Orientation Workshop on “NPO Certification” held on February 7, 2008
at Planning Commission Auditorium
 Islamabad

Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) organised a one-day orientation workshop on its Non-profit Organisations (NPO) Certification Programme exclusively for the donor community and international agencies working in Pakistan on the 7^th of February 2008. 

Mr. Shamsh Kassim Lakha, Minister for Education, Science and Technology, graced the occasion as Chief Guest. 

The Presentation about the Certification Programme was given by Ms. Shehnaz Wazir Ali, Executive Director, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP). 

The panel of Guest Speakers comprised of Mr. Muhammad Jalil Minhas, Additional Secretary Social Welfare and Special Education, Mr. Junaid Iqbal Chaudhry, Additional Secretary EAD, Mr. Fayyaz Baqir, UNDP and Ms. Maryam Bibi, Chairperson Khwendo Kor.
 

Orientation Workshop on “NPO Certification” held on December 18, 2007
 at Planning Commission Auditorium
 Islamabad

Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) organised a one-day orientation workshop on its Non-profit Organisations (NPO) Certification Programme exclusively for federal government officers from various ministries and their attached departments on the 18^th of December, 2007.

Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Executive Director, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) welcomed the distinguished guests and gave a brief introduction of the Centre since its inception in 2001.

Mr. Eazaz Dar, Senior Programme Manager, PCP, gave a presentation on the NPO Certification Programme, titled, 'Setting Standards in the Non-profit Sector'.

Dr. Humanyun Khan, Chairperson Certification Panel, felicitated Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy and specially the Executive Director, Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali for having arranged a workshop with the aim to familiarize bureaucracy and officials from Federal Ministries with the NPO Certification Programme.

Mr. Javed Iqbal Rana, Secretary (ITR) represented Mr. Saeedullah Khan, Chief Direct Tax Policy, FBR, at the workshop. He praised PCP for the effort it had made in organising a workshop especially for government officials and ministries and briefed everyone about FBR policies related to tax exemption procedures. He told the participants about the types of tax benefits available to NPOs;

Lt. Gen. (Retd) Ghulam Mohammad Malik, Chairman Al-Mustafa Trust introduced his organisation and shared with the participants the experience of evaluation and certification of his Trust by PCP. 

The Chief Guest Mr. Ejaz Rahim, Minister for Health, expressed his delight on attending an exclusive orientation session for the government officers and representatives of various ministries and departments, on Non-profit Organisations (NPO) Certification. He was  particularly  pleased  to see  the audience  comprising mainly of government officers which showed their interest  in  the topic  of philanthropy  and specially in  the contribution that non-profit organisations can make to Pakistan’s social development. 

The closing remarks were given by Mr. Saeed A. Qureshi, Chair Certification Committee and Member PCP BoD.
 

Launch of PALISA: "Philanthropy and Law in South Asia" 
(In collaboration with the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium)

5 Country Research Report (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan & Srilanka)

December 9, 2004
Holiday Inn, Islamabad
(at the SDPI Annual Conference)

The book is the companion volume to an earlier publication: Philanthropy and Law in Asia (PALIA) that covered 10 East and Southeast Asian societies. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on  the legal and regulatory framework for nonprofit sector in 5 Asian countries.

The event was chaired by Mr. Mahomed J. Jaffer, Member PCP Board, while Mr. Salman Akram Raja, a prominent advocate, was the discussant.

A total of 55 participants attended the session to form a dynamic audience. These include, Secretary Social Welfare, Mr. Aleem Mahmood; Commissioner, Security & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Mr. Abdul Rehman Qureshi; Chairman, National Commission of Social Welfare (NCSW), Mr. Rais Jehangir Ahmad and Mr. Shamim Ahmad Khan, Member Certification Panel.  Representatives of various civil society organisations, lawyers, accounting firms and media gave their explicit inputs on nonprofit laws in South Asia. 

Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Executive Director PCP introduced APPC and touched upon the baseline for PALIA that subsequently led way to PALISA. Other presenters included Mrs. Qadeer Baig of NGORC talking about the legal framework for NPOs in Pakistan and Ms. Sumaiya Khair (Professor of Law at Dhaka University and co-author of the report) discussing Registration and Regulatory Law in Bangladesh.

The book talks at length about : the registration obstacles, requirement, legal forms & procedures which vary from country to country. Limitations on business activities; Lengthy processes; Limitations on legislative advocacy & political  participation; Lack of adequate guidance and information; Tax exemptions; Tax deductible donations, restrictions on capital formation impedes growth of NPOs, internal governance; basic legal duties of governing bodies are similar; movement towards explicit standards were some of the obstacles identified in the book.  
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Corporate-NGO Dialogue
(Follow-up to the Multi-
stakeholder Consultation: 
Activity 2)

September 28, 2004
FPCCI, Karachi

The second follow-up activity to the Multi-stakeholder Consultation of 18 May, was attended by a carefully selected group of 32 participants, representing the civil society, business and media.

Presentors included Mrs. Meraj Humayun Khan CE  De Lass Gul, Mr Qadeer Baig, Deputy Director NGORC and Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali. Mrs. Khan acquainted the group with key issues discussed in the Manila Conference. Mr Qadeer Baig discussed various successful instances of CSO-business relationship in Pakistan, reasons and options for strategic alliances betwen them; while Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali gave an overview of corporate giving.  

