'MilKar' wins prestigious Commonwealth award

"MilKar”, Pakistan’s largest volunteer network, has won the prestigious Commonwealth Innovation Award for Sustainable Development 2023.

Commonwealth’s Secretary General Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC presented the biennial award, recognising MilKar as one of the 15 exceptional innovations from over 3,000 nominations across 56 Commonwealth countries.

The rigorous selection process spanned several months and involved over 70 jury members.

The Commonwealth Innovation Awards acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of innovators in the public, private, and NGO sectors working on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Each award category aligns with the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership.

MilKar's is designed as an “uber”-like platform that connects volunteers with social projects and reimagines development challenges into volunteering opportunities.

By mobilising, connecting, and enabling the community to take ownership of projects, it rewrites the fundamental challenge of development initiatives: sustainably.

In the past three years, Milkar has become Pakistan’s largest independent youth volunteer platform. The network has grown to over 12,317 volunteers and 261 NGOs registered on Milkar, who have worked on 566 community service projects impacting 2.9 million people.

Furthermore, MilKar led the initiative with the government to convert student volunteering hours into academic credit across several universities in Pakistan.

Muhammad Hadi Saif, Head of Volunteers at MilKar, declared this award a significant accolade for Pakistan.

Syed Kashf Ahmed, the Project Director received this award as part of the Commonwealth Innovation Week organized in Nairobi, Kenya.

A national campaign supported by MKRF, Milkar.com aims to inspire people to volunteer for social causes and participate in community projects.

These projects focus on literacy, education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, female empowerment, and climate change, contributing to the development and welfare of Pakistan.

The award reaffirms the commitment of the Milkar team to continue this collaborative journey and acknowledges the work of thousands of volunteers on the Milkar platform and over 260 NGO partners.