CARE Pakistan, in collaboration with GIZ and with funding from the European Union, has launched a series of free awareness sessions targeting small and medium enterprise owners and entrepreneurs across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Balochistan, with the aim of building practical understanding of green skills and climate-smart technologies among business communities in regions that have historically received less attention from enterprise development programmes than Pakistan’s larger urban centers. The sessions are being delivered under a project titled Enhancing Private Sector Awareness on Green Skills and Climate-Smart Technologies, which sits within the broader TVET Sector Support Programme co-funded by the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The geographic focus of the programme is deliberate and significant. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Balochistan are among the provinces most acutely exposed to the physical consequences of climate change in Pakistan, from glacial lake outburst floods in the north to drought and water stress in the southwest, yet they are also among the regions where small and medium enterprises have the least access to the technical knowledge and financial instruments needed to adapt their operations to a changing climate. By directing awareness sessions toward entrepreneurs in Peshawar, Swabi, Quetta, Hunza, Skardu, and Gilgit, the programme is attempting to close an information and capacity gap that has left many businesses in these areas unable to access green investment opportunities or make the operational adjustments that would reduce their exposure to climate-related disruption.
The content of the sessions spans several interconnected areas that SME owners in these regions have identified as directly relevant to their business challenges. Participants will receive practical knowledge on green technologies applicable to their sectors, information on the financing mechanisms and support structures available for businesses seeking to adopt climate-smart practices, and access to a network of industry experts and peers working through similar challenges. Critically, the sessions are also designed as two-way conversations, giving entrepreneurs a structured platform to articulate their specific business challenges and climate-related needs rather than receiving a standardised curriculum that may not map cleanly onto the realities of operating a small business in Skardu or Swabi.
A particular focus of the programme is the integration of TVET graduates into the green economy, with specific attention to expanding employment and skills opportunities for women. This dimension of the project reflects a recognition that the transition to green business practices creates demand for new technical skills, and that this demand represents an opportunity to bring underrepresented groups into sectors that have historically excluded them. By connecting TVET graduates with the SME owners participating in the awareness sessions, the programme is attempting to create a supply-demand link between newly trained workers and businesses that need their skills, rather than treating skills development and enterprise support as separate tracks that never intersect.
The sessions are scheduled to run through July, August, and September, giving interested SME owners and entrepreneurs across the six identified cities a window of several months to participate. The registration process is open and free, reflecting the programme’s intent to reach business owners who might otherwise be deterred by cost from accessing enterprise development support. For CARE Pakistan and GIZ, the awareness sessions represent an early-stage intervention in what is understood to be a longer process of shifting how Pakistan’s private sector in these regions understands and responds to the economic dimensions of climate change, treating sustainability not as a compliance burden but as a source of competitive advantage and market access in an increasingly climate-conscious global economy.
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