DICE Collaboration Grants were awarded to six intermediary organisations in Pakistan and their respective partner organisations in the UK.
Each of these pairs of DICE Collaborators drew on the grants to co-design and implement initiatives aiming to reduce economic and social exclusion by supporting creative and social enterprises that seek to reduce gender inequality, youth unemployment and other barriers to opportunity.
The organisations which received these grants are:
- DEMO (Pakistan) and Manchester Digital Laboratory - MadLab (UK)
This project provided training courses and mentoring and drew on Blockchain technology to support disadvantaged women entrepreneurs in Pakistan.
- SEED (Pakistan) and Cockpit Arts (UK)
The partners trained two cohorts of creative entrepreneurs, with a focus on women, youth, and disabled people. Each cohort benefited from a four-month long series of workshops to develop sustainable enterprises that can attract investment while generating positive social impacts and ongoing innovation.
- Heritage Foundation of Pakistan (Pakistan) and University of Glasgow (UK)
This project created employment and improved livelihoods for beggar communities in villages near a UNESCO World Heritage Site, focusing notably on the development and sale of eco-friendly crafts and products.
- Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education - FACE (Pakistan) and So Just Shop (UK)
With a focus on economic empowerment, this project supported 25 women artisans from across Pakistan. It offered training and product development, assistance with marketing, and access to online platforms to reach domestic and international markets.
- Centre for Global Innovators - CGI (Pakistan) and Cranfield University (UK)
The partners set up new incubator programmes at three universities in Pakistan and incubated around 100 start-ups, at least half led by women. The 16-week curriculum includes modules on innovation, design thinking, and on customer-centric development of products and services, as well as on sales, marketing, investment, and finance.
- I2I (Pakistan) and Impact Hub Kings Cross (UK)
To help social and creative enterprises in Pakistan succeed, the project developed a toolkit that will help start-ups better navigate their development up to, and past, the crucial stage of scaling up and attracting investment.
Find out more about these creative and inspirational projects in the case studies below.