Mainstreaming SCP in the SME sector is urgently needed in Pakistan. SCP has been promoted since the 1990s but has not yet been mainstreamed due to challenges like institutional and capacity limitations, difficulties in coordinating between government agencies and between levels of government, limited incentives and public accountability for environmental management and gaps in the regulatory framework (World Bank 2019). Here, the focus on industrial estates could prove efficient: worker’s safety, pollution management and clean energy investments could prioritise these, thereby minimising their unit costs. Pakistan’s has put forward a detailed Action Plan on SCP in 2017 which explicitly considers provinces and the federal level.
This briefing summarises main findings of a desk analysis, literature review and interviews conducted on the topic of access to finance for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) practices by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan. The analysis was conducted as part of work in support of the EU SWITCH-Asia programme, by the SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility.
