Social Enterprise Directory 2021
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE OPPORTUNITIES DIRECTORY 2021 www.impactnetwork.pk TABLE OF CONTENTS About PEP Foundation 4 About Impact Network 5 Impact Network Partners 6 The Role of Social Enterprises During the COVID-19 Pandemic 7 Interview with a social enterprise 1 13 Interview with a social enterprise 2 16 Innovations by Sector Education 24 Oppurtunity brief 26 Problem brief 30 Innovations from Pakistan 38 Health 84 Oppurtunity brief 86 Problem brief 90 Innovations from Pakistan 96 Agriculture 130 Oppurtunity brief 132 Problem brief 136 Innovations from Pakistan 141 Energy 162 Oppurtunity brief 164 Problem brief 168 Innovations from Pakistan 173 Water 194 Oppurtunity brief 196 Problem brief 200 Innovations from Pakistan 206 Message by Team Lead Impact Network 216 About PEP Foundation PEP Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization, with offices in New York City and Islamabad. The PEP Foundation was founded to ensure the right of every young man and woman in Pakistan to have access to quality higher education; and with the understanding that “through academic excellence Pakistan will be able to produce outstanding professionals and leaders, and bring economic prosperity to its masses”. The PEP Foundation has been working since 1994, and is the only non- profit organisation focused on Pakistan’s Higher Education sector. Our efforts to date have focused on providing direct financial assistance to deserving students, highlighting critical gaps and solutions, and embedding systems change. The PEP Foundation’s S.A.F.E. program (Student Advancement Endowment Funds), established in 42 universities, continues to provide scholarships to deserving students, and the SSBC Program (Student Start-up Business Centers) across 9 universities is helping create new businesses. The Sughra Begum Policy Center for Education has been operating its Mphil program on education policy at the Punjab University. In 2018, the PEP Foundation expanded its work to include stimulating, supporting and scaling social innovations under the Impact Network program. 4 About Impact Network The Impact Network is a formal collaborative platform for public, private, and donor sector organizations, to stimulate, support and scale innovations that can solve critical developmental challenges in Pakistan. The Impact Network program currently consists of about 40 partner organizations from across all four provinces of Pakistan. New partners, including international partners, are being added on an ongoing basis. The Impact Network has been designed with the specific objective of promoting and guiding social innovations that have the potential to solve large-scale national problems, particularly in the Education, Health, Water, Agriculture and Energy sectors. Impact Network specifically: • Develops and updates comprehensive databases of innovations, support organisations, domain experts, academic research, and important stakeholders in each of its five priority sectors, that are the Education, Health, Agriculture, Energy, and Water sectors • Develops concise “Problem Briefs” and “Opportunity Briefs” for each of the sectors with the objective of creating greater awareness, and inculcating a “problem-solution” approach to social innovation • Works to highlight promising social innovations with Donors and Impact Investors • Hosts focused roundtable discussions to develop the larger social enterprise ecosystem in Pakistan • Works directly with Incubator Management Teams, by means of workshops, to build the capacity, visibility and chances of success of incubated social entrepreneurs. • Works to connect its partner organizations to relevant international organizations and communities that can help them build their capacity, for example, the UBI Global, an interactive learning community of 700+ business incubators and accelerators from over 70 countries • Actively promotes and highlights the work of all of its partner organizations 5 impact network partners: 6 THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Social enterprises in Pakistan have been on the forefront to battle the enormous challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to the developing countries. 