Young social entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground

Improved access to local and international investment — with Pakistan jumping 24 places to ninth in the latest poll, conducted in partnership with Deutsche Bank — has helped many young social entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground.

Support group Impact Link was launched in December 2018 with backing from the Scottish government to support a small number of social enterprises moving beyond the early growth stages.

In the latest round of funding, it gave £4,000 (Dh18,191) each to five startups to scale up their business.

These included TrashIt, which is working on collecting organic waste from food vendors and turn it into fertiliser, and Good Earth, which is behind sharing platforms for farm equipment, often beyond the means of poor farmers.

SEED Ventures co-founder Faraz Khan said a proposed law to provide a legal definition for social enterprises would also help attract are emerging gaps.

Pakistani banker and economist Ishrat Hussain, adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan for Institutional Reforms and Austerity, said he was not surprised by the poll results.

Hussain cited microfinance institutions, business schools and the digital economy to fill the more foreign investors to Pakistan once approved.

“Once under a legal umbrella, they will be able to attract global impact capital and philanthropic funding,” said Imran.

Ahad Nazir, head of the Centre for Private Sector Engagement at Pakistan’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said the law would give certainty to investors and social entrepreneurs.

‘Bit premature’

“Some of the companies claiming to be social enterprises are not actually social enterprises, and some companies that are actually social enterprises don’t know they are,” he said.

Ishrat Hussain, however, disagreed. “I think it’s a bit premature to gag these entrepreneurs with a legal framework. Let them bloom and flourish, and when they reach maturity, then rein them,” he said. “You should not suppress their creativity at this stage.” for supporting

“There are higher education institutions that have set up entrepreneur centres which are arming people who are not formally trained with business tools, especially women, farmers, youth ... people otherwise neglected,” he added. entrepreneurship.

Most social enterprises in Pakistan are headed by young entrepreneurs. About one-fifth are led by women compared with 5 per cent of mainstream companies, according to British Council research.

Neelum Hassan, a 26-yearold industrial design graduate, founded her social enterprise,

Facing crackdown

Street and mobile vending lets people set up businesses with minimal outlay and no paperwork, but they have increasingly faced crackdown from authorities for not having licences.

Her plan would provide a ready-made package with registered carts, allocated space and affordable lease schemes.

Hassan won the ‘Most Promising Woman-Led Business’ award at the Global Clean technology programme set up by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the $15,000 (Dh55,170) prize money went towards developing a small manufacturing line, she said.

“I personally won’t call this a success story because the journey has just begun,” Hassan said.