After the success of Livelihood centered "Rural Support Programme" (RSP) Approach to rural development in the northern mountain regions of Pakistan in the eigthies, enlightened individuals in the government of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (Formerly NWFP) members of the civil society and academia had joined with an international donor agency to establish a non-government/non-profit organization called SRSC in 1989 to replicate the model in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. Subsequently renamed Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) and registered under company's ordinance 1984, SRSP is the largest non-profit/non-government organization of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. It has pro-actively promoted people-centered development by improving livelihoods of poor and vulnerable communities, while maintaining the special focus on women, playing a leading role in supporting poverty reduction in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa over the past two decades. SRSP has also been entrusted with the task of extending the working of RSP to FATA region.
SRSP has a three tier organizational structure including Headoffice, Regional offices and Field Units. In addition, separate project management units/offices are also established to run various projects under the programme. The HeadOffice, based in Peshawar, provides leadership and is responsible for quality assurance, resource mobilization, donor liaison and technical supervision for the field activities of the programme. At field level, the programme is run and managed by six regional teams based in Peshawar, Kohat, Abbotabad, Mansehra, Shangla and Chitral. Each regional team supervises a number of districts. The programme operates on the principle of subsidiarity where regions enjoy autonomy to make decisions at the local level. To ensure that planning is reflective of community needs, the regional and field teams conduct in-depth dialogues/diagnostic surveys in programme areas resulting in preparation of community/village/union council micro-development plans. All the development inputs received by the men or women community members are need and opportunity driven communicated through organized forums at the community, village and union council level. The organization has a proven track record in planning, implementation, management, steering, monitoring and evaluation of community development, improvement in physical infrastructure, microfinance, human resource development and gender awareness and mainstreaming in rural areas of NWFP. SRSP comprises of over 1000 professional/support staff members but its scope extends far beyond, encompassing an extensive network of partner organizations and former staff members across the development landscape of Pakistan.