1. Social mobilization

Social mobilization is the cornerstone of this organization’s principles and all programs are based on this approach in order to enhance community participation, ownership and sustainability of the interventions. This is a prerequisite for moving rural people from beneficiary to partner status in locally based development. GRACE has more than a decades worth of community mobilization experience, motivating them to invest their human, manual and financial resources for development, while also committing to sustaining the interventions on a long term basis. Social mobilization is the trade-mark of all of the organization’s interventions.

2. Volunteerism

GRACE Pakistan is one of those development organizations that itself emerged as a volunteer organization and was run, managed and developed by a cadre of professional and community volunteers. It has made hallmark achievements in the social and economic development of communities by promoting and inculcating the concept of volunteerism. Apart from local volunteer development, GRACE has been building its linkages with national and international volunteers to increase benefits to its communities without having to increase overhead costs.

3. Advocacy

Girls’ education empowers the whole community

Necessity is the mother of invention. The truth of this principle emerges whenever the ambition for improved community welfare and development outweighs the resources available within the organization. The solution for this was seen to be continuing to lobby and advocate within the development agencies, particularly within public sector departments, with political representatives and in religious arenas. This has now become our principle approach in order to gain support that complements and enhances GRACE’s efforts. The practical realization of this concept is so strong and efficient that it appears like a self-funded volunteer program. GRACE continuously advocates within the development sectors for the provision of basic needs to communities as well as the promotion of human rights at a regional level.

4. Human rights

This is also one of the founding blocks of the organization’s best practices’ ideals and is embedded in the roots of the global Millennium Development Goals. Its emergence was based on the very premise of securing human rights for the indigenous/ethnic communities through the promotion of children’s rights to education and enhancing their access to health facilities. This principle has been very instrumental in shaping future programs so much so that GRACE has expanded its deliberations on how to get the most deprived and socially excluded groups into mainstream development. Human rights are therefore, the overarching and fundamental ethical value of the organization and are well defined in its code of conduct.

5. Partnership building and networking

Community networking is essential

GRACE believes that working in isolation neither supports the quality of its operational functions nor does it support the three fundamental elements of sustainability, namely; policy related sustainability, financial sustainability and institutional sustainability. We believe partnerships enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of project implementation and promote accountability, transparency as well as quicker dissemination and replication of results. Networking is an essential prerequisite for mobilizing larger support for a cause, which is why GRACE emphasizes the development of links with other like-minded organizations.