan and manage their own development in an equitable and sustainable manner enhanced.

Use of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches

The main civil society organisations implementing livelihoods programmes in Pakistan are the rural support programmes (RSPs). The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) was the first RSP and started in the early 1980s.

The RSP approach has proved successful at generating broad-based rural development by (a) building local development capacity through community organisation, (b) building capital through regular savings, (c) training villagers in key skills and (d) supporting communities with technical interventions to improve access to irrigation and drinking water and improve the productivity of small farms.

The Pakistan Sustainable Livelihoods Strategy (PSLS) aimed to build on the experience gained in supporting the RSPs [learning by doing] and sought to develop more explicit linkages with the sustainable livelihoods approach being mainstreamed within DFID.