Pakistan

March 19, 2015

Mapping innovation across BRAC International

What comes to your mind when you think about innovation? Most of us relate innovation to places like Silicon Valley. However, there are incredible social innovations happening in the global South; starting from Sudanese villages to Afghan classrooms and in many other not-so-known places, where you least expect anything related to innovation.
June 12, 2013

Comparing branchless banking in Bangladesh and Pakistan

Bangladesh is a recent entrant into branchless banking – deployments only began in earnest in the middle of 2011. CGAP reviewed the first year of branchless banking (referred to as “mobile financial services” in Bangladesh) together with Bangladesh Bank up to March 2012.
October 11, 2012

On Malala’s side, everywhere

Events in Pakistan have the BRAC global family talking – and around the world, from Dhaka to New York, we're steadfast in our support for Malala Yousafzai, age 14, now in critical condition after being shot by the Taliban for her courageous defense of human rights – the right of a girl to an education, especiall
February 7, 2012

Productive Safety Nets for Women in Extreme Poverty

The following was originally posted by Karishma Huda on the Graduation Program blog. The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation program is an initiative to adapt the methodology of BRAC's Ultra Poor program in Bangladesh in ten countries across the worl
October 27, 2011

Trickle Up uses BRAC Development Institute’s “life histories” research to enhance its program for the ultra poor

The following was originally posted on the CGAP Graduation blog by Janet Heisey, Director of the Asia Program at Trickle Up. The research paper "And Who Listens to the Poor? Shocks, Stresses and Safety Nets in India and Pakistan" by Karishma Huda, Sandeep Kaur and Nicolina Lamhauge, offers an interesting framework for qualitative evaluation of livelihood programs, such as those we implement at Trickle Up. It posed and answered some interesting questions: what keeps extremely poor people trapped in cycles of deprivation? Does the Graduation Program address these constraints? How can programs allocate resources to ensure that the maximum number of participants succeed?
July 13, 2011

BRAC at International Conference on Framework for Economic Growth in Pakistan

BRAC at International Conference on Framework for Economic Growth in Pakistan   Starting today, the Government of Pakistan and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are co-hosting a 2-day conference in Islamabad titled “A Policy Dialog on the New Growth Strategy of Pakistan Moving Forward”. The UNDP has invited Dr. Mahabub Hossain, Executive Director of BRAC, (pictured above) to be the lead speaker for the conference’s session on “Connecting to the Community Engagement.” The roundtable will cover community engagement, market reforms, innovation, among other topics.
May 12, 2011

A most meaningful birthday gift from Pakistan

The following was originally posted by BRAC USA President & CEO Susan Davis on The Huffington Post. This morning, I received a touching letter from Munshi Sulaiman about his recent trip to Pakistan to see BRAC's Ultra Poor program there. Munshi has been working with BRAC for the last 8 years and currently coordinates BRAC's research activities outside Bangladesh.
January 19, 2011

Update on the earthquake in Pakistan

Below is an e-mail we receive from the head of BRAC in Pakistan regarding yesterday's earthquake. Dear Everyone, Hope you are well and fine.
December 30, 2010

Two Recognitions in Pakistan of BRAC’s Work

BRAC Pakistan received the Humanitarian Excellence Award from RAKz Communications (Pvt) Ltd.We are also humbled by a public display of appreciation (photo below) by the people of Mohibanda, a village in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province that was fully damaged by the floods. The message on the wall speaks of the villager's appreciation to BRAC and the Bangladeshi people and their hopes of farms and nurseries in Mohibanda flourishing because of new water pumps installed by BRAC as part of our flood rebuilding efforts there.
December 9, 2010

“I have started to distribute goats”

Even with the relatively quiet coverage by the international press on Pakistan flood rehabilitation, the fact still remains that this is still a time of tremendous need in Pakistan. 2,000 people have died from the floods, but in the flood-affected communities the death toll could rise if the related destabilizing threats are not tackled – water-borne diseases, food insecurity, destroyed economic opportunities that need to be restored, children who lost their schools, and homelessness at the onset of winter. In short, the UN Secretary General called this situation a “slow-moving titanic.”
November 24, 2010

Award and Recognition for BRAC Pakistan

In Microfinance:For its reporting on Social Indicators, BRAC Pakistan is a 2010 recipient of the Silver Award from Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), sponsored by CGAP. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Ford Foundation. “We are much delighted and inspired by the award,” says Mr. Muhammed Faridur Rahman, CEO of BRAC Pakistan. In 2009, BRAC in Bangladesh was also a recipient of the same award from MIX.
October 22, 2010

Pakistan floods deserve better media attention

This post was originally posted by Susan Davis in the Huffington Post blog. Imagine if Hurricane Katrina struck all the states from Florida to Massachusetts and massive floods washed away homes and businesses, destroyed roads and bridges, and devastated the lives of tens of millions of Americans. How would we react in the immediate aftermath? How quickly would we respond to the urgent need to provide food, water and health care to the victims? How would the media respond? We know the answer. There would be wall-to-wall daily coverage with stories of devastation and emergency response, and a clarion call to Americans with direction on the most effective way to help those in need.