Pro-Poor Participative Practices in Pakistan: An Analysis of Typology of Community Participation in Social Action Program (1992-2001)

Siraj M¹*

1. Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRC) Islamabad, Pakistan

Since the early 1990s, every government in power made efforts to address the issue of social development and poverty reduction in Pakistan. The main instrument through which efforts were made to expand access and improve the quality of social services provided by the government was the Social Action Program (SAP), one of the largest public programs implemented so far in the country. It aimed to increase the government spending on coverage, quality and effectiveness of delivery of basic services (basic education, basic health, population welfare, rural water supply and sanitation). However, the program could not achieve the desired objectives despite that the level of community participation, notwithstanding other factors, was higher than in the pro-poor programs implemented earlier. This situation invites revisit of the whole idea of community participation in pro-poor policies and programs.

This paper seeks to analyze the level of community participation in SAP. The objective is to probe whether the participative practices in the program were adequate in the context of desired objectives. For this purpose, the study will apply the Pretty typology of participation. The hypothesis is that the level of participation in SAP was inadequate for achieving the program objectives. The expected result is that the program used the three lowest levels of participation i.e. manipulative, passive, and participation by consultation, which added negligible value to the program. The paper is also expected to produce significant results in terms of methodology of participation measurement, in addition to identifying lessons for pro-poor public policies and programs.

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