Past research by British Council and SDPI on the policy landscape for social enterprises in Pakistan reveals a lack of understanding of perspectives from public and private sectors. The latter claims that the government at national and sub-national levels has little respect for the efforts and risks which entrepreneurs take; particularly in an environment where most lending institutions do not take a risk on social enterprises. On the other hand, actors in the public sector have a feeling that social entrepreneurs are no different from the mainstream business activity and see little value in for example designing a tax system which values social impact. There is thus a clear gap in perspectives which to some extent can only be bridged through appropriate policy engagement tools. This gap found in previous research also gives us the ground to propose the following objectives for the policy component of DICE program:
SDPI in collaboration with British Council conducted a project to capture the role of women in national socio-economic development. The project research will utilize the knowledge of experts in each country to understand the different types of social enterprise activity, and the different challenges facing women and girls. It will provide relevant, useful information and recommendations for policy-makers, networks, funders and support providers. It will be challenging and provocative, stirring up debate and catalyzing action. Therefore a series of focused group discussions were conducted with stakeholders along with a desk review of already conducted research leading to survey. The aim is to gauge access to grant funding is one of the key barriers in setting up enterprise. Key ambitions include running and growing of social enterprise. A key question to be address here is ‘Why there is greater representation of women in social enterprises than in traditional businesses?’ SDPI has documented these inputs and communicate to provide relevant, useful information and recommendations for policy-makers, networks, funders and support providers. The research will utilize the knowledge of experts in each country to understand the different types of social enterprise activity, and the different challenges facing women and girls. Further details can be found here.
The aim of this study is to explore the potential of social enterprises and effectively engage with the government and policy sector for social enterprise in Pakistan. Advocacy around this study demanded an integrated and comprehensive set of policy measures for SEs. The research study was designed to focus on the following elements of government and policy for SE: Outlining the existing government policy landscape for SE in Pakistan, Identifying and analyzing the legislative and regulatory barriers to social enterprise development in Pakistan, Exploring the potential of SE in contributing towards key government priorities in Pakistan, Identifying key stakeholders with in the government sector and their role in supporting social enterprise development in Pakistan, Exploring opportunities for potential public private partnerships for SE development in Pakistan, Recommendations on how government sector, through policy and legislation, can support the development of an SE sector in Pakistan.here.