BRACE Advocacy Event

BRACE Advocacy Workshops on Poverty Dynamics, Inclusive Development and Women’s Empowerment in Balochistan

In order to inform decision making for rural development and local development in Balochistan, One Day Advocacy Workshop on Poverty Dynamics, Inclusive Development and Women’s Empowerment in Balochistan held at Serena hotel Quetta.

The advocacy workshop was jointly organized by Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), Balochistan Rural Support Program (BRSP), National Rural Support Programmes (NRSP), Human Dynamics through the project of Balochistan Rural Development and Community Empowerment (BRACE) Programme. BRACE is a five-year European Union-funded program being in close collaboration with the Local Govt. and Rural Development Dept., Government of Balochistan. The overall objective of the programme is to support the Government of Balochistan in its efforts to reduce the negative impact of economic deprivation, poverty and social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, and instead to develop opportunities by building and empowering resilient communities to participate actively in identifying and implementing socio-economic development activities on a sustainable basis in partnership with local authorities.

The event was attended by a large number of policymakers, government officials, professionals, and academics. The event was inaugurated by Minister Finance Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi and guests of honor Deputy Speaker Balochistan Assembly Sardar Babar Khan Musakhel, Member National Assembly – Maulvi Kamal ud Din, Minister Excise & Taxation Malik Naeem Khan Bazai, Minister Livestock, and Dairy Development, Mitta Khan Kakar, Member Provincial Assembly Abdul Qadir Nail, Member Provincial Assembly – Ms. ZeenatShahwani, Member Provincial Assembly Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddiqui, Member Provincial Assembly, and Chairman Public Accounts Committee Mir Akhtar Hussain Langove, MPA Zabid Reki, MPA Ms. ShaheenaMehterzai, Ex- MNA – Khalil George, Additional Chief Secretary Abdul RehmanBuzdar, Secretary Health Dostain Jamaldini, Secretary Local Government Ahmed Raza, Chief Foreign Aid Rab Nawaz Khetran, Provincial Coordinator Human Dynamics – QaiserJamali, Nadir Gul Barech CEO BRSP, Ms. Shandana Khan CEO RSPN, Maulana Anwar UlHaqueHaqani, Dr Atta Ur Rehman were key speakers of the event. They all reiterated that poverty needs to be addressed at the household level and that women’s inclusive development is the way forward to sustainable development. It was also agreed that social focus needs to be on women literacy and upskilling the youth of Balochistan in order to employ them during the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) so that investors do not outsource skilled labor from other parts of the country and local skilled youth gets employed.

The main objective of the workshop was to share the evidence-based research findings with the key stakeholders especially the Government of Balochistan, Civil Society, academics, private sector, UN agencies, and international development organisations. Dynamics of Household Poverty and Inclusive Development in Balochistan with Focus on Women Empowerment.

The presenters oriented the audience with the following informative presentations.

50. a) Dynamics of Household Poverty and Inclusive Development in Balochistan with Focus on Women Empowerment. This is a three-wave longitudinal study being carried out in three districts of Balochistan including Loralai, Khuzdar and Kech. Findings of the first wave of the study were shared with the audience. Some of the important findings were; overall unemployment is the biggest poverty push factor, as expressed by 19% of women, higher dependency ratio and lack of education or skill are believed to be poverty push factors by an overall 18% and 13% of women respondents respectively, low income and health expenses are described as poverty push factor by 10% and 9% women respectively, unemployment/ Under Employment is 50.64% is likely to push household into poverty, large Family Size and Dependency ratio has a second-highest likelihood of pushing HH in poverty i.e. 37.5% (For transitory poor and non-poor bands it has the highest likelihood), overall Lack of education and any technical skills are 29% likely to push households into poverty. It was also revealed during the research that women’s rights are neither recognised nor given any importance in many rural areas of the sample districts.

A presentation was given on ‘Institutional Maturity Index’ and showed how Community institutions fostered under the BRACE Programme are being operated and sustained by the local communities in Balochistan. These institutions an effort to strengthen the relationship between the state and the citizens.

At the end, researchers talked about ‘Emerging Outcomes of Adult Literacy and Numeracy Skills study from Khuzdar district’ where uneducated adult women are being taught about life skills including literacy and numeracy.

Some of the recommendations given by the researchers in order to improve conditions at the local level include; Introduce inclusive growth-based policies in Balochistan for poverty alleviation, Government should adopt bottom-up policy design approach, girls education, youth skill development and adult literacy programmes should be introduced and further strengthened, Government departments should be strengthened through a consistent policy of inducting, retaining and competence development of human resource involved in service delivery for basic services (health, education, skill development, mining, agriculture & livestock, public health engineering).

The workshop was concluded by Minister Finance Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi where he appreciated working being done by the implementers and emphasized over the role of social mobilisation in the rural and local development of Balochistan.