Ensuing discussions included: 
The need for the business sector to review priority areas of work in their involvement with the social sector; possibility of researching the impact of NGOs on corporate giving in other countries and comparing it with Pakistan; need for the business sector to devise mechanisms to undertake projects with life-long commitment and for the NPOs to move beyond a minimalist view. The corporate sector also  emphasised the need for an interface mechanism and confidence building measures between the forprofit and nonprofit sectors.
  
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Pursuing a key recommendation of the MSC, PCP organised a planning session to define an agenda for subsequent series of dialogues between government; corporate sector; and nonprofit organisations. 

Mr.  Fayyaz Baqir (GEF), Ms. Fozia Tanveer (SPO) and Ms. Sadiqa Salahuddin (IRC) mediated consecutive sessions on the tripartite policy dialogue, research areas and  information services of need.
                                                                             
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In May 2004, the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) invited a group representing the government, civil society, business and media to collectively explore and share ideas for developing recommendations for country level activities to improve governance and promote philanthropy.

Participants at the consultation emphasised the need to bring together the three key stakeholders – government; corporate sector; and the nonprofit organisations – and facilitate a process of dialogue between them. They proposed that PCP should facilitate a planning session bringing together these three stakeholders to define an agenda for subsequent series of dialogues.
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In order to maintain a common set of financial management standards in the Asia Pacific region APPC recommended in 2003 that a set of regional Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) for NPOs should be developed. A draft Regional Accounting and Financial Reporting (RAFR) Standards manual was prepared by Mr. Sunil Mor of Azim Premji Foundation. PCP held workshops in Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore in May and June to share the prepared manual with civil society leaders and representatives of national institutions responsible for maintaining accounting standards. This critical review in eight countries (China, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand)  will be followed by a regional conference in Bangkok in December 2004, where recommendations emerging from the consultative exercise are to be shared with other APPC partners.
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Mr. Muhammad Ahsan Rana, Senior Programme Manager, PCP, attended the CIVICUS World Assembly in Gaborone, Botswana. In this 5^th World Assembly, more than 700 delegates from 106 countries came together to exchange information, share ideas and views, discuss challenges and define the broad contours of an agreed upon action agenda. The Assembly was attended by diverse participants including civil society organisations, community based groups, social activists, research think tanks, academia and international donor agencies.

The agenda included the following four issues:

• Civic Justice: fuelling civic energy

• Economic Justice: livelihood insecurity, innovative solutions seeking to open doors

• Political Justice: democratising power - civic engagement in decision-making

• Social Justice: keeping the peace or fanning the flames

Various crosscutting themes like HIV/AIDS, gender equity and equality, youth empowerment, capacity building and socially marginalised groups were also discussed.
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The conference brought together 125 participants from 16 countries in the Asia Pacific in September 2003. The dynamic group, including a five-member delegation from Pakistan, highlighted the rich experience of governance in the nonprofit sector. The conference included discussions on strengthening national level activities on philanthropy, key issues of expanding research and training on resource mobilisation and exploring new sources of philanthropy funds for Asia. The PCP team made presentations on ‘Contested space: The Role of Civil Society’ and the ‘Certification Initiative’.

The Pakistan-PCP team included Mian Ahsan Saleem (PCP Board member), Mr. Irfan Mufti (SAP-PK), Mrs. Meraj Humayun Khan (Sarhad NGO Ittehad), Mr. Farhan Bokhari (Asst. Editor, News), Mr. Ahsan Rana (Certification Coordinator, PCP) and Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali (Executive Director, PCP).                      
                                                                                           

Corporate Seminar
Lahore

'Corporate Philanthropy 
for Social Investment'
March 18, 2003 
Lahore

This was the second seminar in the 'Corporate Philanthropy for Social Investment' seminar series.  Chaired by Dr. Hafeez Sheikh; then Advisor to the Minister for Privatisation and Investment, the event was attended by over 250 corporate leaders, civil society representatives, government officials and media from Punjab.

High powered attendance made these seminars launching grounds for positioning of the 'corporate philanthropy' objective before its stakeholders. It also lent the corporate philanthropy agenda a boost at the policy making level.   

Corporate Seminar
Karachi

'Corporate Philanthropy 
for Social Investment'
February 11, 2003 
Sheraton Hotel, Karachi

Part of a seminar series, the event complemented  PCP's ongoing efforts to effectively promote philanthropy linkages between potential corporate donors and CSOs working for public benefit. The seminar was attended by over 200 leaders from the corporate sector, representatives of civil society organisations, media, government and donors.

The forum won support for the idea of 'corporate responsibility for national stakeholders' from principal leaders and the government. Key recommendations of the Karachi Seminar, principally made by Mr. Shaukat Aziz included:

      Setting up of market and tax friendly endowments for NPOs

      Target  1% pre tax profit as a benchmark for corporate  
           donors

      Working with the government for greater corporate 
           disclosure on giving patterns in the SECP reporting and  
           accounting format  

      Creating corporate-NPO-government linkages for  
           rejuvenation of government social sector facilities