What is Community of Practice?

Safeer Ullah Khan Development Professional A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a craft or a profession. The concept was first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in their book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger 1991). A CoP can evolve naturally because of the members’ common interest in a particular domain or area, or some practitioners may create one deliberately with the goal of gaining knowledge related to a specific field. CoPs can exist in physical settings, for example, a lunchroom at work, a community space (chaupal or hujra), or a common room at an office. However, it may not necessarily […]

Afghanistan & Pakistan Emerging Young Women Leaders Congress held

Islamabad-15 January 2019: Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies, (IPD) Islamabad hosted a two-day Congress under its banner initiative Centre for Women Peace and Leadership titled “Afghanistan and Pakistan- Emerging Young Women Leaders Congress”. It is a Cross Border/Regional Level Initiative. The initiative was taken in partnership with Afghan Girls Debating Program – an initiative of Institute of Business Studies Afghanistan, and Women Regional Network with the kind support from N-Peace Network in Islamabad on January 14-15, 2019. Ms. Andleeb Abbass, Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan, graced the Congress as Chief Guest. Speaking on the occasion Ms. Andleeb […]

Muslim Aid invites EoIs for two ambulances and two schools

Muslim Aid Pakistan invites “Expression of Interest” to handover two ambulances (in KP) and two schools (one in Pattoki & one in Jampur, Punjab). Potential Organizations with long term sectoral experience and on-ground presence are encouraged to submit 2 – 3 page proposal along with organizational profile and three years utilization plan of resources, prior to Jan 27, 2019. Selected organization will be working in strategic partnership with Muslim Aid – Pakistan by signing “Memorandum of Understanding”. For more information, please visit this link: Expression of Interest For any clarification, please contact Senior Programme Officer – Education Fahad Haidri at […]

Attitudinal, environmental barriers hinder transgender people, women & PWDs from observing general elections 2018

Preliminary Findings of Experiential Study by Coalition for Inclusive Pakistan (CIP) ISLAMABAD, September 25, 2018: Despite progressive legislative and policy measures to facilitate participation of transgender people, women and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the electoral processes, these individuals faced attitudinal and environmental barriers in the exercise of their right to vote and to observe elections on an equal basis with others during General Elections 2018. Preliminary findings of experiential study conducted by the Coalition for Inclusive Pakistan, (CIP) suggest that voters with disabilities and disabled election observers largely found polling stations inaccessible but the attitudes of police, security staff […]

US Ambassador’s Fund to Award 200 New Grants

Islamabad, Pakistan— On September 13, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) publically launched the next round of the Ambassador’s Fund Grant Program with a ceremony announcing the first eleven grant recipients.  During the current five-year cycle, running from 2017-2022, this program will award approximately 200 grants in support of high impact efforts by Pakistani organizations working to improve the economic and social conditions of the people of Pakistan. Chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy, John Hoover, told those gathered for the event that, “This program helps people address local problems by implementing indigenous solutions that will have immediate and […]

CRTI Invites Entries for RTI Champion Award 2018

Islamabad, Sept 4: The Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI) has invited entries from Pakistani citizens and journalists for the prestigious Right to Information (RTI) Champion Award 2018. The RTI Champion Award 2018 will be given to: (a) the selected citizen who effectively used RTI laws to seek information from public bodies; and (b) the selected journalist who used RTIs law to not only write investigative stories but also unearth government malpractices. The award ceremony will be held on September 28 – to coincide with the International Right to Know Day. The award committee comprises eminent journalists and civil society […]

CIEP and partners launch new project TRANSition

CEIP recently launched their TRANSition project with partners; The Gender Guardian and Go Green Welfare Society. The launching event took place on 17th August at Hotel Pearl Continental, Lahore. The program started with members of the transgender community singing the national anthem, followed by a theatrical performance that highlighted the issues faced by this community.  To create awareness on the vulnerability of transgender in our society and to highlight the efforts made on an institutional level, a panel discussion was organized on ‘Policy level changes for acceptance of Transgender.’  The panel consisted of the chief guest Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib […]

The PELP website has been launched!

The PELP Team has announced the launch of the Pakistan Evidence and Learning Platform (PELP) website, which is available at https://pelp.org.pk. The website is available in both English and Urdu and designed in a way that it is user-friendly and accessible. The contents will be updated on a regular basis, particularly on any upcoming events and announcements.  PELP is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder and multi-million project funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and implemented by UNITAR. It is the ‘systems-building’ component of the DFID-funded Multi-Year Humanitarian Programme (MYHP) 2014-2019 and aims to strengthen knowledge management processes by ensuring that knowledge […]

14th National Assembly Ends with Legislative Distinction

ISLAMABAD, June 01, 2018: Despite political controversies in the past five years, the 14th National Assembly took up an unprecedented legislative agenda by approving 205 bills as compared to 134 and 51 bills passed by 13th and 12th National Assemblies during their five-year terms, respectively. (Source FAFEN Website)  The House approved several important pieces of legislation, including five constitutional amendments during 56 sessions comprising 495 sittings, that provided for setting up military courts for an initial period of two years and their subsequent extension for another two years, reallocation of National Assembly seats among federating units on the basis of […]

Writing a Professional Email

by Safeer Ullah Khan, and Ashley Barr Writing a professional email is considered a very simple task, and we often believe that there is no need to get any lessons for this basic business requirement. However, we have all received emails that do not make any sense or have missed some of the most important information. These issues are especially problematic when sending emails to donors or important partners. Below are some guidelines for writing a proper professional email. Be Clear about Your Purpose: You need to be very clear what you want to achieve through the email you are […]