Rural Proofing: A New Lens to Reimagine Rural Policy

By: Dr. Ghulam Mohey-ud-din

Rural Realities in Pakistan

Over 148 million Pakistanis, almost 61.18 percent of population, reside in rural areas, but they account for less than one third of total GDP only and face disproportionately high poverty and service delivery gaps.
According to the 2023 digital census, rural dwellers endure an average annual income at least 30 percent lower than their urban counterparts, while nearly 45 percent of Pakistanis live below the national poverty line — more than 100 million individuals, three quarters of whom are in rural locations.
Meanwhile, broadband penetration in rural districts lags by over 40 percentage points, and maternal mortality is twice the national average outside city limits. These stark disparities underline the urgent need for a systematic “rural lens” in policymaking — commonly known as rural proofing — to drive more equitable, place based development.

What is Rural Proofing?

Rural proofing is a structured process that integrates a “rural lens” into all stages of policy design, implementation and evaluation. Rather than a standalone policy, it is a guidance mechanism ensuring that proposed laws, regulations and programmes are appraised for their likely impacts, both adverse and beneficial, on rural communities before they are finalised.
Originating in the late 1990s across OECD countries — including Canada’s “rural lens” and England’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) model — rural proofing has evolved into an OECD endorsed best practice for place based policymaking.

The Four Stages of Rural Proofing

A robust rural proofing framework typically comprises four core stages.
The first stage is ‘Scoping and Definition’ which involves clearly delineating “rural” to reflect the heterogeneity of zones — peri urban fringes, irrigated plains, arid plains, and mountainous highlands.
The second stage is ‘Evidence Gathering’ which requires collecting quantitative data (demographics, income, service access) and qualitative insights (local stakeholder consultations) early in policy development.
Third stage is Impact Assessment through conducting ex ante evaluations of draft proposals —transport, health, education, agricultural programmes — to identify unintended rural urban disparities or to harness rural comparative advantages.
The fourth and final stage is Adjustment, Monitoring and Accountability which entails iteratively refining policies based on feedback, with transparent indicators (e.g., rural poverty rates, travel times to essential services) and defined responsibilities for follow through.
By embedding these steps into regulatory impact assessments and planning cycles, governments can move beyond tokenistic reviews to genuine, data driven alignment of national objectives with local realities.

Pakistan’s Rural Development Challenges

As of August 2023, as mentioned earlier, Pakistan’s rural population stood at 61.18 percent of the total 241.49 million, up slightly from 60.4 percent in 2017—demonstrating persistent rural predominance even amid rapid urbanisation. Yet rural areas generate only 29 percent of GDP, highlighting a productivity gap rooted in limited market access, outdated agricultural practices and under resourced small and medium enterprises.
Nearly 45 percent of population in Pakistan lives below the poverty line, with extreme poverty rates having more than tripled in certain districts since 2018. Over 70 percent of those in multidimensional poverty reside in rural locales, where access to health services, clean water, sanitation and quality education remains chronically deficient. Maternal mortality in remote regions reaches 186 deaths per 100,000 live births — double the national average — while rural electrification still leaves 12 percent of villages off grid.
Pakistan’s policy apparatus has historically prioritised urban and provincial centres. Although the Planning Commission and provincial development boards oversee large-scale infrastructure projects, they do lack a formal mechanism to evaluate rural-specific outcomes. Recent World Bank studies advocate for geospatially disaggregated data systems and community-driven surveys, but these remain scattered pilots rather than standardized inputs for national planning.

Steps to Institutionalize Rural Proofing in Pakistan

A number of measures and steps are required to systematically adopt rural proofing in Pakistan.

1. Legislative Backing

The first and foremost important step is to institutionalize rural proofing through provision of legislative backing. This includes amending the Rules of Business to require rural proofing in all federal and provincial regulatory impact assessments. This could mirror Northern Ireland’s Rural Needs Act, which legally obliges policymakers to demonstrate how they have considered rural impacts before adopting new measures.

Another measure to institutionalize rural proofing can be the creation of a dedicated unit. This entails the establishment of a Rural Proofing Cell within the Planning Commission (and mirror units in each provincial planning department), staffed with demographers, geographers, and sector specialists tasked with conducting ex ante impact appraisals and annual ex post reviews.

2. Strengthening Data Infrastructure

The second step can be to strengthen data infrastructure by conducting geospatial surveys. There is a need to partner with the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Pakistan, and academic institutions to roll out high-resolution household and infrastructure mapping, leveraging satellite imagery and mobile data collection to update metrics on roads, school quality, and health facility catchment areas.

There is also a need for participatory platforms to institutionalise village-level consultations within data infrastructure through Union Councils and Panchayats, with specific modules on women’s livelihoods, youth employment, and migration patterns. These efforts should ensure findings feed directly into policy dashboards.

3. Calibrating Sectoral Policies Through a Rural Lens

The third step is to calibrate sectoral policies through a rural lens. For instance, for agriculture & livelihoods, shift subsidy regimes from broad commodity support to risk-adjusted crop insurance calibrated for district-level climate profiles. Expand mobile-based extension services to disseminate best practices in water-efficient irrigation and post-harvest storage.

Additional digital connectivity & access to finance need to be improved through the prioritisation of rural broadband by requiring universal service licence holders to allocate 20 percent of spectrum revenues to community Wi-Fi hubs in underserved districts. Complement this with agent banking models to expand digital financial inclusion in villages.

Furthermore, for health, rural-proof national health insurance schemes by incorporating mobile clinics and telemedicine in remote zones. And for education, teacher recruitment quotas may reflect rural-urban population shares, bolstered by incentives for postings in hard-to-reach areas.

4. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Adaptive Governance

The fourth and last measure is to embed a monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive governance framework with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs). Define clear rural-specific KPIs such as: rural poverty rate, average travel time to primary health centres, student-teacher ratios in village schools—and publish quarterly scorecards.

Additionally, feedback loops are also important, which require mid-term policy adjustments when KPIs deviate by more than 10 percent from targets. Convene bi-annual Rural Proofing Forums involving federal and provincial ministers, civil society, and private sector representatives to review progress and recalibrate strategies.

Conclusion

By institutionalizing rural proofing, Pakistan can transform the longstanding rural urban divide into an engine for inclusive growth and resilience. A formal rural proofing framework—grounded in robust data, participatory engagement and adaptive governance—will better align national ambitions with the realities of 148 million rural citizens. Ultimately, this place based approach can unlock latent economic potential, reduce poverty, and foster more balanced development across the nation’s diverse landscapes.