British Council announces Rs200m investment in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The British Council will invest Rs 200 million in Pakistan over the next two years through an ambitious programme mainly to empower women and girls, foster youth employment and support disabled persons.

The Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies (DICE) programme will be delivered across five priority countries; Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Indonesia and Brazil as well as the UK. To address challenges in emerging economies, the British Council programme draws on two of the UK’s key assets; social enterprise and the creative industries.

The DICE Fellowship aims to help 600 social and creative entrepreneurs, of which there will be 300 women leaders, develop through a programme delivered by the School of Leadership across 12 cities in Pakistan, according to a press release issued on Sunday.

The programme is poised to help the people, institutions and the government work together to develop an inclusive and creative economy in partnership with the UK.

The creative industries alone contribute over £75 billion to the UK economy and 1.8 million jobs. As many as 70,000 social enterprises contribute £24 billion to the UK economy and sustain over one million jobs.