What We Do
Six interconnected thematic areas that together advance justice, resilience, and inclusion for Pakistan's most vulnerable communities.
Access to Justice & Legal Empowerment
Flagship Program: Dastageer Legal Aid Center (DLAC)
Since its establishment in 2018, the Dastageer Legal Aid Center (DLAC) has been the cornerstone of IFSD's work — providing free legal aid, psychosocial counseling, and mobile legal clinics to poor and vulnerable communities across Pakistan. DLAC serves women, children, persons with disabilities, transgender persons, acid burn survivors, and increasingly, elderly populations who have historically been excluded from formal justice systems.
IFSD's approach combines both demand-side and supply-side rule of law programming: raising legal literacy and awareness in communities, while simultaneously building the capacity of justice institutions to be more inclusive, gender-responsive, and accessible to all.
Free Legal Aid & Representation
Pro bono legal services for women, elderly, persons with disabilities, acid burn survivors, and other vulnerable groups across Punjab and beyond.
Mobile Legal Clinics
DLAC deploys mobile legal teams to remote and underserved districts, bringing legal awareness, consultations, and case referrals directly to communities.
Paralegal & Community Legal Champions
Training community-based paralegals and legal champions — particularly women — to serve as frontline access-to-justice providers in their communities.
Psychosocial Counseling
Integrated psychosocial support services for victims of GBV, abuse, neglect, and violence, provided alongside legal assistance through DLAC.
Civic Education & Rights Awareness
Awareness campaigns in schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries to build civic literacy and knowledge of rights, referral mechanisms, and legal protections.
Community Policing & Referral Systems
Building community-police trust through community policing initiatives and establishing clear referral pathways to legal aid, shelter, and protection services.
Democracy, Governance & Policy Advocacy
Building accountable institutions and evidence-informed policy frameworks
IFSD has a proven track record in engaging with Pakistan's legislative and governance landscape — from drafting and advocating for progressive laws to building the capacity of justice institutions at both national and provincial levels. IFSD's policy work is grounded in grassroots evidence, ensuring that community voices inform upstream reform processes.
A landmark achievement of this work is IFSD's contribution to the Punjab Acid Control Act 2025, which provides critical legal protection to acid burn survivors across Punjab.
Legislative Reforms & Policy Advocacy
Drafting, advocating, and facilitating progressive legislation on women's rights, elderly protection, climate action, and social protection frameworks.
Capacity Building of Justice Institutions
Strengthening the capacity of courts, prosecution services, police, and probation authorities to deliver gender-responsive and inclusive justice.
GBV Case Management Systems
Piloting and scaling digital GBV case tracking and reporting mechanisms in partnership with the Lahore High Court and district courts (INL-funded).
Human Rights Enforcement Mechanisms
Analyzing and strengthening enforcement mechanisms for the protection of human rights in Pakistan, with evidence-based recommendations for institutional reform.
Women’s Empowerment & Gender Justice
Eliminating gender-based violence and advancing women's rights and leadership
IFSD places gender equality at the center of all its programming. Through dedicated women's empowerment initiatives, IFSD works to eliminate gender-based violence, promote women's leadership in the legal profession, and ensure that women have equal access to justice, legal protection, and economic opportunities.
GBV Prevention & Response
Comprehensive GBV prevention, reporting, case management, and survivor support services across multiple districts in collaboration with INL, DRL, and The Asia Foundation.
Promoting Female Legal Professionals
Programs to encourage women to enter the legal profession, including mentorship, bar association engagement, and reducing barriers to female participation in justice institutions.
Women's Legal Empowerment
Legal awareness, rights education, and direct legal aid for women facing domestic violence, property disputes, inheritance denial, forced marriage, and harassment.
Strengthening Protection Authorities
Technical support to the Punjab Women Protection Authority to enhance its operational capacity, referral systems, and responsiveness to GBV cases.
Disaster Risk Resilience & Climate Change
Building adaptive capacity and delivering humanitarian relief in climate-vulnerable communities
Pakistan is among the world's most climate-vulnerable countries. IFSD has been working at the frontlines of climate adaptation and disaster response since 2022, delivering emergency humanitarian relief in the aftermath of major floods and building community-level climate resilience for the long term.
IFSD's climate work is guided by SDG 13 (Climate Action) and aligned with national climate change policies and the UNFCCC framework.
Emergency Flood Response
Large-scale humanitarian relief interventions during the 2022 and 2025 floods, covering South Punjab districts including Taunsa Sharif, Koh-e-Suleman, and Rajanpur.
Community-Based Climate Adaptation
Building community resilience through climate literacy, adaptive livelihood interventions, and community-managed early warning and response systems.
Climate Research & Advocacy
Evidence-based research on public perception of climate change in Pakistan to inform national climate communication and policy frameworks.
Climate-Sensitive Social Protection
Integrating climate resilience into social protection programming, ensuring that elderly, women, and persons with disabilities are protected during climate shocks.
Protection of the Elderly
Pakistan's first dedicated legal aid and psychosocial support program for aging populations
IFSD has pioneered elderly rights programming in Pakistan — a population group that has historically been invisible in the country's development and justice frameworks. Through a combination of legal aid, psychosocial support, community-based interventions, and policy advocacy, IFSD is building a comprehensive protection ecosystem for Pakistan's growing elderly population.
Legal Aid for Elderly
Free legal representation for elderly victims of property disputes, family neglect, abuse, and inheritance conflicts through the Dastageer Legal Aid Center.
Psychosocial Support
Counseling and psychosocial support services for elderly individuals experiencing isolation, depression, abuse, and mental health challenges.
Policy Advocacy for Elderly Rights
Driving the development of a National Aging Policy Framework and advocating for elderly-inclusive legislation and social protection schemes at the federal and provincial levels.
Community-Based Elderly Support Systems
Piloting community-based referral systems, elderly-friendly legal awareness sessions, and linkages with social security institutions and pension authorities.
Health, Nutrition & Social Protection
Frameworks and programs for vulnerable youth, persons with disabilities, and marginalized communities
IFSD has contributed to Pakistan's national social protection architecture through research, policy frameworks, and capacity building programs targeting marginalized youth, persons with disabilities, and other excluded groups. This work is closely aligned with UNFPA's National Youth Development Framework and Pakistan's National Youth Program.
Youth Social Protection Framework
Developing national policy and legal frameworks for marginalized and disabled youth, feeding into the Prime Minister's Kamyab Jawan program (UNFPA-funded).
Disability Inclusion
Ensuring that persons with disabilities — particularly youth — are included in national social protection, education, and employment frameworks with adequate legal guarantees.
Embedded in Everything We Do
Gender Equality
All IFSD programs are designed and implemented through a gender lens — ensuring that women and girls are not only reached but meaningfully empowered through every intervention.
Inclusion & Equity
IFSD explicitly targets groups that are systematically excluded from mainstream development: elderly, persons with disabilities, transgender persons, minorities, and acid burn survivors.
Evidence & Learning
IFSD's programming is grounded in rigorous research and monitoring — continuously generating evidence that informs both program adaptation and national policy advocacy.