Social Innovation Hub
At its core, Mera Maan’s Social Innovation Hub (SIH) is the culmination of years of passion, experience, expertise, drive and determination of its founder and CEO, Shahnaz Kapadia Rahat. It is based on a deep conviction that market-based solutions, owned and implemented by the community, are the answer to scaling up solutions to address the numerous social issues that exist in Pakistan, and globally.
SIH is a bumble bee ‘giving back’ platform that designs ways in which goods and services can be effectively channeled to underserved communities at the base of the pyramid (BoP). It is believed that designing practical interventions and activities that focus on achieving a triple bottom line, i.e. benefit people, planet and profits, can sustain over time and positively impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SIH provides aspiring social entrepreneurs the space, collaborative expertise as well as non-financial and financial support to develop, pilot and scale up their ideas. Some specific services offered include:
- Developing social entrepreneurs & technically trained community based changemaker s through capac it y building, mentoring and effective linkages with macro level resources
- Building capacities of national , international and community based social entrepreneurs to scale their program to the base of the pyramid
- Establishing rural Social Enterprise Accelerators (SEAs) as incubation centers to develop and incubate local entrepreneurs that can address social issues through business solutions
By 2020, SIH will establish 100 Social Enterprise Accelerators (SEAs), as sustainable franchises to create and support community based social entrepreneurs. The SEAs will train changemakers to innovate and diversify their products and services as per market requirements. The primary motive, the driving force, of all SEAs will be to address social issues, and scale up marketable solutions, i.e. products or services, that are either affordable to the people, to be paid by the Government, or third party. SIH will support project implementation, and provide supervision, monitoring and evaluation services.