Internship Report

AKRSP, Baltistan

Submitted by;

Muhammad Sikandar Hasan

Supervised by;

Maam Perkha Khan

Acknowledgements I am thankful to Allah The Almighty for He gave me the will and ability to cope with the hardships of life, and for His benevolences which he bestowed on me. Secondly my gratefulness is to the Regional Program Manager Agha Khan Rural Support Program Mr. Nazir Ahmed for letting me this great opportunity to work under his kind guidance. I am thankful to all the Managers, who inculcated us the structural, organizational setup and working of their respective sections. My special thanks to Mr. Syed Muhammad Muttahri, Manager employability for his kind supervision and guidance throughout the Program. My special gratitude to Ms. Perkha Khan , my internship supervisor at QASMA for her guidance.

Executive summary

The AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Program) was established in 1982 under AKF (Aga Khan Foundation), nobody thought that this NGO will be the most efficient and would do the best towards the prosperity of the then downtrodden society of GBC (Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral).It works to promoting the human development and reducing poverty as well as gender inequalities in GBC through an effective strategy of, 1) Social development 2) Resources development 3) Market development.

With the help of different programmes and different policies of AKRSP, the people of GBs per capita income has increased and achieved a significant progress in formation and building of local support organizations. My personal experience of working in AKRSP was wonderful. I got to know how an organization works and its structure.

Abbreviations AKRSP :- Agha Khan Rural Support Program AKF :- Agha Khan Foundation GBC :- Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral LSO :- Local Support Program VOs :- Village Organization WOs :- Women Organization ID:- Institution Development ED:- Engineering Department M&E:- Monitoring and Evaluation GAD:- Gender and Development PPAF:- Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund ICIMOD:- International centre for Integrated Mountain Development JICA:- Japan International Cooperation Agency EC:- European Commission NGO:- Non Government Organization HRM:- Human Resource Management

Table Of Contents 1) Introduction and Background 2) Village organizations (VOs) 3) Emergence of Women Organization (WOs) 4) Human Resource Management 5)

Introduction and Background: Baltistan lies in North of Pakistan in the mountains of Karakoram and The Great Himalayas, comprising of two Districts, Skardu and Ghanche. This area is blessed of natural resources by the Nature. Although Baltistan gained its independence on 14 th of August 1948 but was governed by feudalistic Raja-geer system till 1970. Then the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Z.A. Bhutto overthrew the feudalistic Raja-geeri system and put it under the Federal Government. But the lack of attention by the Federal Govt. and due to the declining of Raja-geeri system a vacuum was produced for the socio-economic and socio-political well-being of the people. Keeping in view the socio-economic scenario of the region after the feudalistic culture, the AKRSP (Agha Khan Rural support Program) was established in 1985 in Baltistan to lapse the vacuum in the socio-economic and socio-political scenario. In order to achieve its objective, AKRSP has promoted diversified, sustainable and equitable economic development through the provisions of economic resources and opportunities. AKRSPs role has been that of a catalyst for rural development supporting the progress of village level institutional structures, which provided a forum for local communities to organize and initialize activities for their social and economic uplift The Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) has been working in the Baltistan with an explicit focus on developing institutional capacities at the grassroots level. Mandated to improve the living standard of local communities, the AKRSP has helped catalyzed a participatory development process through organizing over 80% of rural households into

4,000 village-based institutions. Recognizing its effectiveness and relevance, the AKRSP model has now been widely replicated within as well as outside Pakistan. From the perspective of promoting tolerance and pluralism, AKRSPs role can be understood along the following dimensions:

Village-Organizations (VO): A Forum for Dialogue and Conflict Management Village Organizations (VOs), with a membership of about two thirds of rural house holds in the program area have become an integral part of the regional developmental process. After the completion of the infrastructural projects, they survived as autonomous institutions able to offer their members other benefits, particularly from the savings and credit scheme under the program. Through organizing the majority of communities into village-level institutions, AKRSP has, in fact, provided a viable platform for local people to articulate their diverse views and needs. By design, these institutions are broad-based and ensure inclusion of voices from different quarters of their constituencies. As result of this broad-based participation, an atmosphere of trust and confidence has been created that is often missing in non-participatory approaches. Ultimately, this institutional mechanism allows people to voice their concerns and jointly find out ways in which these concerns can be addressed. Furthermore, not only did these institutions ensure the inclusion of diverse groups from their constituencies, but they also play an important role in resolving conflicts arising out of the very development interventions. Through promoting dialogue and negotiations amongst the local people, these institutions have been able to resolve conflicts related to common resources and accomplish many development projects.

