Since September 2019, I am spearheading a unique project for ‘Kashmir Institute of International Relations’ (KIIR) to develop a critical mass of young women leaders in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) that are capable of identifying and raising their voice against socio-economic marginalization of women and gender-based violence, through storytelling to create a peaceful society. So far around 250 young women leaders, belonging to all ten districts of AJK, have been trained in story writing and narrative building techniques. 

I have produced training manuals and other materials for several local and international organizations including Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA), Education Sector Reforms Assistance (ESRA) Program of the USAID, 'Getting the Balance Right' Project of the British Council; 'Strengthening Democratic Development in Pakistan Project of the Asia Foundation; 'Social Institutions Development Program' (SIDP) of the Canadian International Development Agency; 'Civil Society Strengthening Programme' of the European Commission; and Districts that Work (DTW) Programme and many others.

The 'Pakistan Centre for Development Communication' (PCDC) is country’s first and only ‘Development-Communication’ support organization for nonprofits. Established in 2012, PCDC is now working with many public and private, nonprofit development initiatives all over the country including NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Media Associations, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives, Public Sector Development Programs and bilateral/multilateral development projects.
Mission
PCDC’s mission is to strengthen nonprofits organizations through localized, knowledge-based communication products and services. The purpose is to;
• Improve effectiveness of organizational communication planning and implementation
• Enhance organizational recognition and visibility within stakeholders
• Mobilize financial and other resources through market intelligence and initiative
• Develop transparency and accountability systems for greater effectiveness
• Facilitate knowledge management and learning through increased documentation; and
• Expand outreach through linkages building and networking

Services
PCDC is offering a wide range of socio-technological communication solutions to organizations all over Pakistan. We are providing high quality communication training, research, information and linkages building support to nonprofits.

Right now, I working with UNESCO-Pakistan and Volvo Foundation, Sweden for translation of training materials for development of creative writing skills of young students in public schools. This includes translation of a story book written by a famous Swedish writer in English into Urdu language. The translated story book would be converted into training curriculum for 100 school teachers, and later for education of 3000 children at public schools in Gilgit Baltistan area of Pakistan.

Most recently, I was leading a team of advocacy and mobilization experts at the UKAID/Food Fortification Programme in Pakistan to mobilize communities in 50 districts (32 Punjab, 9 Sindh, 11 KPK) for increased use of fortified wheat flour and oil. Overall, in six months, the campaign achieved direct engagement with more than 10K people, distribution of 500K IEC materials to stakeholders, broadcast of 200K electronic media messages to households, and organization of 150+ interpersonal communication events involving local public representatives and health and education sector bodies.

In 2018, I translated into Urdu, the 250+ pages training manual on ‘Entrepreneurship’ for the USAID/Engro Foundation that was later on taught to more than 200 women entrepreneurs by the ‘Institute for Business Administration’ (IBA) in Sindh. The translation was highly appreciated by USAID/Engro/IBA and was considered as pivotal for the success of the project.

The Foundation is part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which is a non-denominational, international development agency that was established in 1967. Created as a private, non-profit foundation under the Swiss law, AKF now has branches and independent affiliates in 36 countries. Its first branch was established in Pakistan in 1969. My portfolio at the AKF,P involved providing lead and support in the following areas;
- Media relations (including press releases, feedback, participation, media buying and strategic placement)
- Organizational knowledge management for learning, impact assessment and reporting (Intranet development, mailing lists management, graphic and non-graphic resources management, progress reports)
- Publications planning, development and dissemination (Newsletters, research reports, brochures, official stationary, special event products etc)
- Write-ups for website, newsletter, media, research papers
- Events planning and management (seminars, conferences, launching, workshops, dialogues etc)
- Support in donor's coordination for resource mobilization and status check on running projects
- Support in coordination with government, corporate groups and NGOs for partnership building and resource mobilization
- Organizational/internal communication support for branding, team building and communication policy implementation
- Communication support for resource mobilization and networking (including preparation of presentations, speeches and strategic messages etc)
- Support in concept notes development and proposals writing for new projects
- On-site and off-site facilitation for delegates and visitors
- General information provision to the staff on matters of significance to the organization

Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA), was $110 million, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program that supported the Government of Pakistan’s Education Sector Reforms initiative. Its overall goal was to achieve systemic and sustainable improvements in education by supporting activities and initiatives in the areas of policy and planning, professional development, youth and adult literacy, public and private community partnerships and information and communication technologies. The program started in 2002, in twelve districts of Sindh and Balochistan provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
As Communication Manager for this Program, my responsibilities were; management of the website, production and dissemination of newsletters, publicity materials and presentations; preparation, management of public events and periodic reports writing. An important part of my portfolio is to maintain liaison with the government, national and international partner NGOs, USAID offices and the media.
In order to benefit the stakeholders more, by sharing the knowledge and insights gained during the process, I produced a set of sixty-one publications including books, research reports and manuals in English, Urdu and Sindhi languages. These publications were based upon different subjects like Teachers’ Training, Professional Development of education Managers, Education Management Information System, Basic and Functional Literacy, Capacity Building of School Management Committees, Public Private Partnerships, and; Use of Information and Communication Technology for Education.

Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) is among the largest nonprofit organizations in Pakistan. For past 20 years, it has been providing capacity-building, networking and information oriented services to more thousands of community groups of men and women.
The organization has supported hundreds of small-scale development projects in the field of education, health, infrastructure development, civil society strengthening, disaster mitigation and income generation. Its major donors include the European Commission, USAID, CIDA, NORAD, RNE, SC-US, SC-UK and the Government of Pakistan. The organization has twelve offices and strength of approximately 275 full-time professionals.
At SPO, my portfolio of responsibilities included carrying out the following tasks.
- The organization has been publishing a quarterly newsletter for the past several years. As Editor of this quarterly newsletter, I was responsible for writing articles, editing of text, information collection from various organizational units, production, printing and dissemination to the readers.
- Working as web-editor, I successfully designed and uploaded the new website (www.spopk.org) that was launched at the 10th anniversary of the organization.
- I have also edited and produced a series of six discussion papers, titled ‘Understanding Pakistan’.
- In 2006, I produced several posters and brochures as campaign material for the British Council funded ‘Gender Equality Project’.
- To improve effectiveness of trainings, I edited and supervised the transformation of SPO’s ‘Development Planning and Management Training Manual’. The initiative made SPO as Pakistan’s only capacity-building NGO which is conducting all trainings in the national language.
- For almost two-years, I was ‘Communication and Information Focal Person to the largest representative platform of non-government, nonprofit, voluntary and citizen organizations in Pakistan which is called the ‘Pakistan NGO Forum’ (PNF). The forum consists of five coalescing networks of NGOs from all parts of the country having membership strength of more than 2500 NGOs. Under the support, I was the editor of forum’s quarterly newsletter and moderated a 400+ member’s listserv to disseminate useful information about the civil society.

In 1998, I was team leader in urban Sindh providing input to the global study ‘Citizens and Governance: Civil Society in the New Millennium’. The study was commissioned by the Commonwealth Foundation, which in partnership with the CIVICUS carried out an in depth analysis of the civil society in all commonwealth countries. The South Asia Partnership (Pak) was the focal point for this study in Pakistan and NGORC agreed to facilitate the study in Sindh. Working as a consultant for the NGORC, my report comprised of eleven focus group discussions at various locations and more than eighty interviews with people from all walks of life. The report was described as most comprehensive by the national coordinator of the study and sheds enough light on the many facets of civil society in urban Sindh