DASTKAARI AT KASHF FOUNDATION (A)

Abstract

Kashf was set up in 1996 as Pakistan’s first microfinance organization, providing microfinance services solely to women. While working with women in villages, Kashf’s staff felt the need to provide employment opportunities for women other than those already available to them. Thus, Kashf’s Enterprise Development Department (Dastkaari) came into being. Dastkaari’s work methodology was based on the Workstation-Centre Model of Arong Bangladesh, operated through a network of six workstations situated in different villages and one production centre located along the Lahore-Kasur Road. This case focuses on challenges that Kashf was facing in effectively managing the Dastkaari programme. To make the programme effective and sustainable Kashf’s management was considering options of expansion versus consolidation in its enterprise development activities.