Karachi Civic Innovation Lab
Karachi Civic Innovation Lab (KCIL) launched at the Nest I/O on 25th April with the collaboration of Pakistan Innovation Foundation, Karachi Youth Initiative, and Habib University. The lab is based out of the Playground at Habib University.
The launch event also hosted a panel discussion exploring the need of civic innovation. The panelists included: Jehan Ara – President P@SHA, Imran Azhar – Founder AZ Corp, Saad Amanullah – Chairman of the PIF Board, Saima Zaidi – Associate Professor, Habib University, Amar Shah – Program Coordinator DAI and Anzar Khalid – Head of Mathematics & Integrated Sciences, Habib University.
KCIL builds upon two years of experience of running an Innovation Challenge and Hackathon as well as an Accelerator focused on solving Karachi’s problems. It aims to institutionalize innovation to become a way of thinking for a diverse group of Karachi’s stakeholders – not just the challenge participants – and can be pursued relentlessly and constantly, rather than in a haphazard manner for a limited period of time.
Dr. Athar Osama, CEO Pakistan Innovation Foundation introduced the aim of KCIL, “We are working towards building Karachi’s first ever Civic Data Repository that will enable change-makers and common public to access data and transform it to build solutions for Karachi.”
Speaking on the panel Saad Amanullah stated, “We have been working on this civic movement in Karachi. We cannot do an event and walk away. We need a permanent solution that creates opportunities for our citizens and KCIL is just that.”
Karachi Civic Innovation Lab also introduced their following programs that will be launched in the coming month:
- Community Innovators’ Program
- Civic Accelerator
- University Fellows
- University Internships
- Civic Innovation Fellowships
- Hackathons
- Talks