Green Entrepreneurship Incubator in Pakistan

The Asia Foundation’s Pakistan office launched the Barhta Pakistan Ecopreneurship Platform 2019 in partnership with the Ministry of Information Technology, Pakistan’s national incubation center. An initiative to engage the nation’s youth in creating the green businesses of the future, the program features a competition for sustainable business plans that offers networking opportunities and provides microgrants to competition winners.

BPEP 2019 is the inaugural event of The Asia Foundation’s new Barhta Pakistan program (barhta means “rising”), which focuses on creating sustainable cities—cities that are pollution free, conducive to business, adaptable to climate change, gender equitable, safe, and technologically advanced.

The competition attracted 260 teams of young entrepreneurs from throughout Pakistan, with pitches ranging from environmentally friendly fuel processing to recycling and energy efficiency. Ten teams won the chance to make final pitches to an audience that included private-sector executives, ministry officials, donors, and not-for-profit leaders. The top three pitches have been awarded seed grants and mentorship support from The Asia Foundation.

The Asia Foundation–Pakistan has designated environmental sustainability and economic development as its top priorities, in recognition of the nation’s economic and climate vulnerabilities. BPEP will become an annual event, and subsequent rounds will include international experts among the judges and advisers.