CEO – ORA Global Development Advisors

Evolve: Based on your career journey, your profile appears to be highly fascinating. We are witnessing a working woman who, at such a young age, has established herself in the corporate world and is spearheading a shift in the business world toward innovative approaches to women, philanthropy, and, in particular, gender rights. Please share your journey thus far with our readers.

Ms. Fiza Farhan: The journey has been naturally evolving, always based on opportunities I find out there. After I came back from Warwick Business School, I started my professional journey and co-founded two social enterprises Buksh Foundation and Buksh Energy Private Limited, which marked my practitioner work in the development space. Buksh Energy was Pakistan’s first renewable energy company and Buksh Foundation was a microfinance entity working on economic livelihood of the poor communities especially women. When accessing the development problems the communities faced, limited and zero access to energy became the most evident one restricting their economic development, and the solution had to come in reliable and affordable renewable energy solutions. That were what Buksh Energy mastered in, being Pakistan’s first renewable energy company at the time. 

Further, the nexus with women’s economic empowerment was also a natural evolution as when we went to those villages; the solution was naturally led by the women entrepreneurs from the community as it was the right decision to make. They were the right choice of the entrepreneurs to appoint in the communities for efficient delivery and ownership of that project in addition to creating multiple indirect benefits around the project including impact in health, education and hygiene of the communities. The wonderful project creating the perfect nexus between women’s economic empowerment and access to energy “Lighting a Million Lives”, became an international best practice winning multiple awards at the UN Foundation and UN-Habitat. With the same, the journey of empowering women and working in the realm of women’s empowerment became a natural phenomenon to me. 

It was a very natural decision of appointing women entrepreneurs and it was not something that I was out there to empower the women but empowering the women was a natural solution in my trajectory of empowering the communities. Similarly, with Buksh Energy because I was by virtue one of the only women in the room in a male dominating energy sector. The whole gender mainstreaming kind of naturally evolved until I became a member of UN Secretary General High-Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment, with an official oath to work on the global policy of women’s economic empowerment for all the UN member states with global development sector dignitaries, representing the voice and agency of the women of Pakistan at a prestigious global platform. 

Mr. Shehbaz Shareef was then the Chief Minister of Punjab in 2016 and he appointed me as Chairperson to his Task Force of Women’s Empowerment in Punjab and so again it naturally evolved into that role of becoming Chairperson to the Chief Minister’s Task Force Women’s Empowerment, mainstreaming gender lens across all public decision making machinery. 

Finally in 2016, I decided to evolve my professional journey further. I decided that there is so much to do in this space with diverse stakeholders; on the policy front, on the advocacy front, supply front, demand side, private sector, public sector and then decided to launch my development advisory firm whereby I lead collaborations with multiple stakeholders in Pakistan and globally with the government, private sector, the civil society, the UN agencies and business leaders on the agenda of cross cutting, and main streaming gender across all verticals, which leads me to multiple engagements with different stakeholders on creating innovative solutions to curb grave development challenges including gender equality, climate change, youth empowerment, education and skills development amongst others. 

I believe it’s just the untapped economy and I think now I am with all my different projects, I am really looking to tap into this untapped potential of women in our country and the world.

Evolve: The idea is just as important as the brand identity itself, as is common knowledge. What inspired you to call the organization ‘ORA Global Development Advisors’ and reflecting on the founding, how has the organization changed over time in numerous nations and how it advocates for policies?

Ms. Fiza Farhan: As I mentioned earlier about the roles I was in, that’s when I decided what can I do, how can I leverage these important roles that I have and tapped them to really create tangible impact on the agenda of not only women’s economic empowerment, but climate change, sustainability, youth, education and that’s how ORA Development Advisers came to being enabling me to work with different stakeholders in the public and private sector, in the UN agencies, the civil society on various projects, and most importantly creating mutually beneficial partnerships. So, I think the most important thing that I am doing right now is bringing different stakeholders together and creating partnerships cross-pollinating knowledge and best practices to accelerate the momentum on these development agendas. 

