By Judith Ugwumadu | 27 February 2015
The World Bank is scaling up its activities in South Asia with a new partnership aimed at improving the quality and delivery of basic services to the poorest people in the region.
The bank and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Development Fund (SDF) said they would forge a multi-year partnership to design and implement the fund’s Social Enterprise Development Program (SEDP) in eight South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and Afghanistan.
The partnership will first combine finance and capacity development support for 100 social enterprises that will receive grants of $100,000 to $250,000 each. Then SDF will provide finance to these enterprises to enable them to scale their impact, the bank said.
Sanjay Pradhan, vice president for leadership, learning ad innovation at the World Bank said: ‘With SAARC Development Fund as a strategic partner in the South Asia region, the World Bank has a great opportunity to collaborate and connect countries with global knowledge and learning to improve service delivery to the poor.
‘We believe that SDF can play a unique role in identifying and scaling of innovative social enterprises in the eight countries in South Asia, as well as enabling their replication.’
Mr Karma, chief executive officer at SDF, said South Asia was home to many social enterprises, from mobile clinics to community banking that are ‘doing a great job at filling service delivery gaps that cannot be met through traditional means’.
‘We are thrilled to partner with the World Bank Group that has a unique experience in supporting social enterprises to maximize the positive impact they can have on society,’ he said.
