The Aga Khan Rural Support Program : A Third Evaluation Book

This publication describes the findings of the third independent evaluation by the World Bank of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP). This program, in its thirteenth year of operation, continues to be an effective instrument in improving community productivity and family welfare in northern Pakistan. The program's goal is to involve rural people in their own development, as well as to provide a model for rural development that can be applied to other settings. The program has intervened in the areas of: (i) productive investments, (ii) production-support investments, (iii) training, and (iv) financial and technical services. A key element has been institutional development at the village level. This has provided the framework for communities to organize themselves in acquiring outside assistance, as well as to direct their resources toward productive endeavors. This report examines aspects of the program such as impacts, instruments, women's participation, organizational issues, and replicability. Several lessons that can be drawn from the program's experience include that: (a) poor rural communities can be mobilized to become active participants in their own development; (b) grants and technical assistance to complement local labor can make priority investments possible and provide the incentive for community action; (c) people will sustain their support for a cooperative venture that yields them obvious benefits; and (d) that nongovernmental organizations such as AKRSP, more readily than governments, can provide the highly participatory and responsive approaches that facilitate self-help activities among the rural poor.