Roundtable sessions at the Imagining Futures Conference are structured as focused, participatory conversations that bring together a diverse mix of stakeholders to address well-defined challenges related to social equity. Anchored in a central question or theme—drawing on lived experience, on-ground knowledge, and sectoral expertise, these sessions are designed to foster active exchange and emphasize collaboration, critical thinking, and the development of context-specific solutions.
The goal is to move beyond broad reflection and toward practical next steps. Participants are invited to share insights from their respective fields, explore opportunities for alignment, and identify concrete actions that can inform future research, policy engagement, or community-based practice. Through these conversations, the roundtables aim to generate momentum around key issues, surface collaborative ideas, and initiate pathways for continued engagement beyond the conference—whether through working groups, joint projects, or localized interventions.
Home to over 20 million people, Karachi is Pakistan’s economic powerhouse and one of the world’s largest megacities. Yet, despite contributing up to 20% of the country’s GDP and hosting vibrant industrial, commercial, and service sectors, the city faces mounting urban crises. Chronic challenges—such as inadequate waste management, water scarcity, housing insecurity, transport breakdowns, and environmental degradation—are compounded by civic fragmentation, social unrest, and political contestation. These have led to deteriorating service delivery and placed Karachi among the bottom 10 cities in the Global Livability Index. This roundtable gathers researchers, planners, civil society actors, youth leaders, and policymakers to critically examine Karachi’s urban future. Through an interdisciplinary and citizen-centered lens, it will explore strategies for more inclusive urban governance, highlight grassroots and youth-led interventions, and identify actionable pathways toward livable, equitable, and sustainable city-making. Emphasizing civic participation, localized knowledge, and institutional accountability, the discussion aims to center those most affected—Karachi’s citizens—in driving long-term and transformative change.
Speakers:
Moderator: Farhan Anwar (Assistant Professor of Practice, Social Development and Policy, Habib University)
Social norms, expectations about gender roles and appropriate practices or choices remain a key challenge to progress in women’s agency and participation in economic and social spheres. This roundtable, co-hosted with IDEAS and LUMS, features insights from recent empirical economic and sociological work that unpacks women’s navigation of prescribed gender roles and demand for agency. These insights can yield important takeaways for ways in which to improve women’s well-being, life outcomes, and contribution to socio-economic development. It will feature a discussion on the following topics: Women’s productive and reproductive work, intra-household dynamics of decision-making and demands for agency, investments in education and inter-generational shifts in social norms, and measurement and conceptualization of gendered social norms in the context of South Asian labor markets.
Speakers:
Moderator: Hadia Majid (Associate Professor, Chair, Dept. of Economics, LUMS)
This session, co-hosted with CERP, looks at how gendered norms, institutional systems, and public services shape women’s access to work and health in Pakistan. It brings together questions of labour, care, and bodily autonomy to examine what structural change could look like in how women engage with the economy and the state. The discussion will focus on how employment, healthcare, and social protection intersect in policy and practice. It will also explore how technology, service delivery, and governance can be redesigned to respond to women’s lived realities. Speakers will draw on research and implementation experience to think through what a more inclusive and responsive system might require.
Speakers:
Moderator: Syed Uzair Junaid (Director, Research Development at Centre of Economic Research in Pakistan)
Speakers:
Moderator: Uswa Ali Memon (Dean's Fellow, Social Development and Policy, Habib University)
The session explores the right to human rights education (HRE) as a fundamental element in promoting dignity, equality, and active citizenship for positive change. We will examine its historical foundations and evolution in international human rights law, particularly from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. Through case studies and discussion, we will consider how HRE empowers individuals and communities to claim their rights and fosters inclusive, democratic societies. The session will also introduce the Global Campus of Human Rights, a unique network of academic institutions promoting human rights through regional Master's programmes, research, and training activities. Students will learn about the Global Campus engagement in Pakistan, and about study opportunities across our regional hubs, as well as available scholarships and professional pathways in the field.
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