With ORA and myself, as an individual working across the board on various projects in Pakistan regionally and globally, creating partnerships and bringing best practices to the region, sharing the best practices and the expertise, commitments from this region to other regions and cross pollinating. one of the best interventions that we have launched; The Champions of Change initiative with the Australian government which is an amazing strategy and philosophy bringing leaders from the private sector to step up for gender equality and women’s leadership in their organizations. The Champions of Change Coalition in Pakistan has now become a force to reckon with members from leading multinational organizations and large local companies. 

So, I feel when you bring these fantastic interventions from the world to Pakistan and you present the right valuation with the right opportunities great things happen. ORA gives me an opportunity to evolve continuously and consistently, because every day there are different challenges that you encounter. There are different problems that come and literally the tagline for ORA is from ‘Problems to Solutions’. So that’s what I do, I literally just sit with stakeholders, old friends and some new friends discuss what challenges they are having, be it in partnerships, in strategy, in programmatic interventions, in advocacy, in policy and we come up with solutions. With that every project becomes one more impactful milestone that we achieve together and a challenge that enables me to evolve my professional journey one step ahead! 

Evolve: You’ve categorically advocated for the economic empowerment of women above all other forms of empowerment, what has led your strong belief towards the same? 

Ms. Fiza Farhan: I feel that women’s empowerment or women’s economic empowerment aspect comes at the top of the hierarchy of needs for a woman, as when a woman is economically empowered, she is automatically socially, politically, legally and emotionally empowered. So I feel that the one thing that all stakeholders should work on, be it independent individual like myself or be it the government or the private sector, women’s economic empowerment should be the priority focus, and once we tap into women economic empowerment automatically all the other teers of women empowerment will naturally get impacted and fulfilled. So for me, all the projects that I do are surrounded around economic empowerment of women and hence communities. I have done a couple of projects which JICA on gender base violence, sexual harassment but these are all on periphery. I strongly focus when I’m working on women’s empowerment towards the women economic empowerment, be it for the informal women who is working with the communities, or working in agriculture space.

Evolve: As we all know that you are eminent edition to UK Global Women’s Network, The Emirates Society for Parents Care and Relief UAE. How do you handle being recognized like this?

Ms. Fiza Farhan: I am at that stage of life where I am trying to conquer my own universe, myself and I defined my rules, my goals. I am very calculated when it comes to my career and my goals. So, I decided to do 80/20 mix of my time. 80% of my times goes towards projects that I am working with different stakeholders like currently, my key project is my role as the convenor of the Champions of Change Coalition in Pakistan, in addition to other advisory engagements including advising UNICEF Pakistan in setting up their first private sector advisory council in Pakistan, and working with UNGC regionally and globally in establishing the Global Gender Equality Targets across their private sector members. 

With my very active representation at the UN and with my very frequent visits to the UN CSW and other global events with high level representation of global leaders, I really feel when I am there, I am not just representing Fiza Farhan or the work I do, I am representing the women of Pakistan and I am representing Pakistan at large. I take out that 20% of my time to contribute to these global agendas and be part of these different platforms where I can be a voice and agency from Pakistan and from this region. 

Similarly, with the UAE, I feel it is part of the natural evolution as the development agendas including women’s empowerment and climate change that I have worked for decades have become the national policy for the region with a strong commitment to action. The Emirates Council for Parental Care and Honor was simply a first step in the direction. The council which is an initiative of His Excellency, became a platform to bring people together to co-create solutions for elderly and the care of parents in the region. With an all-Emirati representative body, it is a pleasure to be the only Pakistani and infact the one external nationality on the council. 

Evolve: We are aware that you have twice featured Pakistan in the Forbes '30 UNDER 30' US magazine. Would you kindly share with our readers your experience of representing numerous female entrepreneurs?

Ms. Fiza Farhan: When I got into the Forbes 30 under 30, it was phenomenal, and it feels great to look back at the time as clearly. There are opportunities out there for a woman entrepreneur to expand the business or to get access to finance, to get access to technical trainings etc. however the same is not being informed to or marketed to the deserving women candidates. The State Bank is sitting right their Banking and Equality Policy pushing commercials banks to give loans to women entrepreneurs. There are multiple incubation centers around the country that are wanting to help women entrepreneurs, technical entrepreneurs gain technical insights build their capacitates so that they can come out stronger entrepreneurs themselves.

