Articles by Meher Jaffri

Meher Jaffri is a Knowledge and  Communications Consultant for the Pakistan office of the Acumen Fund. She earned her B.Comm from McGill University.

The Following Presentation Was Made at the Pakistan Community Gathering Earlier this Month. To read more about the Pakistan Community Gathering, click here.

When we speak of  impressive achievements in the social sector, often times it is the pioneering philanthropist, theorist, or, more recently, the social entrepreneurs who come immediately  to mind.

These are the Muhuammad Yunus’s, the Akhtar Hameed Khan’s, the Tasneem Siddiqui’s and the Roshaneh Zafar’s – people who have not only exhibited  unwavering discipline in working towards what they believe in, but also the creativity of mind and courage of spirit to figure out how to make it all work.

These are the people who are celebrated by their country, the media and often internationally too. And no doubt it is their initiative that gives us hope in an environment like ours, where working for the public or social good is unfortunately under incentivized.

But there is also a second group of people who need to be acknowledged here, our ‘unsung heroes’ –- the front line of these social organizations.

These are the ones who have their work cut out for them given today’s challenging political and economic climate. They are the ones who go door to door to make collections, even in blistering heat; who galvanize communities to empower themselves; who deal with the hostilities of skeptics; and grapple with bureaucrats on a daily basis. They are truly agents of change and they work tirelessly in difficult terrain, to keep the cogs and wheels of their organizations turning. These are organizations that they believe have the capability to improve their communities. And ultimately most of the front line staff being honored today themselves come from the communities their organizations are serving. This is really capacity building, self-sustenance, and dignity at their best.

Today we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication of the frontline staff of our investee companies and thank this group of people upon whose shoulders Acumen Fund’s entire ecosystem is based. I can say from experience that as a team each and every one of us has learnt a lot from spending time in the field with them.

We are Honoring the Following Individuals, Who Exemplify What it Means to Be on the Frontline

From The First Microinsurance Agency (FMiA)

Dr. SherAziz HIkmat Nazar heads the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Health Insurance Program for the First Microinsurance Agency and has been integral to the success of the program ever since.

With a sense of social mission, the doctor left a comfortable job as a medical consultant with the Aga Khan Development Health Services to take up the challenge of creating awareness, marketing, and distributing of the Health Insurance Product in the northern areas. Since joining FMiA, Dr. SherAziz has managed to increase enrollment from 6,000 to 30,000 policies. He has done this in only two and a half years.

He spoke to me recently with passion about the astounding beauty of the north, and how this is juxtaposed with the crippling poverty that so characterizes it from within.  He also discussed how a product like microinsurance really addresses the root problem that is lack of affordability.

A typical day has him travelling several hours between hospitals, meeting patients, interacting with clients and gatekeeping at hospitals - and with a small team of only five, it’s been difficult, especially in a market like Pakistan where health insurance is a new concept.

Dr. Sher Aziz has never looked back. He hasn’t even taken one day of vacation during his time with FMiA.

From the Kashf Foundation.

The next two people I want to call on two loan officers from Kashf Foundation.

This segment today is actually the result of a field exercise with these loan officers a couple months ago that opened the team’s eyes once more to the challenges faced by the frontline staff.

Their morning is spent with the branch managers on strategy and targets and then in the 2nd half of the day the loan officers, half of which are women, either walk, or take a chingchi (local rickshaw) unaccompanied in the Punjab heat to go from door to door to their clients where they not only have to recover payments, but disburse new loans too.

The relationships these officers have forged with their clients are so strong that their typical day involves them being invited into the client’s homes and talking about life where many a concern are shared and advice is given.

The loan officers are from the communities they work in and share with their clients an inherent trust, one that has only been strengthened over time.

CEO Roshaneh Zafar calls these officers Kashf’s “rirh ki haddi” (backbone) and they are truly a force to be reckoned with; an inspiration to us all.

Naureen Rizwan – Loan Officer for Kashf Foundation’s (Dharampura Branch) has been with Kashf since 2005 and has the highest number of disbursements of new loans in her area.

