The National Rural Support Programme, registered under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984, was established in 1991 as a non-profit organization to undertake development activities in the rural areas of Pakistan. It is operating in the Islamabad Capital Territory and in 31 districts of all the four Provinces and the Azad Jammu & Kashmir. NRSP is also providing technical assistance to other Rural Support Programmes covering additional areas. The main objective of NRSP is to foster a countrywide network of grassroots level organizations to enable rural communities to plan, implement and manage developmental activities and programmes for the purpose of ensuring productive employment, alleviation of poverty and improvement in the quality of life.

Poverty alleviation strategies and programmes aim at increasing people's access to goods, services and opportunities; increasing people's ability to withstand the socio-economic shocks resulting from job loss, crop failure and illness and expanding the horizon of opportunities for improving the quality of life of the poor. NRSP can facilitate pooling of resources through social mobilization, income generation, accumulated savings, the establishment of profitable enterprises, creation of reliable and profitable market links, capacity building for better access to employment, reduced costs in health and the provision of educational services where they did not exist earlier, as its contribution to poverty alleviation. www.nrsp.org.pk
 

NRSP considers Human Resource Development (HRD) to be a vital constituent of the process for achieving sustainable socio-economic development. Hence the very catalytic dimension of NRSP is its Human Resource Development component implemented by the Institute of Rural Management (IRM).

The NRSP - Institute of Rural Management is one of Pakistan's foremost training institutes in the non-profit sector, working with firm determination for the cause of poverty reduction through skill enhancement that instill a spirit of self-reliance as well as pave ways for securing gainful employment. This also enables the rural masses to achieve a sense of dignity. The building block of its foundational premise is its objective “To harness people's potential to help themselves”. Although an integral part of NRSP, it began its operations as a self-managed and autonomous institution in 1993. IRM combines a flexible organizational structure with integrated managerial control and provides technical support to NRSP and other partner organizations.

IRM has earned an outstanding recognition as a leading training facility that provides the utmost form of social guidance through formal training, on job technical advice and experience sharing seminars and workshops both for staff and community members of not only NRSP but also national and international organizations.

The institute holds a vast experience and expertise in arranging and conducting a wide range of skill enhancement programmes including both long and short term training programmes, field oriented research studies, symposiums, national and international workshops and exposure visits.

IRM serves as the training wing of all the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) in Pakistan, as it equips the rural poor with the required competency in their chosen fields. The outreach of the Institute extends directly to almost 76 Districts (in the four provinces as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir) representing the presence of NRSP and the network of Rural Support Programmes.

Due to the diligent efforts and services of the institute in the field of rural development, it has been declared as the “Center of Excellence” by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN ESCAP). It has also been given the “Honourable Mention” for the UN ESCAP, HRD Award in the year 2001.

This global recognition was awarded to IRM for the capacity building and skill enhancement services that it has rendered to more than two hundred thousand people including community members, activists, social organizers and professionals of the private/ public and corporate sector during the last decade. www.irm.edu.pk