Critical social innovations: Impact Network launched for collaboration among stakeholders

The Impact Network has been launched for collaboration among key stakeholders to address Pakistan's most pressing developmental challenges, particularly to support critical social innovations. The Network has been designed with the specific objective of promoting and guiding social innovations that have the potential to solve national problems.
The launch event was held here on Saturday which was attended by over 150 senior officials from both the public and private sectors. The Impact Network - a unique collaboration between incubation centers, social entrepreneurship support organizations, universities, public sector, donors and investors - was launched in Islamabad. The Impact Network will focus on stimulating, supporting and scaling critical social innovations. This national program is funded by the PEP Foundation (a non-profit working in Pakistan since 1994 to promote the right of all students to access quality higher education).
The event was designed to allow the exchange of ideas and insights among thought leaders and policymakers. Founder and Chairman PEP Foundation Dr Khalid Iqbal inaugurated the launch event.
Shahida Saleem, Team Lead for the Impact Network elaborated upon 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. She said that 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," she added.
The participants discussed how social innovations can be supported so that they can actually affect millions of people across Pakistan. The discussions were structured around 5 targeted sectors; education, health, agriculture, water and energy. In addition, there were two high-level closed discussion groups around blended finance and implication of future technologies on SDG's.
David Galipeau, founder and Chief of the United Nations Social Impact Fund (UNDP-UNSIF) led the Blended Finance session, with participants from Ignite, BOI, Insitor, and many others. Puruesh Chaudhry, founder and CEO of Aaghai, Forsight Labs and The Islamabad Singularity Chapter, Led the discussion on the 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.