Experience suggests that AKRSP fostered grass-roots institutions are effective in managing diverse interests and conflicts at the village or inter-village level, a natural outcome of the scope and mandate of the village-based institutions. In this connection, it was also noticed that AKRSP has largely been unable to recognize and engage other players in the civil society institutions such as rights groups and other forums that could play an effective role in managing new challenges.. Furthermore, AKRSP has also started to implement new concepts such as Multistakeholder Forum that could serve as an institutionalized system of dialogue for issues and challenges that affect higher levels of aggregations such as valleys, districts and even regions. Emergence of Women Organizations (WOs): Women in the program area though very active in the local economy, but they were not directly involved in the developmental activities. Thanks to AKRSP women Organizations have become a form or womens participation were heir leadership skills and economic productivity have been able to develop. Like their VO counterparts, women organizations also undertake savings and credit activities. Human Resource Management: AKRSP has made a major contribution in human resource development through its training programs. Villagers are trained in specific fields so that they can continue to provide services within their communities. However to realize the intended role of VOs as full partners in development will require a greater depth of management training for their members. Future projects that involve cooperation among VOs will need a cadre of

managers to assume leadership roles in multi-community settings. And proposed new developments in village banking will require accountants and managers.

AKRSP and Equitable Development As noted in the previous sections that inequitable development is a major driver of conflicts in Baltistan. AKRSPs development model pays explicit attention to the importance of equity to put in place a long lasting and desirable development process. Various evaluations have confirmed that AKRSP has largely been able to incorporate the interests of different groups e.g. gender, sects, and regions. However, evidence suggests that the development in Baltistan has not fully benefited everyone. This inequitable development is not necessarily an outcome of AKRSP or AKDN interventions but there are other factors such as differential government investment that have also contributed toward this skewed development outcome and differential articulation of demand for social sector services such as education, health and sanitation. The specific objectives relating to AKRSP are: To expand the knowledge of the resource systems of Baltistan through a joint research project in order to enhance the capabilities of project staff to respond to the challenges of integrated resource management in high-altitude areas. to improve AKRSP documentation and extension systems with respect to forestry and pasture to improve AKRSPs links with national and international research institutions. Sections of the Organization: The AKRSP comprises of following sections. Institutional Development (ID) section

Engineering Department (ED) Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) section Gender and Development (GAD) section Finance section Enterprise section

Institutional Development Section; The major tasks of the section include; Formation of village Organization (VO). To conduct first meting with the VO to initiate a project. To enhance public-private partnership. For this ID section conducts workshops, multi-stage forums. This section has worked with the collaboration of different Public sector Departments, i.e. Agriculture, LG&RD, Forestry, and Fisheries. Economic development/ Resources Development: Initially the section was named Resource Development Section, but, was transformed into economic development section in 2003. The key functions of this section are;

To conduct the second round of meeting with the VO, and, to prepare the feasibility report. To conduct surveys. Basically the ED section is related with the all kinds of Infrastructural development. Monitoring and evaluation Section:

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The M&E section is an important section of AKRSP. The major tasks of this section include; To provide facilitations to all the sections of the Organization. This could be in the form of written documentation, trainings and orientations. Compilation of NFRs and survey reports at regional level and send them to the core office. To develop proposals for the LSOs and for the Organization herself. To review the proposals constituted by the LSOs and VOs etc. To monitor the ongoing projects in terms of record keeping. To handle the consultants and internees conducting evaluation tasks.

