Poverty Trends and Issues in the Remote Mountains of Northern Pakistan

Abstract

This paper attempts to draw on experiences of policy interventions in fighting chronic poverty in remote rural areas (RRA) in the North of Pakistan, which straddle the Himalayan, Hindukush and Karakurum mountain ranges. Northern Areas, a classic spatial poverty trap, were landlocked until recently when the Karakurum Highway was constructed, connecting Islamabad to Southern China. Typically poor in geographical capital, with per capita incomes at a third of the national level, this area has recently been the subject of greater government investment, partly because of its strategic proximity to the Siachin Glacier and Kashmir. This paper analyzes the dynamics and challenges in an RRA opening up to new opportunities and livelihood options. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (a Pakistani NGO) helped in this process through building on and enhancing social capital in these marginalized areas and leveraging it to improve the quantity and quality of human and produced capital. Not discounting the issues of attribution, this experience of fighting poverty through community driven development has recorded doubling of per capita incomes in real terms over a two-decade period.