BABYFUND

"Children are the key to Pakistan’s future prosperity. Today’s children are tomorrow’s productive workers and engaged citizens. With 39% of Pakistan’s population under 18 years, the latest data shows Pakistan having 80.4 million children in 2017.2 This makes it imperative for programmes, interventions and policies to champion the rights of the child effectively." (Unicef Pakistan citing Vision 2025, Pakistan’s national development framework by Government of Pakistan). The Situation Analysis of Children in Pakistan (SitAn) advocates the following to protect the rights of the child:  1) Focus on rural areas - "Rural areas are comparatively more characterized by low school enrolment, economic exploitation, malnutrition, poor sanitation and early marriage. Similar disparities exist between provinces, where in Balochistan is generally the poorest and most deprived province.  2) Gender - Girls are less likely than boys to access basic services and have, on average,

consistently lower development outcomes. 3) Poorer children fare worse across all indicators with geographic location, gender and poverty as key factors.  For example, while a poor rural girl in Pakistan receives, on average, 0.75 years of education throughout her life, rich urban boys receive 10.76 years – a difference of 93%. Such disparities perpetuate inter-generational inequalities of opportunity and attainment."

BABYFUND gives all parents equal access to savings for children. We initially received permission for PKR 500 although sustainability might require PKR 5000 per deposit.

BABYFUND neutralizes access to being able to save across the above three factors.  With initial deposits as low as PKR 500 (1.70 USD) and use of current digital payment phone apps and more importantly Easy Paisa and ways the most rural areas can transfer money, it enables parents to with one swipe, deposit something to protect their child.

BABYFUND connects rural families with banks through a children's trust fund by 786 Investments Ltd. that is technology-savvy and easy to use and with low cost to entry. Easy access to money.

1) Giving rural families ability to invest for their children, especially as they know they may die young.

2) Explaining in gamification ways how to invest with a teddy bear guiding the process and a calculator estimating financial growth expected over time.

3) Involving third parties local or global in engaging and contributing to combat child poverty in Pakistan. As there are KYC requirements for making a deposit, currently we have local third parties, but in principle would like to scale this to include global third parties.

Pakistan has pledged its commitment to achieving the SDGs and equally BABYFUND is committed to reducing poverty, general equality and climate action through completely virtual offerings.

Child poverty is a real problem and one that we need to solve together. Our solution galvanizes the banks, leverages the digitalization of the banking and financial sectors as well as engages third parties locally or globally who want to contribute.  Rural Pakistanis are mostly young with limited access to banking but with growing access to technology through phones and governmental wiring initiatives. Breakdown of rural children is mentioned in the Problem portion of the application. BABYFUND will not only give families opportunities to start saving for their children in a tracked and growing way, but it has an option for others to donate or put money into these accounts or match the amounts of those starting savings for their children. This unique factor stops the savings from being only on the parent's shoulders plus is an incentive for parents to want to start.  The funds cannot be withdrawn until the child turns 18.  Parents can track anytime how their child's money is growing and will give online notifactions.

We have spend much time in these communities including 8 districts of Interior Sindh working with families displaced due to flood relief. Learning their hopes and dreams.  Large percentages of much of the affected areas are Hindu populations, so the common factor is not religion but protection of child. This project has come out of requests from these families for solutions. They are worried if something happens to them, what will happen to their children and they dream of a better life for the next generation.  These families have been crucial to the development of these ideas and vision.

We have done a pilot with 100 children.

Child poverty is a real problem and one that we need to solve together. Our solution galvanizes the banks, leverages the digitalization of the banking and financial sectors as well as engages third parties locally or globally who want to contribute. Becoming a Solver will enable BABYFUND to have access to some of the best minds and resources to take this pilot to scale as well as amplify impact.