overnance is defined as a mechanism for enabling and enforcing policy decisions in an organisation or a country. Pakistan’s rank on the global governance given by the Berggruen Institute comes out to be on the lower end with only the countries in direct conflict – Afghanistan and Yemen – falling below Pakistan.

Governance is rated in terms of the quality of government and the quality of life in a particular country. The quality of government is associated with the ability of the government to conduct its primary activities like generating revenue, organising collective action and delivering on its policies. The quality of life entails the level at which the government provides public goods to citizens. These include health, education, opportunities to carry out jobs and businesses; and a clean environment.

The government and citizens need to work together to achieve better governance. The problems in the governance structure of countries like Pakistan are mainly due to a lack of trust in each other.

The best cases in public-private partnership demonstrate the improved government trust and perception through the privatisation of some of the public services. In Thar, for instance, this has directly affected the socio-economic profile, enabling better employment opportunities and better health and education facilities for the citizens.

Public-private partnerships formed in Sialkot are also excellent examples of how government and citizens can work together to enable better governance through public service delivery.

Another concept, referred to as social enterprise, can also enable the sharing of effort. Social enterprises are for-profit entities that reinvest a portion of their profits into a social cause.

Throughout the world, such enterprises have become a tool for sustaining the social good projects initiated through benevolent grants and crowd funding to enable change.

Most of the development sector projects are output focused. The outcome and benefit are usually long-term and missed out in the monitoring and evaluation frameworks since the sponsors usually exit before the benefits are realised. It is therefore suggested that the benefits be ensured and sustained by including local businesses even where the projects are initiated using grant funds. This can be best achieved using a revenue generation model.

Take the case of women empowerment through entrepreneurship development. Social enterprises can play a vital role in these efforts. Based on research conducted by the SDPI, a positive causality exists between social enterprise development and women’s empowerment. Some of the major weaknesses that women see as a barrier to their empowerment include, a) weak access to finance; b) weak family support; and c) stringent regulations for women entrepreneurs.

Access to finance

Most women in Pakistan lack the ownership of their families for running an entrepreneurship venture. This may be due to a male-dominated social setup or gender-biased thinking which enables the elders of a family to feel more comfortable in providing investment to run a business to their sons rather than daughters.

Public-private partnerships formed in Sialkot are excellent examples of how government and citizens can work together to enable better governance through public service delivery. 

That is because a) the daughter will eventually get married and be part of another family, b) they lack confidence in the women as they have raised them to be better housewives than entrepreneurs, c) the women traditionally have more caring responsibilities at home than men, and d) women leaving a household for work is considered undesirable.

There is room for social enterprises to consider the development of awareness campaigns to deliver a message to families that running a business is respectable. Social enterprises should also work on microfinance and financial inclusion.

Higher risks

In Pakistani society, women entrepreneurs have more to lose in case of failure. If a family agrees to provide capital to a woman for an entrepreneurship venture, then she will only be allowed to continue the business if she is successful right away. The family, in most cases, is willing to give several chances to its sons as they are the custodians of a larger chunk of the inheritance.

This points to room for social enterprises working on entrepreneurship enabling and incubation. They can be catalysed by the inclusion of special funding and grants from government or development partners for giving confidence to women-led startups.

Rational regulation

Regulations for most businesses are designed in a way that they cater better to a collectivist society. This bias can be significantly reduced through e-governance start-ups and social enterprises. These tech companies can help the government develop automated regulatory solutions. Additionally, social enterprises with strong regulatory capacity can help women entrepreneurs to enable them to be more compliant. Additionally, training enterprises can also help them better understand the already automated systems in the government.

Education

The education system in Pakistan tends to inhibit the spirit of entrepreneurship, particularly social entrepreneurship. This remains true even after the introduction of several initiatives by the Higher Education Commission to encourage entrepreneurship. While some universities, like the National University of Sciences and Technology, have several good examples to showcase, they represent only a very small percentage of the student community.

There is a special concern that students, especially those belonging to large cities, exhibit little concern for the society and the community. Currently, only one institute in the country, the Institute of Business Management in Karachi, is offering a bachelor‘s programme in social entrepreneurship and social leadership.

There is a need for changing the mindset of the faculty and students. The principal purpose of education should not be for the students to get jobs in top corporations after graduation. The HEC needs to formulate policies for universities to allow professional experts from the industry to teach appropriate courses. This will not only enhance the university-academia relations but also build upon entrepreneurship.

There is also a need for an impact-based assessment of all offices of research, innovation, and commercialisation, and the business incubation centres set up at the universities. The general perception is that there is no significant impact.

There is a clear case for social enterprises playing a role in Pakistan’s public service delivery. This can be related directly to good governance. Through active partnerships, the stakeholders can achieve sustainable development in Pakistan.

The writer is associated with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute Centre for Private Sector Engagement. His Twitter handle is ahadnazir783. The article does not necessarily represent the SDPI view.