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The South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) is a registered with the Government of Pakistan and functions under the Societies Registration Act 1860. non-governmental organization working in Pakistan.
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The South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) is a registered with the Government of Pakistan and functions under the Societies Registration Act 1860. non-governmental organization working in Pakistan.
South Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-PK) was founded by a group of leading Pakistani development and social activists in 1987. As a member of South Asian civil society, SAP-Pakistan is striving to empower marginalized sections of society and working to influence policies in favor of just practices and equal opportunities for marginalized communities. SAP-Pakistan promotes citizens alliances, women's participation in political processes, peace and conflict prevention and aims at creating demand for access to social services and rights. SAP-Pakistan's’ strengths are in its work in communities, human development, advocating for rights and system reforms.
SAP-Pakistan is one of the leading and well experienced national organization in Pakistan with significant contribution in the areas of promoting public accountability and people's voices for good and responsive governance and pro-poor policies. [1] SAP-Pakistan's struggle for a transparent and accountable governance model encompasses a broad array of diverse practices. There are several core elements that remain crucial and manifest in its approach. These include; accessing information; making the voice of citizens heard and engaging in the processes of negotiation for reform. It has a demonstrated capability of leading large advocacy campaigns, actions and programs in all four provinces and FATA. This network includes more than 2500 community groups and various civil society organizations. Through one of its initiatives for democracy and governance SAP-PK is present in 5000 villages working with cross sections of society especially with rural poor including women and non-Muslims. [2]
SAP-Pakistan's advocacy approach includes generating relevant information in public domain and various forms of direct-state interaction including community level meetings with government officials or indirect mediated forms of consultation and negotiations involving key stakeholders. As a result of this approach and subsequent practices, SAP-PK has achieved various successes and created a huge potential in four major dimensions i.e. citizen-state bridging mechanisms; attitudes and capacities of citizens and civil society actors; attitudes and capacities of state actors; an enabling environment. At present most of SAP-Pakistan's community groups, networks and advocacy alliances at provincial and national level are actively engaged in making the government and elected representatives to the account for their policies and decisions.
SAP-PK derives its name from a regional network, i.e. South Asia Partnership. This is a volunteer network of participatory development-support organizations operating under the same name and for the same purposes in Canada and four South Asian countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Peace and Regional Cooperation, Gender and Development, Democratic Governance, Poverty and Sustainable Livelihood, Human Security and Safe Environment are core themes of SAP-PK. They work together in the context of a common charter. [3]
SAP-Pakistan is an active member of various global forums that promote regional and global alliances of citizens and their organizations, to help advance regional and national agendas of common initiatives to strengthen the capacity of civil society. This includes peasants and rural workers, women, religious minorities and other marginalized groups. [4] Since 1987 SAP-PK has worked with more than 10 funders and spent approximately PKR 1800 million on its different development programs and campaigns. Its main funders include Department for International Development (DFID) (or UK-Aid), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Oxfam, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Church World Service (CWS), European Commission (EC) / European Union (EU), Agha Khan University (AKU), The Asia Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 26 Canadian NGOs supported community projects and local philanthropists. In recent years SAP-PK has started exploring funders especially building its local resource base. Some successes have been made to raise local funds. Its program portfolio and funding base also reflects that it has successfully reached out to several active external and local funding sources.
SAP-Pakistan's work includes programs on poverty alleviation, agriculture development, livestock and dairy development, building rural infrastructure and creating livelihood solutions for the rural poor. The organization claims their development schemes have benefited around 3.5 million people, mainly women, ultra poor, landless, home-based workers and other marginalized groups. Their rural development models include efficient use of irrigation and transformed community schemes, in nearly 150 villages in the districts Layyah, Rajanpur, D.I.Khan, Gawadar, Ormara, Khyber Agency, Bhakkar and many more.
SAP-Pakistan's work has been extensively monitored and evaluated by its main funders including DFID, CIDA, SDC, EU and PPAF and many others. Most of these evaluation and monitoring missions have endorsed its achievements and contribution to the marginalized sections of the society and its participatory, transparent and accountable management style. [5]
Outreach: SAP-Pakistan has four provincial offices with multiple strategic partners in numerous districts across the country. These well-established partner organizations and networks are aligned with SAP-PK's development vision and strategic direction, and also extend their full support to operate as support centers for smaller organizations and communities. This approach has enabled SAP-Pakistan to manage extensive networks and communities without incurring high operational and administrative costs. SAP-PK has a national Secretariat in Lahore. SAP-Pakistan has a large network of community groups, peasants and workers groups (PWGs) in 5000 villages (in all, four provinces and FATA/PATA), district and provincial level networks of these community groups, an advocacy network comprising 3000 civil society organizations and 1550 trained social activists who have undergone more than year-long training with SAP-PK.
