Enterprise and Development Consulting (Pvt) Ltd (EDC)

Enterprise and Development Consulting (Pvt) Ltd (EDC), was established in Islamabad as a private limited company in 1988. It is a specialized provider of high-quality research and consulting services and development project implementation support. EDC has worked with and assisted government, business, and non-government organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan and 21 other countries (including five in Africa and 14 in Asia). In Pakistan, EDC has worked in two-thirds of the districts of the country's four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.  EDC has three main areas of specialization--monitoring and evaluation, agriculture and rural development, and decentralization and local governance. Cross-cutting areas of expertise include poverty alleviation, gender equality, participatory approaches and civil society involvement. EDC has provided Pakistani and international expertise in these and other areas for long- and short-term contracts in Pakistan and other countries. EDC has conducted research projects on its own as well as in collaboration with international centres of excellence.  Corporate capability includes experience with the Asian Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank; the development agencies of Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States; NGOs, corporations and international institutes; and public sector organizations. During 2008-2009, EDC was contracted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Islamabad, to conduct a comprehensive review covering 17 leading civil society partners in governance, culture, human rights and the environment, assist the embassy in preparing a rights-based strategy for its civil society programme, and appraise and improve funding requests submitted by 12 of the partners. EDC subscribes to internationally accepted principles of ethical business, good governance and human rights. EDC's Managing Director Tariq Husain, a graduate of Columbia University, New York, and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, is recognized for his contributions to development thinking and practice.