Gender and Development: Gender discrimination is the one of the hot social issues in the countries like Pakistan. To minimize the gender discrimination this section was established. The important tasks of this section are; Formation of WOs. To arrange Gender sensitization workshops, seminars and pamphlets. To stabilize women economically by giving technical and formal education. To create economic resources of the women within the parameters of their sociocultural settings. To create awareness about health and hygiene. Capacity building of women in the society. Finance Section: 11

Finance section is the key section in every public and private organization. The key duties of the finance section include; To ensure the management of all the financial matters of the organization. To keep check on the expenditures of the organization. Enterprise section: The major tasks of this section are: To create market for the local products, especially for those products which are produced with the collaboration of AKRSP. To form organizations of farmers, miners and businessmen, for their capacity building and financial betterment. Beside these major sections there are sub-sections; Agriculture sub-section: The main profession of the people of Baltistan is traditional farming. That is why this section is an important section. The major tasks of the section are; To introduce new variety of seeds to the farmers. To provide them training through workshops and by documentation. To introduce modern scientific approaches of farming to enhance the production in place of the ancient traditional ways of farming i.e. to install dehydration plants and to provide apricot drying kits. To develop barren land by the scientific method of land terracing. To construct water channels through community mobilization. To establish forest and fruit nurseries, in order to enhance forestry. 12

Animal Husbandry: This sub-section works under the ID section. The major tasks include; To enhance the production of milk and to convert the traditional diary-farming on the lines of modern scientific methods. To provide bulls of good breed. To provide medical facilities for cattle to the communities. To train community person to nurse the cattle. Partners/Donors of AKRSP; AKRSP works in close partnership with Government, other civil society organizations and businesses. Its work is generously support by o Government of Pakistan o Aga Khan foundation (AKF) o CIDA (Government of Canada) o European Commission (EC) o NORAD (Government of Norway) o DFID (Government of UK) o Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) o International centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) o Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

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LIST OF AKRSP DONORS IN 2008-09 n o 1 CIDA-IDPR Institutional development poverty 2 DFID through(AKF) 3 Aga Foundation 4 5 6 7 reduction(IDPR) Civil society Program program Area security Program Area Program Area Program Area Program Area Program Area 1march09 1 Oct 08 Jan 07 Jan 09 Jul 05 Jan 07 Donor Agency program a Program for Area Prog.Are Start date End date y CADS currenc Funding committed 9,000,000

20 oct 3104 dec09 20 June 10 31 March 11 Mar

USD

50,000

Khan Food project

USD

100,000

PPAF-CPI phase Infrastructure 7 project PPAF-CPI phase Infrastructure 8 project PPAF-CPI phase Infrastructure 5 project PPAF-CPI phase Infrastructure 6 project

PKR

35,664,200 18,646,536 39,120,000 63,838,000

09 Jun 09 PKR Jun 09 PKR Mar 09 PKR

14

8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3

PPAF-CPI phase Infrastructure 8 PPAF-CPI

Program

Jul 07 Aug 07 Nov 08 Nov 08 Jun 06

Jun 10 PKR Jun 10 PKR Jun 10 PKR Dec 09 Dec 09 EURO PKR

169,149,000 87,800,000 64,494,000 7,693,000

project Area Micro hydel dev Program

phase9 prog Area PPAF-CPI phase Micro hydel dev Program 10 PPAF prog Area water Second generation Program intervention SRD Sustainable development initiatives Improvement for herder live hood of Chitral for Area Baltistan

management EV-K2CNR Committed (Italy) International centre Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)