Nadia Ismail – Loan Officer (Bahawalpur 05 Branch), Kashf has been with Kashf since 2008 and is known as the overachiever of her branch, consistently surpassing her targets.

From Micro Drip.

Mohammed Ali, Installation Officer at Micro Drip was initially hired for his plumbing skills, because Micro Drip needed someone to connect the drip system to tube-wells.

From that point on he has demonstrated impressive leadership and a tireless work ethic, in the areas of assembly and installation.

He has grown to lead the installations team for smaller fields and has worked at all hours in Hyderabad, Dadu and Sukkur to complete installations on time.

Mohd Ali has stepped up when needed in the field without thought to accommodations, environment or even the time of day.

On several instances Mohd Ali has lived on the farmer’s fields overnight, if the job called for it, and he travels constantly  — in pretty dangerous and hostile environments at night to get a job done.

He has led the rest of the team by example and driven others on the team to step up their performance.

From basic plumbing to leading installations and assembly, Mohd. Ali is Micro Drip’s jack of all traits and consistently gives his work his all — and more.

From Saiban, Khuda Ki Basti 4 (Lahore)

As one of the pioneering employees of Saiban’s Khuda Ki Basti-4, Jamshaid Cheema has been working with the project for three years now.

After completing his education in business administration and economics from Lahore, Jamshaid opted to pursue a career in accounting.

In December, 2006 Jamshaid joined Saiban as an accounts officer. Considering the nature of the project, he became frustrated early on with the lack of structure and focus for his career development. However, Jamshaid took the time to understand the true purpose and impact of Saiban and once the real power of the model became evident to him, he committed himself to this sector, and for the long haul.

During his years with Saiban, Jamshaid has been able to develop his skills in various aspects of the business, taking a keen interest that has extended far beyond his daily responsibilities as an accounts officer.

From dealing with the local bureaucracy on building permits to dealing with HBFC on mortgage approvals, or handling critical community development issues, and marketing in the field — Jamshaid has proved willing and ready to learn and sacrifice whenever the project has needed him. .

From Saiban, Khuda Ki Basti 3

Akhtar Ali Khan has been associated with the work of Saiban since 1986, when it launched its first project, Khuda Ki Basti I in Hyderabad.

Back then he was working with the Hyderabad Development Authority, assigned to the Saiban project. In 2000 he left HDA to join Saiban full-time where he has since been the Project Director of Khuda Ki Basti 3 in Taiser Town.

While working with Tasneem Siddiqui to set up the project from scratch, Akhtar saab lived in the basti for its first 8 years, when it was just a barren piece of land with no facilities and far removed from any other settlement at the time.

He’s tackled many challenges that come hand in hand with the socio-political environment of this city, challenges that are compounded with the very nature of such a project such as handling the land mafia, dealing with the very daunting political environment and one can say that despite risking threats on his life more than once, he was never deterred from his commitment to Saiban’s vision.

I’d like to end with a quote that I saw hanging in the office of Khuda Ki Basti 3 in Karachi when I first visited (and it was actually Akhtar Saab who showed me around) and it encompasses perfectly the lives of the people that are being honored today. It’s a quote from the Chinese Daoist philosopher Lao Tzu and it goes:

“Go to the people, live with them,
Love them, learn from them
Work with them, with what they have.
Build on what they know,
and in the end
When the work is done
The task accomplished
The people will rejoice:
‘We have done it ourselves’ “

My experience shadowing Munir Ahmed and his team of enumerators revealed several stories that reinforced my conclusion that the search for black-and-white quantitative data is often colored by a cultural nuances and perceptions.

There are a few things enumerators must be cognizant of:

• Sometimes there is nothing you can do to elicit an honest answer/ correct data.
  While conducting research for an energy company on electricity utilization, Munir’s team had to attach a device onto the roofs of houses that measures the electricity output at the source (before it reaches the meter). When he and his team came to take the devices off houses the next day, one family had managed to collapse the whole roof in an apparent attempt to evade the exercise (without tampering with the devices) and avoid intrusion at any cost!

