Impact Network Aims to Bridge Between Industry-Academia to Boost Social Innovations
A national program funded by the PEP Foundation has been launched by the name Impact Network. Impact Network is a unique collaboration between incubation centers, social entrepreneurship support organizations, universities, donors, investors and the public sector. The Impact Network will focus on stimulating, supporting and scaling critical social innovations.
Public and private sector was well represented at the event, with the likes of thought leaders and social innovators in attendance. The launch event was designed to allow exchange of ideas and insights among thought leaders and policy makers. Founder and Chairman PEP Foundation Dr. Khalid Iqbal inaugurated the launch event.
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At the inaugural event, Team Lead Impact Network Shahida Saleem, elaborated on the vision behind setting up the Impact Network. She stressed upon the need for collaboration between key stakeholders to address Pakistan’s most pressing developmental challenges.
“Pakistan’s problems cannot be solved by any one organization. In order to create meaningful progress and tangible social impact, we need to foster leadership, innovative thinking and most importantly, collective action.”
Participants at the event discussed the encouragement needed for social innovation in order to tackle societal problems, and affect millions of people across Pakistan. The verticals in focus for this discussion included education, health, agriculture, water and energy.
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The event also included two closed-group discussions. David Galipeau, Founder and Chief of the United Nations Social Impact Fund (UNDP-UNSIF) led the one on Blended Finance, where participants included Ignite, BOI, Insitor, and a few others.
Puruesh Chaudhry, Founder and CEO of Agahi, Foresight Labs and The Islamabad Singularity Chapter, led the discussion on Implications of Future Technologies on SDG’s.
Puruesh Chaudhry said that the spirit of organizational collaboration must be sustained to enable truly sustainable and impactful solutions to the challenges faced by Pakistan.
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PEP Foundation is a non-profit working in Pakistan since 1994 to promote the right of all students to access quality higher education.
