The Entrepreneurship and Community Development Institute (ECDI) is a not-for-profit capacity-development and knowledge-based institution headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan that facilitates the social and economic empowerment of women through small and micro enterprise promotion. The institution was established in 1990 to address women's developmental concerns and expand their economic potential through entrepreneurship promotion and advocating for their integration into mainstream markets and business sectors in Pakistan, facilitation of business development services to urban and rural micro-enterprises, undertaking poverty-alleviation projects and consciousness-raising on gender issues. ECDI is a member of the SEEP Network, Washington DC (http://www.seepnetwork.org/-members-47.php).

ECDI has a long history of innovative economic development programs targeted at women entrepreneurs including rural artisans and skilled traditional craftswomen across Pakistan. The organization is a recognized training leader and has developed modules for adult learning that include participatory activities in a range of subject areas, such as marketing, finance, procurement, production, quality control, and human resource development for individuals seeking entrepreneurial careers and institutions working within the women and development and Micro Enterprise Development (MED)/Micro Finance (MF) sectors in Pakistan.

ECDI undertakes research and advocacy on gender and development issues and integrates best practices and knowledge from international and national industry for the production of locally contextualised resource materials. Traditional areas of concern include women entrepreneurship, technology dissemination, capacity and vocational skill enhancement and poverty reduction primarily through MED and facilitation of linkages to Business Development Services (BDS) and product markets in a way that enables women-owned Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to engage with and acquire benefits from diverse VCs.

By the late 1990s, ECDI had developed and implemented many successful programs and projects to build the capacity of individual women entrepreneurs and MSEs. The institute also provided a range of services to assist MSEs in project identification, management and offered linkages to financial institutions and to relevant technical experts and skills. ECDI has also conducted gender sensitization activities on all 12 areas of concern as identified by the Beijing Follow-up Process including workshops for government officials, NGOs, commercial banks, MFIs and police officers in collaboration with various bilateral partners.

In recent years, ECDI has moved from a service provision and consulting model to acquire specialist status in the development of pro-poor markets and in stimulating competitiveness among key market players. It has moved from a core BDS focus to more nuanced attention to the development of action learning systems for private sector growth and for making markets work for MSEs. As the BDS field has gradually subsumed into frameworks that focus on broader market development and poverty reduction strategies, ECDI has sought to integrate small producers, particularly women, within sustainable, commercially viable markets by adopting approaches that benefit the poor and enhance the global competitiveness of value chains and core product markets such as hand-embroidery and horticulture in select regions in the country. ECDI designs and implements innovative economic development programmes that improve the livelihoods of people living in poverty and is known for establishing best practices in market development, solving poverty, financial services and training.
 

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