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In Pakistan, Fight Terror with Outsourcing

President Barack Obama's Dec. 3 jobs summit was a good idea to brainstorm ways to create employment, amid unprecedented levels of U.S. unemployment. The summit drew on the views of economists, executives, and labor unions. This is precisely what is needed in Pakistan. The specific focus of this summit, however, should be ways to create jobs in rural Pakistan, using a portion of the $7.5 billion in aid approved by the U.S. Congress. Putting these funds to work to reduce unemployment in Pakistan will also reduce the lure of militancy.

In my previous column, I recounted the story of 21-year-old Pakistani Ajmal Amir Kasab—an unemployed laborer from the village of Faridkot in southern Punjab and the sole surviving terrorist of the Nov. 26, 2008, Mumbai attacks. I proposed a three-step strategy to prevent militant recruitment among the chronically unemployed, which included interviewing, public communication, and vocational training to create jobs in rural Pakistan. Let's assume the first two steps are successfully taken in one village like Faridkot, confirming the link between unemployment and militant recruitment. The question is then how exactly to proceed with Step Three—job creation.

It would be worthwhile for a local university like Lahore University of Management Sciences or Karachi's Institute of Business Administration to organize a Pakistani jobs summit, drawing on the perspectives of local businessmen, entrepreneurs, academics, NGO workers, villagers, and U.S. aid workers. Participants could generate recommendations focused on how the U.S. aid package (known as the Kerry-Lugar Act for its two sponsors, Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar) can fulfill its stated goal—"to benefit the people of Pakistan, including projects that promote economic freedom" and "sustainable economic growth … in rural areas."

Vocational Microfinance

The first job-creation strategy that the summit should evaluate is vocational options in villages. Government initiatives such as the Punjab Vocational Training Council and the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, and NGOs like the Hamdard Foundation and SOS Children's Village, already offer vocational training in Pakistan. But such programs are often focused on women and children, and are usually conducted in towns and cities. Summit participants must establish whether they can tailor such programs specifically for chronically unemployed men like Kasab and indigent villages like Faridkot.

The logical question to then consider is whether there will be jobs available for these newly trained men. If not, perhaps a U.S.-funded program in vocational microfinance would be a viable alternative. Last March, for instance, KASHF Microfinance Bank launched a pilot program in vocational training for potential female clients. Participants in my proposed jobs summit would need to evaluate whether the combination of a vocational skill and microfinance loan can motivate the chronically unemployed man in his village to start a business and so generate a steady stream of income.

Perhaps the best way forward is to consider how vocational microfinance might work on a small-scale basis. Journalists have described Faridkot, a village of 10,000 people, as dirt-poor, with semiliterate and low-paid manual workers who till the surrounding fields. What type of U.S.-funded, vocational microfinance program could realistically be offered to young men in this particular village? Could their new businesses necessarily give these men long-term "economic freedom"?

Rural Outsourcing

The summit should also consider the potential for rural outsourcing as a job creation strategy—perhaps a more lucrative alternative to vocational microfinance that can contribute to sustainable economic growth. Across the border from Pakistan in India, for instance, rural outsourcing has worked to create permanent jobs in some impoverished villages.

Regions : Asia

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