• You have to be smart and resourceful to get what you want.
  Munir and his team once travelled into rural Sindh to conduct agricultural surveys. The zamindaar (landowner) of the area did not grant permission for his team to come in and very pointedly told them they had no business speaking to “his” people. Instead of giving up, Munir thought about how to approach this particular problem and, banking on the culture of hospitality that is prevalent especially amongst the Sindhi people, he went back the next day with a strategy in mind. He asked the zamindaar, “What would you call people who have come from outside to visit the people of the land?” “Mehmaan (guests),” answered the landowner. “That is not how we have been treated,” pointed out Munir. Following this, the landowner saw things differently and welcomed them onto his property. He participated in the survey himself and even allowed the team to interview farmers individually. At the end of the day, the landowner sacrificed a goat in honor of his guests and everyone ate together.

• And sometimes you have to know when to walk away.
  One of our respondents, madrassah school teacher Mahmud-ul-Hasan told us he often conducts surveys as part of the national census team. He revealed that due to their conservative culture, Pathans are very difficult to interview. Once while taking census, his team asked a Pathan woman to complete a portion of their questionnaire.  Perceiving it as an invasion on her family’s privacy, she instead tore it in two. Over the next couple of days, the census team repeatedly asked for it back to no avail. When they approached her husband, he also refused, until a Pathan on his team who spoke Pashto explained the purpose of the census and appealed to his sense of brotherhood. The husband proceeded to go home to retrieve the questionnaire and scolded  his wife for withholding such important information.

As I learned, hard stats bring with them a degree of legitimacy that usually goes unquestioned, but you have to be careful to read between the numbers. Munir’s stories really underscore the necessity for the “soft” skills that go behind the quest for “hard” data.

Getting a true picture and perspective requires more than just asking questions. It requires listening and empathy and an understanding of cultural context. But it is this kind of effort that helps us to better understand the needs of low-income customers and the ways in which we can better serve them.

As I travel through Orangi Town, a district in northwestern Karachi of approximately 720,000 inhabitants, about an hour away from the city center, the landscape of Karachi shifts. A microcosm of the city, it is inhabited by mohajirs (Indian Muslim refugees), Biharis (Bangladeshi Muslim refugees), Sindhis, Pathans, Punjabis and Balochis. It was known as one of the largest slums in Asia until renowned social scientist and development activist Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan pioneered the incremental development and bottom-up community development model with the Orangi Pilot Project in the 80’s.

Citi-Acumen Affordable Housing Research Project

Acumen Fund’s housing portfolio has been the most active in Pakistan, where we’ve been investing in housing since 2002.  In 2002, Acumen made its initial housing investment in Saiban’s Khuda ki Basti (God’s Settlement) low-cost housing project, the brainchild of Tasneem Siddiqui, incremental housing development expert extraordinaire. We’ve been committed ever since and are currently supporting its expansion in Lahore that is also underway. (Ann McDougall and Sasha Dichter from the team each wrote about the Khuda Ki Basti model following their respective visits).

Realizing that investment itself might not be enough, Acumen Fund also partnered with Citi Foundation to undertake a research study into low-income housing and housing finance to understand customer demand for housing and housing finance and the current supply. The end goal is to get a grasp of the market for affordable housing, different types of affordable housing models, and current mechanisms the poor utilize to fund housing purchase. Essentially, what is the BoP’s willingness to pay for low-cost housing?

To that end, the Citi-Acumen project comprises primary market research, including demand-side surveys of the major cities across Pakistan, focus group discussions and stakeholder interviews to assess the current market for housing and finance capabilities. Recently, I accompanied one of the surveyors as he went house to house to speak with individuals living in Orangi Town. As I was to learn, quantitative data gathering is often subjective and a matter of judgment and many human variables factor into this ‘quantitative’ exercise.

Pride

Pride plays a big role in influencing and skewing responses, especially when it comes to answering questions on matters of personal finance, savings and expenses. The nature of our survey was such that respondents will often mistake us for loan officers from banks, leading them to sometimes exaggerate and inflate savings in the hope that they qualify for a loan. Indeed as I was to experience, we were met with a mix of high optimism from some and deep suspicion from others who thought we were bank officers offering loans or government officials on inspection checks. Munir Ahmed (Lead Surveyor) was careful to have coached his enumerators in advance about instigating false hopes within respondents and indeed their ensuing explanation that we were here only to seek the community’s “rai” (opinion) and “mushvara” (advice) so that we may educate those who are in a position to help them - brought about a change in attitude towards us.

