Shoaib Sultan Khan

Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan is the Chairman of the National Rural Support Programme. He is a pioneer of the Rural Support Programmes in Pakistan, a totally community driven development approach. He initiated the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in 1982 and afterwards steered various programmes in Pakistan, India and South Asia, touching the lives of millions of rural poor.

As Senior Advisor, South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme (SAPAP) of the UNDP, Mr. Khan has set up demonstration pilots in six countries of the SAARC region, on the pattern of the AKRSP. Having served as an illustrious bureaucrat and development expert, Mr. Khan has been closely associated with policy making and development planning of Pakistan. He is also serving as the Chairman of National Rural Support Programme, and is on the board of eight out of eleven RSPs. In recognition of his services, he received the Global 500 award in 1989, Sitara-e- Imtiaz in 1990, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1992 and the WWF Conservation Medal in 1994.

Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan is also Advisor to the Board of Trustees of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP), a flagship programme of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust of India.

RGMVP, headed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Indian National Congress, has worked for poverty reduction through women’s empowerment, in Uttar Pradesh, India since 2002. Chairman NRSP has visited RGVMP twice upon the invitation of Mr Rahul Gandhi and met with many women’s Self Help Groups. The RGVMP approach is based on the RSP social mobilisation model which has also been the approach of India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission, as piloted in Andhra Pradesh by the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), initially a UNDP funded programme with Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan as Senior Advisor for Rural Development. RGMVP aims to organise poor, rural women into community institutions and promotes their financial inclusion, healthcare, livelihoods enhancement and education, creating links with local Panchayats. 

The RGMVP website introduces Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan as ‘A world renowned expert in rural development and winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. His pioneering work in India with the World Bank aided Andhra Pradesh Poverty Reduction Project inspired the setting up of India’s National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)’.