ith the shutdown of United States Agency for International Development - the event has been described as the end of the global aid paradigm - hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) worldwide have suspended operations and fired most of their employees. Given its preoccupation with the Ukraine war, Europe has significantly cut and diverted its humanitarian aid from Global South to Eastern Europe. So, there isn’t any aid coming out from the West, in the ambit of ‘international development.’

Pakistan has been one of the major recipients of USAID and European funding. Like other developing countries, there is a debate in Pakistan currently about the future of development projects in the absence of external funding. A critical question comes up: what will be the future of the international and local development landscape; and how will positive social change and human development be achieved? Is there an alternative path to development?

The phrase ‘social change’ has a different meaning to different people. Nadeem Hussain, author, development economist, and public policy researcher, for instance, has a unique lens to see, define and construct social change. For him, social change is all about breaking the barriers of poverty and human suffering by shining the light of education through bottom-up community-based approaches. He proposes a framework for grassroots interventions, with community support that can help initiate social change in the context of developing countries, particularly Pakistan.

It is well known that foreign aid by donor agencies comes with strict conditions. In most cases, donor countries tie aid to narrow foreign policy goals, using it as an instrument of political manipulation. So, how can we navigate out of this difficult situation? What measures do development economists and policy practitioners suggest in this situation? Nadeem has answered these questions based on through his experience of working with multilaterals; national, state, and local governments; non-profits; communities; and the private sector.

Nadeem proposes an alternative vision of development and new practices. Growing up in Karachi, he saw illiteracy and extreme poverty in the urban slums of the metropolitan. After high school, he managed to secure the highly competitive National Talent Hunt Programme scholarship to attend one of the top colleges for his undergraduate studies. During his college days, at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, he realised that due to socio-economic inequalities, higher education— particularly access to top-notch universities—remains a distant dream for a majority of Pakistani children from financially challenged backgrounds. He realised that economic mobility can only be made possible by investing in quality education. He conceptualised an out-of-the-box solution to the problem. In 2013-14, along with a small number of volunteers from IBA, he started The Citizens Foundation Alumni Development Programme. Through the TCF-ADP, talented students from the under-privileged areas of Karachi who had done well in their matriculation and intermediate examination were brought to the IBA, where a group of volunteers studying in undergraduate programmes helped them sharpen their English and mathematics skills. The TCFADP was a zero-budget programme running entirely on volunteerism. As a result, hundreds of TCF school alumni got 100 percent merit-based scholarships for their undergraduate studies, graduated from colleges with distinction and became successful professionals in the local and international job markets. These children from slums have been contributing to the socio-economic uplift of their communities and providing a helping hand to other financially challenged children.

It is well known that foreign aid by donor agencies comes with strict conditions. In most cases, donor countries tie aid to narrow foreign policy goals, using it as an instrument of political manipulation.

Nadeem Hussain also initiated another grassroots intervention, utilising space at his neighborhood mosque to house a community library. With the support of community elders and some college students from the area, first floor of the mosque building was turned into a learning space for children aged 6 to 16 years. Volunteers taught the children basic mathematics, English, science and civics. Nadeem says before the inception of the Ibrahim Goth Library in January 2018, the children used to roam aimlessly on the streets. Now they can story books; prepare for competitions like The Spelling Bee; and interact with guest speakers from a host of backgrounds. A recent guest was Naveed Ahmed, a Harvard College instructor, from Boston, USA. The most interesting part, according to the children, is the free meal.

How can these initiatives be replicated on a broader scale to change the lives of millions of out of school children of Pakistan and initiate an alternative development approach? Nadeem Husain has co-authored a book with [the late] Amjed Noorani on the subject. It is called, Agents of Change: The Problematic Landscape of Pakistan’s K-12 Education and the People Leading the Change (OUP, 2021). The book centers on the catalysts of change—individuals and organisations driving positive transformation in Pakistan through investments in education. With evidence-based research, the book presents a fascinating case of The Citizens Foundation, one of the largest education nonprofits in the world, running more than 2,000 schools and educating more than 300,000 kids across Pakistan. Nadeem says the TCF is a classic case of community-driven citizen-led initiative to enable upward economic mobility through education. All support comes from community-based networks inside and outside of Pakistan. The TCF does not seek major international or regional donor agencies for support. Instead, it relies on the community to bring about the social change it believes in.

Pakistan cannot navigate its current development crisis without investing in human development and building vibrant local economies. With the same bottom-up approach, Nadeem has co-authored a book, The Economy of Modern Sindh: Opportunities Lost and Lessons for the Future (OUP, 2019). It argues that Sindh missed the opportunity to develop despite having a lot of potential in the fields like health, education, energy, irrigation, agriculture and industries. The study focuses on how the province failed to benefit from its natural and human resources and remained poor, largely underdeveloped and home to a large number of out-of-school and malnourished children.

Nadeem Hussain has a people-first approach. For him, development starts at the local level. He proposes policy solutions rooted in local institutions and politics. He argues that different states take deferent development paths and there is no universal formula. He insists that there is no external solution to economic problems of Pakistan.

The writer is a PhD scholar in University of Massachusetts, Boston