National Incubation Center (NIC) Karachi in partnership with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) has launched Innovating for Poverty Alleviation 2018, through which collaboration avenues will be explored between PPAF and startups incubated at NIC Karachi to alleviate masses from poverty.
At the launch event organized at NIC Karachi, Innovation Manager PPAF Neelam Azmat briefed about the mission and collaborations of PPAF across the country and how budding entrepreneurs inclined towards making a social impact can benefit from the PPAF community. She shared,
“We believe that organized communities are the biggest resource we have. That is why building trust with people within a particular rural community is very important.”
She encouraged startups of NIC Karachi to apply human-centric design concepts during product design and development for the rural consumers, just as they keep urban consumers in mind so as to create an operation base within rural areas, engage the local community and in the long run, alleviate locals from poverty.
“There are areas in Pakistan where people are not literate, yet they ask me ‘Baji aap Facebook pe hain?” [Sister, are you on Facebook?] That is because Facebook is a product that is easy to use. You have to design your product in a similar fashion, to be able to penetrate into big markets; especially the rural ones,” shared Neelam.
PPAF has partnered up with 130 organizations and has a presence in 137 districts across Pakistan. It is currently collaborating with 573,000 communities and has completed 38,200 projects related to health, water and education. With its collaboration with NIC Karachi, PPAF will facilitate incubated startups of NIC Karachi through PPAF’s vast network and community to reach out to underprivileged areas to build solutions for the population under the poverty line.