Still, there were others who remained suspicious of our work, an attitude exacerbated by the fact that work like this tends to get collective attention by neighbors and others around. One gentleman who was increasingly agitated by the personal nature of questions asked us to “close the interview” once we approached the topic of household expenditures and savings.

Personal pride can also manifest itself in less hostile ways. One respondent, Mahmood-ul-Hasan Qadir, a madarassah (Islamic school) school teacher briefly engaged a perturbed enumerator in a game of tug of war when he tried to pry the questionnaire out of the enumerators hand so he could write down his own answers. The question posed at the time was about his income, and the respondent’s constant self-conscious glances towards me made me realize that he did not want me (the only female in the room) to hear his income. I immediately busied myself with my tea (he was the only respondent who invited us into his home) to save him any embarrassment he might be feeling. At some point in the interview, he was asked how he had financed the construction of a new room that cost Rs.30,000 (USD 360) to which his son interjected, “Through the BC” (Bank committee, see below). After some moments, his father reprimanded him quietly, “Don’t say BC, tell them it was through the help of friends and family,” indicating to one of the options on the survey. Upon further probing, we found out the father had received money from an uncle’s wife to expedite his family’s home construction. He commented later, “I realized that we should be assisting you honestly in this endeavor,” his conscience overcoming any embarrassment he might have felt at receiving help or charity from friends/family.

Unfortunately, there were many others who failed ultimately to understand our role or intention of the exercise. The mindset of those who believed that we would be making some monetary profit out of the exercise tended to echo their own prejudice – and it was often these people who were not willing to participate until we told them what “faida” (benefit) it held for them. As in every community, there were some who were satisfied with the fact that they would not see any monetary or any other immediate benefit, but that in the long term this research could possibly improve the chances of organizations better understanding and meeting the needs of their future generations. And then there were those who couldn’t care less and just walked away.

The BoP’s Savings and Loan Profile: Savings, Lump Sums and BC committees

The most common method of financing big purchases was through savings with BC committees. This reinforces the idea that, given the absence of formal credit or perhaps the undesirability of its institutional stipulations, members of a community will find a way to meet their needs internally. In the case of the residents of the communities I visited, they needed:

• Access to lump sums of money in the anticipation of big events or expenses, and
• The discipline to save this lump sum of money.

This discipline component is related purely to the social aspect of BC committees. Once a party has committed to contributing to a BC, they will push themselves not to renege on installments for fear of breaking the social contract. Once again pride has a big part to play, and as many families told me, they will go a long way to avoid “looking bad” or being scorned for non-payment. Though Microfinance Institutions have incorporated the aspect of “social collateral” into their operations, as one respondent we interviewed told us, an institutional loan is still viewed as foreign and does not warrant the same discipline as a community-managed BC committee does.

The most common amounts of the total BC were Rs.50, 000 (US$600) or Rs.100, 000 (US$1,200) and the average monthly installment was Rs. 2000 (US$ 24). Depending on the size, the total duration of the BC’s ranged from 1 to 4 years. This indicates a preference for short-term credit.

Housing Finance and Borrowing on Credit

Most of the respondents who indicated interest in procuring a loan for home construction or home improvement - and indeed, anybody who had knowledge of financing and interest - were of a certain demographic. By and large, this group consisted of micro entrepreneurs such as tailors and shop owners. A majority of them indicated first a preference for loans to expand their business and then for home construction or improvement loans.

Most families who had taken out a loan in the past from moneylenders or purchased home construction materials on credit from thallawallas (building-parts manufacturers/suppliers) had done it at high interest rates and were caught in a cycle of perpetual debt, usually only able to pay back the monthly interest and never the principal. In fact, most respondents did not exhibit enough of an understanding of principal and interest to realize how they were trapping themselves further in a vicious cycle of debt. As I reflected on this, I realized what a crucial role MFIs must play in educating and empowering their customers to make responsible financial decisions.

