KARANDAAZ

Karandaaz has been supporting women-led businesses in Pakistan since 2017 through the Women Ventures (WV) Programme. It has invested in 28 women-led businesses (WLBs) and provided business development support to another 67 WLBs. Karandaaz is looking to identify high productivity-high impact (HPHI) women-led businesses to focus on in growth-oriented sectors. To better understand the potential and possibilities for this, Karandaaz onboarded MF Strategy, a Swiss based consulting company, to undertake a Landscaping and Segmentation of Women-Led Businesses (WLBs) in Pakistan. Shahnaz Kapadia Rahat and Shahzad Mansoor Qadir are consultants to MF Strategy, and are assisting the research by providing the local context and contacts. The research maps the overall landscape of WLBs; the female entrepreneur and business demographics; the financial and non-financial resources available to WLBs in Pakistan; the constraints and challenges faced; the key actors, stakeholders, national and international programmes and projects that support women’s access to financial and non-financial resources; the gaps that exist within the system that must be addressed through policy, procedures, and well-designed interventions. The research is also looking at datasets of selected organisations that support financial and non-financial needs of WLBs. Based on the research, it will be possible to estimate the gaps that persist, and which may, going forward, be addressed by organizations such as Karandaaz.