Social entrepreneurship is so hot right now.
You know you have at least heard variations of that sentence in the last few years. Twitter even has a hashtag to capture the awesomeness that is social entrepreneurship. It’s called #socent. All the cool kids use it.
But how many of us truly understand the underlying intricacies of that term or the terms associated with it? Do we throw around the words “innovation” and “social enterprise” because it’s sexy, or because we truly believe in the value of out-of-the-box ideas to achieve social change?
ThinkChange Pakistan aims to demystify this sphere in order to foster dialogue, learning and collaboration within the social entrepreneurship and innovation space. In Pakistan, social enterprises – social mission-driven businesses that take market-based approaches to achieve social impact – represent a small but growing contingent in an increasingly dynamic global field. Organizations like D.Light, Husk Power Systems, Naya Jeevan, Samasource, and Ansaar Management Company are tackling poverty challenges throughout the world, and are achieving social (and in some cases, environmental and financial) returns that can be brought to scale. There is much that Pakistani social entrepreneurs can learn not only from each other, but also from social entrepreneurs in other areas of the world.
In the coming months, ThinkChange Pakistan will provide case studies of current social enterprises, interviews with social entrepreneurs and players in the space, contributions, job postings, and pieces that hope to foster dialogue on the dynamics of this industry. We recognize that many of these terms and acronyms – SROI, DBL, PRIs, the list goes on – can be overwhelming, and frankly, a little obnoxious. That is why we created a glossary of terms for this website. We also value the importance of collaboration, and have posted profiles on the social enterprises/networks currently operating in Pakistan, a list that will continue to be updated.
At the end of the day, ThinkChange Pakistan is a team of people (Jeremy, Maryam, and myself – Kalsoom) who care deeply about fostering dialogue within the social entrepreneurship space in Pakistan, because we feel non-traditional approaches to development can play a significant role in alleviating poverty.
In other words, it’s because we too believe that social entrepreneurship is so hot right now.
(Big thank you to Khizra Munir, who designed the TC-P logo, and the team at ThinkChange India for their guidance and encouragement!)
Well done, TC-P team! I’m looking forward to learning more about social entrepreneurship in Pakistan.
Thanks Shital & TC-I!
Thank you for starting this. We required this kind of platform badly. In my opinion social entrepreneurship landscape in Pakistan is very fragmented yet promising. During my field work, I have come across some truly inspiring individuals running enterprises, mostly not for profits, which can switch to social enterprises’ outfit easily. How do we track those individuals/ organizations? One of the things that this platform can do, somehow if it could, is to convince business graduates and carryout some research on opportunities that exist. Good luck people!
Thanks so much for your comment Favad! I agree with you completely – there are many NGOs in Pakistan that, if they added mechanisms for sustainability or thought about how their “product” or “service” fit into the market demand, could very well become viable social enterprises – for-profit or non-profit. While we noted that we will be tracking social enterprises on this site, we are leaving it open to track ideas that are also innovative, so a little wider of a scope. I am actually launching a social enterprise consultancy this fall that I hope answers similar questions. We’ll see how it pans out, but very good suggestion!
Howdy Favad,
I agree with what Kalsoom has said, but have some comments to add:
1. How can we access those individuals, if they’re not tapped into Facebook/blogs/Twitter? If you have suggestions on how to reach such inspiring people, we’d love to hear them!
2. One of our aims is to track jobs in the area, incubation opportunities, etc, which should cater to graduates.
3. Perhaps you might want to contribute at some point and talk about your experiences with MicroDrip, etc?
Jeremy
Hi Kalsoom and Jeremy Higgs,
I am Saif from Photon Solutions Islamabad working on a theme of social entrepreneurship adventures. We are about to complete our registrations and looking for some affiliation in the area. We have already acquired office space in F/10-1 Sector, Islamabad. We have a plan to setup a social entrepreneurship incubation center starting form Islamabad and expanding to other cities. We are going to launch a Social Entrepreneur Internship Program in near future. We believe that exchanging the ideas and resources we can better achieve the goals.
I shall be happy to see you if you get a chance to be in ISD.
Saif
Hi Saif,
That sounds like a great idea! We’d love to hear more about it, and see how we can work together. Do contact me: jeremy dot higgs at gmail dot com
Jeremy
A new enterprise competition for educational institutions in all developing countries has been launched! With a top prize of USD $10,000 and three runners up prizes of USD $5,000 the School Enterprise Challenge offers schools a great opportunity to generate additional income for themselves. For more information, please visit http://www.schoolenterprisechallenge.org or email secinternational@schoolenterprisechallenge.org
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