Other sources of loans were also mostly informal, such as loans from friends or family and credit from neighborhood stores. This was in small amounts and frequently to cover cash shortfalls experienced on a month-by-month basis.

As I discovered, there is so much to be learned from these surveys — and not just from the questions that we asked. Next week, I’ll share some true-life experiences of the surveyors that demonstrate the challenges and insights that arise from this work.

As (social) venture capitalists, a question we ask ourselves a lot here at Acumen is how we can go about nurturing and mentoring our investees. One of the challenges we face as a socially driven venture capitalist is how to act as an incubator for our investees that are usually in their early ‘survivor’ stages. Most of our investees are in this stage - usually because they are pioneering products and services that no one has had the audacity to explore before.

A few weeks ago, Acumen Fund Pakistan held an Investee Workshop on Leadership and Talent Building in Early Stage Social Enterprises in an effort to share ideas and creative solutions on one of the most common problems our investees - and indeed most resource constrained enterprises in their survival stages - face: attracting talent. The CEOs of our investee companies attended, along with some of their HR personnel.

The workshop kicked off with self-reflective note from our CEOs.  Many of the activities and group exercises in the early part of the workshop were very insightful in exemplifying the role the participants play as leaders and team players. For example, in one exercise, participants made repeated mistakes.  Their desire to avoid looking foolish led them to mimic those who went before, even though the first participants had not necessarily made the right choice. Realizing that mimicry is common in social and group settings, leaders become cognizant of the rule of ‘leading by example’. Living by your philosophy is the only way to see that culture permeates throughout your organization.

In another activity – this time a timed game of strategy – many of the participants admitted afterwards that they had a hard time relinquishing control. It was apparent how the (sometimes unconscious) reluctance to empower a team undermined the team’s authority, effectiveness, and efficiency and ultimately impeded team motivation and goal achievement.  Ramiz Allawala, our highly talented facilitator, also helped us recognize that there is an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ view to our companies and it is important to have a team member be able to step back and act as a ‘bird’s eye view’ when we are all too busy getting our hands dirty in order to assess the bigger picture.

Another common concern echoed by the CEOs was talent acquisition. Resource constrained social enterprises cannot compete with the compensation packages of larger for-profits, and attracting the right talent is largely a matter of finding creative ways in which to appeal to the social conscience of the talent pool while balancing their needs of professional growth. One of our CEOs added that the problem of talent acquisition is only likely to exacerbate once the economy turns around. Certainly many of us have wondered how instrumental the recession has been in helping social organizations (including Acumen) attract talent.

The ensuing discussion provided valuable insights into thinking how to creatively position the opportunities in an organization. Through shared stories, it became obvious that not only does one have to think of alternative, unorthodox channels to find the right talent, but also creative ways in which to appeal to the talent pool.

For example, Jawad Aslam (2008 Acumen Fellow and current CEO of Ansaar Management Company, a low-income housing development in Lahore) learned the necessity of networking and alternative channel hunting to find candidates that were suitably matched to his organization when he stumbled across a website called www.muppies.org for Muslim Urban Professionals living abroad. Here he had a pool of qualified individuals, who had a vested interest in giving back to their country. In order to appeal to not only their social conscience, but their self interest as well, he devised the position as a 2-year engagement with a high degree of responsibility during which they would be involved in the start-up of his company. In this way he ensured their professional interests were met, and kept it as a short term engagement to attract anyone who might be temporarily out of work due to the recession. In return, AMC will benefit from much needed expertise in its early, most crucial stage.

As the other CEOs chimed in with their experiences, we heaved a collective A-Ha! moment – one of the reasons why our investees have had trouble attracting talent is that the social entrepreneurship space in Pakistan has not found a place in the people’s consciousness yet. There is still ambiguity around it and the community here needs to understand the alternative between the NGO, traditional aid and CSR models of social development (Acumen Fund Pakistan hopes to be instrumental in perpetuating this paradigm shift).

Even as the day wound down, energies were high. We received an overwhelming positive response from the investees regarding their interaction with one another. As one of our CEO’s remarked, there is something great to be gained in hearing your concerns as a social entrepreneur echoed amongst a group of like minded people.