Mentorship is strongly missing and I realize that when I was a young CEO back in the days with Buksh Foundation and Buksh Energy. I had the opportunity of meetings so many women from around the world and with every one interaction you learn and gain inspiration. From the UN Secretary General High-Level Panel, I have the opportunity to meet women like Christine Lagarde, who has been Forbes’s second most powerful woman twice. Justine Greening, Sheikha Lubna, Indra Nooyi, Tina Fordham; all these women acknowledged by Forbes as most powerful women and when you see these women on the cover page of the magazines you feel like they must have been lucky,. No, they are not just lucky, they have really worked the way up and put in years of hard work and I realize that when I met these women and had the opportunity to speak to these women hearing about their professional journey, personal struggles and challenges. 

I feel it’s my responsibility to give back and to mentor young girls so that they can make more conscious decisions about their future and they can more carefully step up to the life of their dreams and the life they deserve to live and can rid these misconceptions apart. So, they don’t have to learn by doing they learn by storytelling and mentorship, rather than reinventing the wheel. 

Evolve: What are some of the challenges you as a female Entrepreneur has faced and how did you overcome such situations?

Ms. Fiza Farhan: I don’t believe in challenges or failures as they are all learnings. For me challenges are opportunities that we need to learn from and bounce back stronger converting the same into an opportunity. For instance, when we launched Buksh Foundation and Buksh Energy, the energy crises was the major challenge in the country and the energy crises was just picking up and there was no other solar company and the business of renewable energy became a fantastic opportunity amidst a challenging environment. 

I feel like post COVID, there were huge challenge not just for Pakistan but for the countries around the globe. Post COVID, I have moved to a completely freelancing flexible working model. I let go of my office all my team members are working from home. I have a 5 years old daughter so I made a beautiful set up in my home and I operate from there while travelling in Pakistan and around the world as and when needed. And I feel like that not only enables me to create a fantastic work life balance but has also made me able to expand my advisory ecosystem because my work has become more focused, more strategic with directed efforts towards the development agendas I deeply care about.

Another example comes from my earlier practitioner days, when I used to walk into a room of hundred men and I was the only woman in the room I used to find that extremely challenging and at times intimidating as well. I used to feel that they are not going to take me seriously. I felt that I really need to work on my professional competence to really establish myself here. For me the situation presented a learning opportunity, that if I keep my gender and age aside and focus on my professional competence and abilities that me being the only woman in the room will actually become my strength rather than my weakness. When I changed my perspective about the situation and started thriving in the opportunity developing my professional competence, I realized how being the only woman in the room or on a table was in fact a matter of humbling pride which I could leverage to open the doors of the room for more and more women to enter! 

Evolve: What would you like to say to the readers of Evolve Business Publication and to the female entrepreneurs in Pakistan?

Ms. Fiza Farhan: My message to all the viewers out there is the you really have to believe in yourself, and believe in the universe with the plans it has for you, and in your own journey without listening to what others have to say. I see a lot of people stuck in jobs or work streams they are so unhappy with. Our work is 8 to 10 hours a day; life is so precious and you should really appreciate the positivity and the precious gift the life is. Every individual is unique with their unique set of talents, and within exploring that uniqueness, success lies! With the same, my message to all the youngsters out there is to first identify yourself who you are, identify your unique potential, unique selling feature then create a job, a career or an economic pathway that aligns with your potential. 

I can confidently say that I love my work, the challenges, the impact, the conversations; they all stimulate me positively and working actually refreshes me rather than tiring me in any way. As for the women reading this, it is high time that you stop questioning yourself that you stop thinking “what if”. Leave the what if out of the equation, go out there, just believe in yourself, hold your head high and just walk in there like a solid professional keeping your gender and age aside, keep your doubts aside and trust me being a woman is always more of strength rather than a weakness but only when the women themselves realize it, the world will too!!