Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO ) was incorporated on May 29, 2003, as a not-for-profit organization and registered under section 42 of the Companies Act 2017 (Formerly known as Companies Ordinance, 1984). SRSO is funded by the government of Sindh to work in the designated districts of Sindh. This policy has been endorsed by the government to achieve the goals of poverty reduction through community empowerment, skills enhancement, capacity building and development of community-supported infrastructure projects, and the provision of support for income generation, enterprise development, and micro-credit. For this purpose, SRSO organizes the local communities and develops their managerial and technical capacity. People and the government are supported in forging partnerships and inculcating a sense of ownership among the people. SRSO is presently entrusted with the responsibility of fostering a network of community organizations at the grassroots level across the Sindh province and working in the following sub-sectors while applying the participatory development approach of sustainable development goals.
SRSO’s mandate is to alleviate poverty by harnessing people’s potential within the communities to help themselves and undertake development activities.
BACKGROUND
The social mobilization movement began in Pakistan in December 1982 originating in the Northern Areas. The pioneer of this movement was the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP). It gradually spread to the rest of the country under the guise of provincial Rural Support Programs (RSPs) established by the Government of Pakistan and collaborative donor funding. For this purpose, the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) was established to work under the umbrella of the Rural Support Program Network in designated districts of Sindh.
In July 2003, Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) was established, funded by the Government of Sindh with the provision of an endowment of Rs. 500 million, which was raised to Rs. 1 billion in subsequent years. The Sindh Rural Support Organization has thus a history of 17 years. It started its activities initiated by the National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in District Sukkur. NRSP had planned to cover only three Union Councils of District Sukkur. SRSO has since then expanded its program to 23 Union Councils in five districts namely Sukkur, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, and Ghotki. Now SRSO is working in 15 districts of the Sindh province, i.e. Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Naushehro Feroze, Sh. Banazirabad, Sanghar, Badin, Thatta, Mirpur Khas, Umerkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Kashmore-Kandhkot, and Qamber-Shahdadkot, and 695 Union Councils of these districts.
To perceive socially and economically empowered communities especially marginalized ones and help create a productive community organization by attitudinal change by setting free people’s potentials and willingness to alleviate poverty.
To meet the challenge of battering poverty and help the poor to get above the poverty line and have a standard life. To help marginalized rural people harness their potential to bring about change in their quality of life on a self-help basis.
To perceive socially and economically empowered communities especially marginalized ones and help create a productive community organization by attitudinal change by setting free people’s potentials and willingness to alleviate poverty.
- To unleash people’s potential and willingness to alleviate poverty in Sindh.
- To support and strengthen the Government of Sindh's efforts to translate poverty reduction strategies into action.
- To reinforce and complement the Government of Pakistan's policy of poverty alleviation.
The People Need Social Guidance to Harness Their Potential. Such Guidance is Essentially Needed for The Following Purposes:
- To get organized for the pooling of their resources, cutting down overheads, achieving economies of scale, etc.
- To identify genuine leaders /activists/cadres from amongst themselves or the community. It is only these cadres and not outsiders that can bring out the willingness and harness the people’s potential.
- To identify and prioritize what the people are willing to undertake in terms of opportunities and needs and not demands which have to be provided by outside agencies (the assumption in social mobilization is that guided or blue print approach is not effective).
- To assess the feasibility of the identified portfolio opportunities and needs in terms of peoples capacity, willingness, requirement of resources and availability of resources from within and outside.
- To arrange, secure and facilitate the flow of required resources to the community; and to linkages between them and other development agencies .
- To reinforce and compliment Government of Pakistan's policy of poverty alleviation.
- To support and strengthen Government of Sindh's efforts to translate poverty reduction strategies into action.
- Social Mobilization
- Natural Resource Management (NRM)
- Poverty Reduction
- Crafts Enterprise Development (CED)
- SRSO-Microfinance
- Micro Health Insurance (MHI)
- Social Sector Services (SSS)
- Human Resource Development (HRD)
- Physical Infrastructure and Technology Development (PITD)
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research (MER)
- Gender
- Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
- Climate Change
- Social Sector Services (SSS)
- Physical Infrastructure and Technology Development (PITD)
- Information Technology Department
- HR Department
- Internal Audit Department
- Risk Management & Compliance
- Procurement Department
- Finance Department
- Administration Department