7 Education: Pakistan is considered among the first countries in the world to institute widespread school closures as a result of COVID-191. Within less than a month, a number of ed-tech startups offered their content free-of-cost to launch TeleTaleem a dedicated learning TV channel by the government for students of grades 1 to 12 in Pakistan; This helped minimise the academic disruption in Pakistan2. The ed-tech sector’s collaboration with the private sector also saw a huge increase3 during the pandemic: Knowledge Platform sold its edtech products to 400 new schools in Pakistan; Taleemabad, a mobile application developed by Orenda, saw a 660% rise in their subscribers; Edkasa teamed up with a non-profit Starfish Pakistan to provide quality science and maths teaching to the students of 11 schools in underprivileged communities4. These collaborations do not seem limited to the duration of the pandemic but are likely to extend beyond that as well. Despite the teething issues that students around the globe are facing with online classes - primarily due to the inadequate experience and infrastructure - digital education seems likely to stay, at least in part. The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFE&PT) is piloting blended learning in 200 public school classrooms to better understand the implementation challenges of new technologies5. “We are not going to stop there,” Education Minister Mr. Shafqat Mahmood says6. “We feel that using technology for education is the way forward in Pakistan.” 1 Geven, Koen; Hasan, Amer, 2020. Learning Losses in Pakistan Due to COVID-19 School Closures: A Technical Note on Simulation Results. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. 2 Yousafzai, A., 2020. Donated Lessons Help Put Teleschool On Air Within Two Weeks. The News International, April 27, 2020. 3 Zahra-Malik, M., 2020. The Coronavirus Effect on Pakistan’s Digital Divide. BBC Worklife, July 14, 2020 4 Wakely, Mike. 2021. “How Edkasa Are Helping Starfish Students When Schools Are Closed”. Starfish Asia. 5 Ejaz, Khaliq, Bajwa, 2021. COVID-19 Spurs Big Changes in Pakistan’s Education. World Bank Blogs. January 20, 2021. 6 Zahra-Malik, M., 2020. The Coronavirus Effect on Pakistan’s Digital Divide. BBC Worklife, July 14, 2020 8 Health: While ed-tech solutions were received somewhat hesitantly by the public, demand for telemedicine saw a sharp rise in Pakistan amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Acting swiftly, the Punjab government opened up more than 30 telemedicine centers across the province7, and the Balochistan government installed 6 telehealth facilities at various Basic Health Units (BHUs) in rural areas of the province to provide the best healthcare to the people8. The Sindh government launched a telehealth initiative called the ‘Covid-19 Isolation Monitoring, Reporting & Response Cell’ to monitor and treat over 90,000 COVID-infected persons at their homes across the province through a technology platform; In four months, this helped Sindh become the province with the highest number of recovered patients in Pakistan9. The Sindh government also launched a tele-counselling service for confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients to help them cope with the psychological impact of coronavirus pandemic10. Convinced of the need and potential of telemedicine to improve healthcare delivery across the region, the Sindh government has drafted a Telehealth Bill to regulate as well as facilitate this sector11. Existing health-tech social enterprises like Sehat Kahani, Tele Polyclinic, and Marham also rose up to the challenge and started offering their telemedicine platforms free-of-cost for some time12. At least ten new health-tech startups were set up in 2020, including Ehad Virtual Health, emed.pk, DocLink, Hayaat.pk, Hola Cure, Khair, MediQ, Sehatghar, Diabetes Tele Care, and Waada Digital Insurance13. As in the education sector, the public-private-donor nexus played a key role in addressing challenges in the health sector too. For example, Instacare, a virtual healthcare delivery platform, partnered with USAID to launch the InstaCare Corona Response Unit (ICRU) to provide free online medical consultations to patients; It also collaborated with the 9 Khyber Medical University and the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to launch a telemedicine center in KPK14. Sehat Kahani, another health-tech startup, collaborated with the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination (MNHSRC) to provide consultations to patients during lockdown and beyond; Sehat Kahani telemedicine platform is now integrated within the government’s digital portal for online consultations; Sehat Kahani also collaborated with the World Health Organization and the Government of Balochistan to set up two e-health clinics in Balochistan (in Loralai and Khuzdar)15. Local production of COVID-related equipment including sanitisers, oxygenators, ventilators, personal protective equipment, and testing kits, also started off in Pakistan within months of the onset of the pandemic. Pakistan even exported $100 million worth of these Corona- related equipment in the following year16. A number of local medical innovations also came to light, for example, the Ventilators Connector, developed by Alpha Rubber and Plastic Works, increased capacity by allowing multiple patients to use just one ventilator simultaneously17, and the Smart Portable