130,000

Jul 07

Dec 09

USD

14,299

Graphical coordination frame-work of AKRSP

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DONORS

AKRSP VO/WO LSO

COMMUNITY

16

Area Office Astore

AKRSP ORGANISATIONAL CHART

Board OF Directors

General Manager

Core Office

Regional Program Office Baltistan

Regional Program Office Chitral

Regional Program Office Gilgit

Area Office Ghanche

Area Office Booni

Area Office Ghizer

Personal Experience: 17

It was the first time I joined an organization and worked practically. I have got a lot of personal experience through the summer internship in AKRSP. It was a wonderful experience for me and a chance to know how actually an organization works, especially an NGO. This internship was of six weeks, time was little and a lot of work was to do. The work done by is divided into six parts based on six weeks, which is given below. 1) First week The first day I went to AKRSP everything was new for me like people and environment of the organization. I was little bit confused but confident enough to face any new challenge. First of all I met some other confused internees outside of the gate. When we entered into office some staff was there to welcome us. They took all of the internees to a conference hall and started taking our introduction and gave us two forms to fill. The regional program manager gave us an over view and a short introduction about the AKRSP. They serve us with tea and told us to come tomorrow so that they could assign the departments of our choice. The first week of internship was of orientation. Our supervisor used to take us to different departments like finance, marketing, HR, ID (institution Development) and employability for visit and introduction to these departments. The second day our supervisor Mr. Zaman took us to Finance department, we met the manager Mr. Shahid. He told us about the working process of his department and introduced his colleagues. There were total five staff members one assistant manager, a casher and three other employees. They served us with tea during the session and had our introduction too. After the session we asked different questions to the manager, he answered the questions technically. They let us free at 2 o clock and we went to home.

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The third day we visited Marketing department, the manager was Mr. Syed Muttahri. He was also Quaidian, did his MPA from QASMS. We had an excellent session with him there was an assistant manager and two other employees. We were with tea and had an informal session during which he recalled his era at QASMA and shared his golden memories. After the session at 2 0 clock I went to home. The fourth day we visited HR department and Admin, Mr. Ghulam Mehdi was the manager there were 4 staff in HR department and five in admin. The manager gave us a multimedia presentation and cleared every question asked by us. We visited the ID department at the fifth day. The employees there gave us lectures about working of their particular department. Procedures, policies and timings of work were also told to us during this week. The first week was introductory, we got to know about AKRSP and its working system. 2) Second week On the very first day of our second week we were assigned the department we are to join. As per my choice I was sent to Marketing Department. The manager Mr. Syed Muttahri welcomed me with his assistant Mr. Jaffer. They gave me the instruction and guide lines to follow and told me about its working. The marketing department was working on different projects like value chain of honey, buck wheat and apple. On the second day they told me to work with apple value chain team. I started working with apple value chain team from the third day of my second week. There was a separate room for this team for discussion and meetings. They gave me a chair and table and laptop was my own. They told me what apple value chain is all about how it works what is its mechanism and procedures. Apple value chain is basically a chain which includes

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all the processes, persons and mechanisms used to deliver an apple (from seed to end consumer). 3) Third week In third week I was given task of getting a questionnaire filled from all the whole-sellers and retailers of Apple within the Skardu city (headquarter of Baltistan). It was a tiring task and was also my first practical experience of market. There was another internee with me in this assignment. The manager gave us a time of one week to get 300 questionnaire filled. We started visiting the market from the third day as there were issues of security. Fourth day we visited the markets near our homes and got 57 questionnaires filled with a great trouble and struggle. On Friday just 20 questionnaires were get filled, we were disappointed very much but we had a hope on our abilities. We sit together and started thinking about the assignment. The main task was to make the retailers and shopkeepers agree to give us information. Lot of retailers and whole-sellers were illiterate and to make them understand that why we were getting the information about their business, it was a very difficult and headache task. The questionnaire was actually about the rates of different types of apple, from where whole-seller buy and to whom they sell. They were requested to give their suggestions to improve apple market and difficulties they face. We planned a lot for the next week as we are to submit the results on Thursday. 4) Fourth week On the first day of fourth week we went to office at 8 o clock and then went to field with zeal and zest first we went to the fruit market of the city and started with the wholesellers it was a tough and difficult task. We finished with the whole-sellers at 2 o clock then started approaching the retailers every retailer was there with a new story and

