Source: Korea Saemaul Undong centre

The increasing disparity between urban areas and disadvantaged villages in living standards is widening Pakistan's urban - rural gap. Our nation has immense rustic populace and the majority of the towns are underprivileged. There is a desperate need to bring these denied provincial regions at standard with the urban focuses of the nation. So as to help provincial economy and overhaul the expectations for everyday comforts of the poor residents, Pakistan ought to genuinely consider the replica of South Korean Saemaul Undong Model in ruined towns.

The Saemaul Undong Movement (SMU – New Village Movement) started during the 1970s when South Korean president Park Chung-hee showed political drive to support the provincial South Korean economy. The principle point of the development was to mend the developing monetary difference between the country's urban zones and the little towns. Its motto was "Living a Good Life."

Source: President Park Visits a Saemaul Undong Village Program, April 1970.

The Saemaul Undong was not just a rural development strategy; it was a tremendous national development. The movement achieved numerous extensive country advancement errands. It delivered wide based and comprehensive monetary development, improved the living states of villagers, and added to the reforestation of South Korea. The Saemaul Movement succeeded as a result of the self-reliance of the locals, the supporting strategies of the South Korean government, and devotion to grassroots innovation.

The movement built up several plans of action to build the income of farmers. The government created work openings utilizing two techniques: direct administration and contract. Through the direct administration the locals were urged to participate in development extends in urban communities and towns so as to build their non-cultivating pay. The SMU started by making a few development contracts with town advancement boards of trustees. Utilizing this strategy, the locals themselves could execute a common development venture rather than getting assistance from some other privately owned business.

Other essential wellsprings of work for townspeople were town tree-nursing and reforestation. Also, government offered advance plans to villagers for domesticated animals and plants development. Correspondingly, off-Season Production Policy was one of the goals of SMU, which supported exercises, for example, making straw sacks/ropes, making bamboo, tie-dying, sewing, folk craft making toys, and different ventures that did not require unique abilities and immense measure of cash amid the off-season time frame. Additionally, existing privately-owned companies were updated into production lines and new cultivating hardware manufacturing plants were opened.

Furthermore, South Korea adopted the Income Reinvestment Principle in 1973 as a strategy to help pay extends in towns. Under the Income Reinvestment Principle, the government contracted with the Village Development Committee rather than nearby contractual workers. By working together with the town, townspeople's salary and proprietorship expanded. Developments dependent on the Income Reinvestment Principle gave villagers a way to discover work. After receiving a grant from the government, the town changed from being a stale village to a business endeavor.

Grassroots innovation alludes to the residents' capacity to actualize changes in concordance with the particular states of their town. To build the salary, the SMU empowered grassroots advancement. New cultivating practices were presented, for example, poultry, rearing cows, cash crops, and the white revolution. The new cultivating systems bolstered pioneering organizations and entrepreneurial businesses which steered several grassroots reforms inside towns. The government would make model for village reforms and the town advancement panels took care of the execution of changes as per a town's particular conditions. With no impedance from specialists or government authorities, the South Korean government straightforwardly exchanged stipends to towns. The townspeople directly dealt with the funds, and chose which projects to invest in.

Moreover, one of the core principles of the Saemaul Movement was the active participation of villagers. The village general assembly controlled the design, implementation, and checking of village schemes. Training programs taught village leaders the handling of town gatherings. Government authorities or individuals from outside the town couldn't serve on the panel. The town improvement advisory worked as leadership team that interceded between various interests and invigorated undertaking advancement.

Also, the role of Saemaul leaders can't be underestimated in towns amid the Saemaul Movement. Throughout the country, the government promoted the election of one male and one female Saemaul leader for every town. Towns required that Saemaul leaders have enterprising aptitudes, including project-planning, accounting and assessment, understanding new methods, the capacity to actualize town changes, and promoting abilities.

One of the plans of action of the Saemaul Movement was 'cooperatives'. Cooperatives were hierarchical techniques and stages as opposed to a pay creating venture. The "Village Fund" was another name for credit cooperatives in the Saemaul Movement. The Village Fund adopted eight principles based on the standards of a credit cooperative: the law based guideline (every one individual got one vote), wilful participation, self-governance and freedom, equity, collaboration, political and religious neutrality, teaching its members, the improvement of union members, hierarchical structure, reserves, and so on.

Under the lawful establishments set up by the Credit Unions Act, the Village Fund model spread broadly amid the Movement. The Village Fund development added to diminishing high-intrigue credits and expanding locals' investment funds. From a small scale financing point of view, the Village Fund was like a microcredit bank since it had some expertise in low-premium advances to residents dependent on trust instead of insurance. Dissimilar to a small scale credit bank, notwithstanding, it was possessed by locals, was popularity based, and conceded advances between individuals. The Village Fund worked without outer impedance and offered unbound credits with low financing costs exclusively based on a part's credit record.

Similarly, Agrarian Cooperative was another agreeable framework that advanced the Saemaul Movement. The Agricultural Cooperative was responsible for acquiring manure, pesticide, and devices, providing cultivating assets and assessment reasoning, buying farm items for the benefit of the administration, promoting rural items, and encouraging individuals cultivating aptitudes. The Agricultural Cooperative enormously added to the advancement of rustic zones. It gave credits to farmers; decreased high-intrigue advances, helped individuals buy day by day necessities, and modernized the appropriation framework among generation and utilization locales.

South Korea's reforestation achievement, accomplished through town based forestation amid the Saemaul Movement, increased overall consideration. The government saw reforestation as a national assignment and bolstered locals' endeavors authoritatively and monetarily. In the meantime, townspeople took part in reforestation strategies and appreciated the material advantages of reforestation.

In 1973, South Korea wanted to reforest 10,000 hectares of land in the mountain region over a 10-year time span. The Saemaul Movement executed seedling-development undertakings to fulfil this need. The government obtained the seedlings and residents supported them. Somewhere in the range of 1973 and 1978, the Saemaul Movement developed 34.8 percent of the seedlings required for the national reforestation venture. The residents' salary expanded through government-supported land rentals and the offering of seedlings to the administration. In 1977, Saemaul reforestation represented 60.5 percent of the national reforestation complete. Towns planted natural product trees (generally chestnut and persimmon), quick growth trees, long haul trees, decorative trees, and fuel woods trees.

The Saemaul Movement likewise added to the empowerment of women in provincial zones. Women were the main impetus behind purchaser center activities, the town credit cooperatives development, the investment funds development, and the social transformation against drinking and betting. These sorts of developments required both hierarchical and accounting skills, so the government presented capacity-building programs for helping ladies change the rural culture.

Women chose as town pioneers got instructive chances. Despite the fact that there was initiative training for ladies in urban territories, a program focusing on housewives from the provincial region was another idea, particularly thinking about that most town housewives had not gotten any modern education. The possibility of a village wife, for whom notwithstanding going out to visit her folks was surprising, going out to train as a Saemaul leader was ground-breaking. Ladies' instruction at the Saemaul Leader Training Institute did not fixate on being a "decent mother and great spouse." Specific instruction focused on changing the towns' inefficient culture of betting and drinking, salary raising strategies, ladies' financial strengthening, dealing with the town credit cooperative, advancing Saemaul ventures, organizational management, and techniques for holding a gathering.

To conclude, in the same way as other developing nations of the 21st century, Pakistan ought to likewise now learn from South Korea's Saemaul Movement. Pakistan can apply similar devices of self-reliance, public-private collaboration, and optimism utilized by SMU during the 1970s for the present quest for the sustainable development goals.