It is worth mentioning that the success of our workshop was largely due to the excellence of our facilitator, Ramiz Allawala of Gulfstone Training, himself an entrepreneur in his past career. Through his experience and background, he was able to relate to the discussion and offer insightful experiences and examples to draw from. A definite takeaway for us was that entrepreneurs appreciate communicating and consulting with other entrepreneurs as they have all experienced similar growing pains, and we should keep this in mind when thinking of the management assistance or mentoring we try to provide for our investees.

We all want to be able to say, “This is the house my father owns.” This dream is floating all over the world. Pitrus Saab, early resident of Khuda Ki Basti 3.

I recently visited Khuda Ki Basti 3, a low-income housing development 2 hours away from the city centre of Karachi. I first learned of Khuda Ki Basti (”God’s Settlement”) and the incremental development model when I met Tasneem Siddiqui of Saiban during a research project in 2005. I was ushered in an office by Mr. Siddiqui’s assistant (his only staff at the time) where he sat at his desk, shrouded by mountains of papers and books. Though he was extremely busy and seemingly understaffed, he made himself available to speak to me. Mr. Siddiqui is the sort of person who inspires people. Not because he is a great story teller with heart warming anecdotes that leave you with a good feeling. No, he is inspiring because he takes a no-nonsense approach to a problem that is colossal and overwhelming both in its scale and by its nature.

Without a piece of land on which you can raise your family, sleep at night and call your home, it is difficult to find the stability you need in your life to propel yourself forward. No one should be denied the opportunity to attain this stability and prosperity. Almost all people understand this. However there are very few people who will roll up their sleeves and try to get something done about it. This is especially true in an environment like Pakistan where public officials are a part of the problem, not solution. (Pakistan was ranked 134th out of 180 countries by Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index - which is not a good ranking.)

My report recognized that, without government cooperation, there is no method of scaling any successful models in housing. However, it also acknowledged the reality – that public sector solutions are usually public relations rhetoric within a larger political game. As a result, government-initiated projects do not often reflect the reality of the issues. For example, as has been documented by Saiban extensively, the age-old government approach of creating elaborate “sites and services” schemes in Pakistan ends up inflating the cost and price of housing far beyond the reach of base of the pyramid, and yet we continue to hear of initiatives based on this model.

In his inauguration speech at the National Assembly on 29th March 2008, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced his coalition government’s agenda, including a plan to build one million homes annually targeted towards the lower income sector. Such grandiose plans that are removed from the reality of the current and historical housing reality are not uncommon - especially when they come during times of crises (in this case both economic and political).

Tasneem Siddiqui is known internationally for his work in low-income housing - he has been the recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, The Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service and nominated for several others. What is somewhat disheartening is that even today, despite his reputation and the successes (KKB has been replicated in three areas of Karachi and currently in the process of development in Lahore) of the incremental development model, government cooperation (in the form of subsidized land) remains the biggest bottleneck to solving the housing and squatter settlement crisis in Pakistan.

Though consultation with Mr. Siddiqui and Saiban is often part of protocol during various government-led initiatives, they have still not been able to get their model officially adopted. A Saiban employee told me that while officials praise Saiban’s efforts and achievements in the field during meetings and conferences, off-the-record discourses usually involve an official asking very plainly “Meray liye faida kahan hai?” (“Where is the benefit for me?”). It is easy to see how anyone with good intentions might be discouraged. But as the perseverance of Mr. Siddiqui, his colleagues at Saiban and of the residents of Khuda Ki Basti 3 demonstrated, determined ideals will get you long way.

In my next blog post, I’ll talk about how two of the earliest residents of KKB 3 and its very model taught me the meaning of patient capital. For now I’ll end on a note that nags at the back of my mind whenever I think of the achievements of Mr. Siddiqui in such an onerous environment. How much is the success of a movement dependent on its figure head? We at Acumen Fund like to talk about the sustainability of our advocacy for social change, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, how do you go about succession planning for revolutionaries – especially when it is their reputation and clout that opens doors in such a dramatically politicized environment like Pakistan?