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different situation but we carried on and did stop at 6 o clock evening. The number of questionnaires we got filled reached to 189. On the next day we went to market early in the morning. We divided the whole city into two regions northern region and southern region. I got northern region and went to accomplish the task, in the northern region there were approximately 20 retailers and 8 whole sellers. I started with whole-sellers which got a lot of time and hard work. Then I moved to retailers and found that there were 25 retailers, which was good for me. I did with retailers easily as I had a lot of practice in last 4 days. My other partner get 70 questioners filled, so we were near to our target. We were left with only 8 questionnaires which was an easy task so we left the remaining task to the next day. On Wednesday we went to a beautiful small town near Skardu, named as Hussainabad. There were 10 retailers and only one whole-seller, which made our task more easy, as we only need 8 questionnaires to get filled. We went to all the retailers and the whole-seller and did our task efficiently. Then we visited apple orchards and farms located in the small town. After spending a lot of time in the beautiful places we left to Skardu at evening. We were happy and enjoying all the way as we had done our task. We told our supervisor too about the task he praised us and told us to submit all the questionnaires by the next morning. On Thursday we went to office early but the supervisor was busy in a meeting with the foreign donors team. We spent all the day in the office sitting in our respective places. Doing nothing was not an issue, but we were expecting a great welcome and praise by our supervisor, all in vain. We left all the questioners on the table of supervisor and went to home at 2 o clock. Friday was a holiday, as a worst incident happened on the soil of Gilgit Baltistan. The organization remained close for 5 days including weekend of last week.

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5) Fifth week The organization opened on Wednesday but a lot of employees were absent. Our supervisor called us to come to discuss on the task which we had done. He was happy to see us on time as we were the only internees present. He asked us about the difficulties we faced in getting the questionnaires filled and the techniques we used to tackle the problems. We told him each and everything we learned and faced. He then started putting all the information on excel sheet on his laptop and entertained us with a cup of special tea. There were Eid holidays from Friday of the running week, our supervisor was happy and satisfied from us so he told us to come after Eid holidays. The organization was closed for almost 5 days due to Eid-ul-fiter. 6) Sixth week After Eid holidays we visited different places where the projects of AKRSP were in operation. The organization gave us 3 vehicles and a field supervisor for the visit. This visit was compulsory for all the internees so they divide us in 3 groups having 4 members in each group. The organization granted all the expenses except food. The SEED (Social Economical and Environmental Development) projects were operating in these areas. Our main focus was to see whether the projects were working in order and whether they were effective for the community. We also took feedback from the residents of those areas. The places we visited were: Basha ( last man settlement in Himalayas) Khapulo ( capital of Ghangchay district ) This visit was full of fun and knowledge. It was basically a tour of two days and one night. First we went to Basha valley where we saw a huge development by SEED under

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the umbrella of AKRSP. It was the first time that I visited the last man settlements in Himalayas. We visited the following projects in Basha carried out by SEED for the development and welfare like: Irrigation Electricity Green house Farming ( buck wheat ) Plantation ( fruit trees ) Dairy and Poultry Cable TV network.

We stayed there in Basha LSO guest house, which was the only cemented building in the whole Basha. On the next morning we had our breakfast and started our journey towards Khapolu, the capital of Ghangchay district. We reached there at 3 o clock, had our lunch and went to its most unique places like: Khapulo fort 900 years old mosque Khapulo fort is 500 year old fort now a days run by Sarena Hotels chain. When we reached there it was full with tourists from abroad and nation-wide. We took photographs and have tea in a royal way with modern touch. Then we went to a mosque which was 900 years old and having Mughals architecture. We offer prayers and took photographs. The most special thing about this mosque is that it is a double story mosque both stories are used by different sects. Its the most attracting thing for todays muslim. We left for

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Skardu at evening and reached home late night. We did not go to the organization next day but the day after next day was our last day at organization. At the last day we had an informal session with our department members at the end they promise to give us the internship letters soon and said good bye with best wishes.

