Innovatively addressing localisation: Pakistan’s Sarhad Rural Support Programme

The humanitarian work of the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) in turbulent north-western Pakistan is an interesting example of how local organisations evolve, adapt, build their capacities and go to scale. SRSP has tackled the limitations of existing humanitarian architecture in implementing localisation by addressing issues like organisational capability, risk, capacity building, trust and best fit approach. This paper explores how SRSP’s management, systems, policies and community outreach show a deep commitment to the marginalised segments of its population and demonstrate downward accountability, while also being upwardly accountable as registrants under Pakistan’s company law, which sets stringent, internationally acceptable standards for financial accountability and protects the organisation’s autonomy against predation from the government and politicians. Its approach to capacity building has been incremental, and built around hands on problem solving, and its program design has been based on iteration, learning and adaption. The SRSP’s work also highlights how good local intermediaries can link the international system to a vast outreach of communities.