2010 alone, floods in Pakistan affected 20 million people, destroying an estimated crop value of 1 billion US dollars,” she pointed out. Pakistanis generally lack basic necessities such as education, health, security, mobility, and access to information which adds to their woes.
Without these basic information tools, aspiration levels are exceptionally low, deepening poverty and triggering a vicious cycle that further reduces aspiration levels.
Poverty expert Mehmood Mirza said aspirations may relate to income, wealth, educational attainment, social status, or any other area one considers important. When an individual’s aspirations are high relative to the average level in his district, his aspiration level is considered to be high, he said. Conversely, when an individual’s aspirations are low relative to the average level in his district, his aspiration level is considered to be low. He said it is essential for policy makers to understand what leads to high or low aspirations among the poor, as well as cognitive biases. This would help determine an effective, pro-poor policy.
“Our farmers lack ambition, which is the distance between what an individual might aspire to and the conditions he/she currently finds him/herself in,” said progressive farmer Hamid Malhi. He said a rural inhabitant can aspire to any level of achievement, ranging from absolute complacency with the status quo to limitless ambition to achieve something greater.
Experts say that the aspirations gap plays an important role in driving future-oriented behaviour, such as costly investments aimed at raising future standards of living. They said it is critically important to understand what policies lower aspirations, raise aspirations, and which can ensure that aspiration levels remain high.
However they pointed out that failures occur when individuals do not proactively invest to improve their situation. Such failures they warn may manifest themselves in fatalism– a belief that one’s destiny is preordained and beyond one’s control.