SWOT Analysis:

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Strengths Defined & Easy work process Excellent Employee Relations Open communication Channel LSOs

Weaknesses Low Employee Motivation No cultural and religious diversity Less government support

Opportunities Education & Health Ability to increase donations Grass root access Technology

Threats Sectarian Factor Weather and climate Cultural threats

Strengths The working mechanism of AKRSP is very strong because the policies and procedures of performing tasks are defined clearly and employees dont face any difficulty. As it is an international organization so it follows international standards and having a unique vision. Which makes the employees more clear about their goals. AKRSP employees have excellent employee relations between the upper level management, middle level management and lower level management. As there are no barriers between any level of management. If a security guard has a problem then he can directly go to the RPO to complain against his problem but the supervisors handle all such problems at their end. 25

LSOs are the Local Support Programs which can work like an organization if supported with funds. These have access to the grass root level and to the donors and work like facilitators. These are the main strength of AKRSP.

Weaknesses: AKRSP employees are less motivated because employees working there are having a very simple cultural background. The salary they receive is enough to satisfy their needs and wants, which are limited. They do not go for luxuries because of the culture that prevails there rather they are contented so they do not work more. In AKRSP there is no cultural and religious diversity as all the employees are from the same cultural background. All the employees from RPO to security guard are from Baltistan and called as Baltis, having same language and culture. All the employees are the followers of same sect of Islam. AKRSP is not receiving any support from government so they fulfill all their financial needs through different donors from all over the world. AKRSP have some permanent donors like European Commission and some donors vary from project to project. Opportunities:. In the Baltistan reign AKRSP only works for economical and social development. Which is no doubt an excellent welfare but there are some gray areas which are to be focused such as Education and Health. As these areas can let AKRSP to penetrate in the whole reign.

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AKRSP can increase its donations by marketing its work and human resource. It has an excellent human resource as it has access to the grass root level and got a high image in the minds of the people of the reign. As it helps in skill development and making people independent.

Threats: Since the organization works under the supervision of Prince Karim Agha Khan about whom the people of Baltistan have controversial thoughts. As Prince Karim Agha Khan is also the supreme leader of a sect of Islam, which is not practiced in the Baltistan reign. It can cause a bad effect on AKRSP so it should take a lot of care in this aspect. Weather and climate of Baltistan is very extreme cold in winters, which lasts 8 months in year. In summer there is chance of floods due to melting of glaciers. So its a great threat for AKRSP projects in Baltistan reign. In winters the work process is very slow or no work condition. The projects are to be completed in summer but there is another threat which is floods and land sliding which is a normal process in the whole reign. People of Baltistan are very firm believer of their values and culture they dont accept change particularly the one bought by multinational firms like AKRSP. There is a segment of people called nationalist are the main pressure groups working against AKRSP. They are small in number but are more influential as they are the native people.

11.

Key findings 27

After conducting the above study following are the key findings; AKRSP is the most efficient social sector organization due its community mobilizing working mechanism. AKRSP has brought revolutionary changes in almost every sphere of the life of the local community. Communities have shown more trust in AKRSP rather than the Public sector departments. Due to the involvement of communal interest and participation in all stages of development, AKRSP projects are more efficient and long-lasting then the projects of Public sector departments. AKRSP has enhanced the capacity building of the communities by enhancing their Human Resource Management and Natural Resource Management. This proved to be very vital. The formation of LSOs is step to enhance the capacity building and socioeconomic enhancement of the local communities even in the absence of AKRSP. This is an exemplary step towards self-reliance.

Conclusion:
AKRSP has made a substantial development impact in a very difficult environment. It has not only tried to maintain an enclave approach but also has progressively integrated its activities into the overall development process, with government and other investors. This approach and the principle of insisting on developing a self-help capacity within cooperating communities, predict well for the sustainability of its benefits. AKRSPs flexibility and grass root emphasis greatly 28

contributed to the program success. AKRSP has increased NGO participation as an integral part of the rural developmental projects. Another major success of AKRSP is the institution building through ownership in, the form of LSOs, as a starting point of development. By involving the beneficiaries in every stag of their development, a foundation and relationship has been built for the future.

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