Mr Muhammad Ayoub is a father of seven children belonging to the remote village, union council Mian Sahab in district Shikarpur of Sindh. His family secured a sustainable income-generating source – a motor rickshaw cart through the livelihood support provided under the National Poverty Graduation Programme co-financed by the Government of Pakistan and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The provision of this productive asset worth PKR 60,000 has ensured food and nutritional security of his family and raised daily income from PKR 450 to 1,200.

Muhammad earned his living by working as a daily wage driver with no land to harvest, his daily income hardly crossed PKR 450. His wife received a stipend from the Benazir Income Support Programme, however, even the combined effort of the couple did not yield resources to manage the family necessities.



When Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund’s implementing partner organisation, Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) introduced the Government of Pakistan’s flagship National Poverty Graduation Programme in a local community organization in Muhammad’s village his Community Organization during the participatory wealth ranking exercise, Muhammad’s family was identified as extremely poor.

After the assessment scoring, the SRSO team developed a household livelihood investment plan in consultation with his family, which expressed their wish to buy a motor rickshaw cart. The local procurement committee along with Muhammad procured a rickshaw cart worth PKR 60,000 under the asset creation component. Muhammad left his job as a driver and started running his rickshaw to pick and drop passengers which made him earn on average up to PKR 1,200 daily.