SAP-Pakistan has been actively working with government at district, provincial and federal levels. It has served on different committees and board constituted by the government such as Social Action Program, Social Welfare Department, Planning Commission and Rural Development and Devolution and Ministry of Information. SAP-Pakistan is a gender sensitive and responsive organization that follows gender justice policies and values in all its organizational, programme and field operations. Its governing bodies and staff composition reflects affirmative gender treatment with clear preference for women and other marginalized groups. [6]
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.
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The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private, not-for-profit international development agency, which was founded in 1967 by Shah Karim Al Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, the 49th Hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. AKF seeks to provide long-term solutions to problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ill health in the poorest parts of South and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa, and the Middle East. In these regions, the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal and resource poor areas are given particular attention. The Foundation's activities often reinforce the work of other sister agencies within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). While these agencies are guided by different mandates pertaining to their respective fields of expertise, their activities are often coordinated with one another in order to "multiply" the overall effect that the Network has in any given place or community. AKF also collaborates with local, national and international partners in order to bring about sustainable improvements of life in the 19 countries in which it works. The Foundation's head office is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to "improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia." The Asia Foundation (TAF) was established in 1954 to undertake cultural and educational activities on behalf of the United States Government in ways not open to official U.S. agencies. Headquartered in San Francisco, The Asia Foundation works through a network of 18 offices in 18 Asian countries and in Washington, DC.
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Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is Ugandan non-governmental organization dedicated to aiding women and women's organizations in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools to share information and address issues collectively. WOUGNET is a member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) since January 2005, Girls Not Brides since 25 March 2012, The Global Network Initiative (GNI) since 2019 and Digital Human Rights Lab since 2019.
Development Workshop (DW) is a non-profit organization providing assistance for poor and disadvantaged communities in the developing countries. Established in 1973. Works in more than 30 countries of Asia, Africa, the Americas.
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The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is a non-profit organization, and one of the largest privately owned networks of low-cost formal schools in Pakistan. The Foundation operates a network of 1,687 school units, educating 275,000 students through over 12,000 teachers and principals, and over 17,400 employees. Approximately 94% of the Foundation's expenditure is allocated to the Education program. In addition, TCF also conducts a literacy and numeracy skill development programme in communities linked to its schools which has taught reading and writing to over 150,000 adults.
NetCorps was a volunteer-organizing coalition consisting of nine Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and managed by the NetCorps coordination unit. Through the program, the organizations created international information and communication technologies (ICT) internships in developing countries around the world. Interns typically participated in six-month programs, leaving between August and November for host organizations in the placement countries. Positions were limited to 19–30-year-old Canadian citizens or landed immigrants who had "appropriate information and communication technologies skills". Typical duties included creating webpages, developing databases, computer networking, setting up hardware, preparing manuals and other documentation, and general-to-advanced computer instruction.
Strengthening Participatory Organization is the largest rights-based national support organization in Pakistan working since 1994 to strengthen and support community organizations and public interest institutions for promotion of democratic governance, social justice, peace and social harmony. SPO engages civil society networks, faith-based organisations and groups representing a wide range of stakeholders.
International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF) is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to linking Canadian and Muslim communities with overseas development projects, both humanitarian emergency assistance and long term development projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Americas, based on Islamic principles of human dignity, self-reliance, and social justice.
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Fauzia Viqar is the CEO of Rah-Center for Management and Development. She is an internationally recognized expert and a visionary leader on gender issues in development. She specializes in women’s empowerment with a focus on policy/legislative review and reform. She has a vast experience of working with government and civil society organizations in Canada and Pakistan and has led a large number of programs on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the Government of Pakistan, Fauzia succeeded in placing gender equality and female empowerment at the core of government processes, based on her years of advocacy and by providing concrete evidence derived from unique data collection based on administrative and specialized surveys. She serves on various policy making boards and committees.