MoU aims at promoting joint research, enhancing knowledge inked

Islamabad :Sustainable Development Policy Institute Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri has said that working for a just and inclusive society should be a common ground for collaboration between Civil Society Organisations.

Dr Suleri was speaking on the occasion of signing of a memorandum of understanding between SDPI and Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy here Monday. The MoU aims at promoting joint research and enhancing knowledge on issues surrounding philanthropy as a means of achieving social progress and community development in the country.

The SDPI chief said that need of joint efforts by civil society is crucial in the philanthropy sector. He said that the collaboration between SDPI and PCP would provide good impetus for the promotion of Social Development Goals (SDG) as a shared objective.  He said that SDPI believed in establishing partnerships with all the stakeholders in Sustainable Development including government, civil society and private sector because such collaborations would strengthen overall national endeavour towards important international commitments such as SDGs.

Dr Suleri observed that SDPI was approaching private sector to harmonise the efforts around social development while performing corporate social responsibilities. Shazia Maqsood Amjad, executive director, PCP, said that collaboration for shared research between civil society organisations would be instrumental to improve philanthropy sector in Pakistan.

She said that the role of philanthropy sector was critical to achieve developmental goals, especially to improve health- and education-related facilities when the state was facing constraints in budgetary allocations for these sectors. She said that the MoU between SDPI and PCP would induce further collaborations among CSOs.