QUETTA, Aug 9: Non-profit organizations have strong roots in the society and they can play an important role in reducing poverty and inequality in the country.

This was stated by Dr Kaiser Bengali, Acting Managing Director of the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) while addressing a seminar on the non-profit sector organized by the Aga Khan Foundation and SPDC.

This seminar was part of an international research on the non-profit sector led by the Johns Hopkins University of the US, with the Pakistan study being conducted by SPDC and supported by the Aga Khan Foundation.

Dr Kaiser told the participant that the study was part of a 40-nation comparative research to gain a deeper understanding of the role and contribution of the non-profit sector. The objectives, he added, are: to examine the relations between the non-profit sector and the government, to identify the ways in which this relationship can be improved, to improve public awareness of this sector and to provide a more reliable basis for designing policies towards it.

Asif Iqbal, senior economist of SPDC, presented the findings of a nation-wide survey of non-profit organizations that has been conducted by SPDC as part of this study.

According to the estimates of this survey, there are about 45,000 non-profit organizations in Pakistan working in various fields.

An important finding of the study is that the non-profit sector is mainly funded by indigenous resources. The study illustrates a story that is quite different from general public perception in Pakistan. It is generally believed that the share of foreign resources is quite high in non-profit activities. The myth of a ‘foreign-driven’ non-profit sector model is not supported by this study, since non-profit organizations get 87 per cent of their total revenues from local private philanthropy, membership fees and user charges.

Various stakeholders of the sector including representatives from civil society organizations, government, academia and media attended the seminar.