WB, Saarc plan social enterprise development
ISLAMABAD: World Bank and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Development Fund have decided to forge a multi-year partnership to design and implement the Fund’s ‘social enterprise development programme’ in eight Saarc countries, including Pakistan.
The Saarc and World Bank partnership finalised on Friday aims to improve quality and delivery of basic services to the poorest and underserved populations across South Asia by combining finance, global knowledge and capacity development support for 100 social enterprises which will receive grants of $100,000 to $250,000 per enterprise.
Thereafter, Saarc Development Fund (SDF) will provide finance to these enterprises to enable them to scale their impact.
The primary objective of the SDF is to promote welfare of the people of Saarc region; to improve the quality of life; and to accelerate economic growth, social progress and poverty alleviation in the Saarc region.
The SDF social window projects are aligned with Saarc development goals that include livelihood, health, education and environment.
The projects that SDF has funded so far are designed to meet important and crucial social and economic needs of the Saarc member states.
The SDF project portfolio ranges from strengthening the livelihood of home-based workers, addressing needs of small farmers, reaching connectivity and content of e-governance to rural folks, reducing the infant mortality and steps at ending violence against children in South Asia.
With SDF as a strategic partner in the South Asian region, the World Bank group has a great opportunity to collaborate and connect countries with global knowledge and learning to improve service delivery to the poor,” said Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, Leadership, Learning and Innovation, World Bank Group.
“We believe that the SDF can play a unique role in identifying and scaling of innovative social enterprises in the eight countries of South Asia, as well as enabling their replication.”
Social enterprises use private sector approaches to improve human well-being and are often highly efficient in delivering services in hard to reach communities.
The World Bank will leverage its 15 years of experience in implementing the development marketplace, a programme that identifies and strengthens social enterprises and replicates those initiatives that have proven to be successful.
Published in Dawn March 1st , 2015
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