Social Mobilization

Social Mobilization is one of the core thrusts and a primary mean of BRSP for supporting rural men and women in their efforts to alleviate poverty. BRSP’s mandate is to strive for poverty alleviation by harnessing people's potential to help themselves, to assume control of local development and improve their standard of living. The process of Social Mobilization encourages men and women to form a group, typically consisting of 20-25 members, known as a Community Organization (CO). Forming of Community Organizations is an important forum for empowering people to take an active role in the management of local development initiatives. By 'social' is meant on the basis of common ground for a common purpose. A 'mobilized' community is one that is able to identify its needs and find the resources necessary to meet those needs. Those resources may be their own savings or labour, or funds or information from a Line Department.

A CO is more than a collection of individuals: it is an entity comprising of members who work for the collective good of the community. A properly functioning CO has both social and economic 'value', thus in a position to contribute to alleviating poverty. On the social side, it brings people together to work for the common good. On the economic side, the CO functions as a conduit for the micro-credit that households use to generate income, and as a base for accumulating savings and putting those savings to work for community development. The CO also attracts funds for new activities, both through NRSP and through the links it establishes with Government Departments and with the private/ corporate sector.

BRSP is a strong champion of these parameters and has achieved a great deal of success. BRSP believes that sustainability of any Program depends entirely on quality of social mobilization to create a proactive community highly sensitized to their problems and capable of addressing them. BRSP has formed 2400 COs in the far flung districts of Balochistan. It also trains and builds the capacity of the CO members in order to assist them social mobilization, CO management and its initiatives.

Below are some district wise statistics on social mobilization:

BRSP Fostered Community Organizations in all Districts
Region/Districts	Male	Female	Mix	Total
Zhob	563	187	0	750
Kalat	485	280	4	769
Kila Saifullah	616	94	0	710
Mastung	848	518	23	1,389
Pishin	450	167	5	622
Bolan	56	11	0	67
Khuzdar	375	236	0	611
Kharan	42	32	3	77
Jhel Megsi	27	10	0	37
Grand Total	3,462	1,535	35	5,032