Islamabad : Human Resource Development Network (HRDN) and Oxfam in Pakistan collaborated under the Global Affairs Canada funded project Women’s Voice & Leadership – Pakistan (WVL-P) to organize a knowledge sharing symposium. The symposium titled “Promoting Shared Knowledge for Continued Actions to Support Gender Justice and Equality” launched 03 knowledge products which were carried out by academia and local organizations including Fatima Jinnah Women University, Dewa Organization of Lower Deir and InterAct Consulting respectively.
One of the key project interventions is to strengthen the existing body of knowledge and creating new knowledge around women rights in both urban and rural context, thereby building a legacy of knowledge enabling proactive decision making to advance gender equality. The project also aspires to cultivate thoughts and actions using the sound knowledge base produced connecting traditional knowledge, technology advancement and evolving opportunities around the world.
The knowledge products launched during the event are part of the issue-based research grants initiative integrated under the Women’s Voice & Leadership – Pakistan project. This time Oxfam selected “Women’s Contribution in the Care Economy.” This pioneering initiative marks the first-ever attempt in Pakistan to employ perceptional and Likert scales to measure and comprehensively cover the major dimensions of unpaid care work, including reproductive, child, domestic, elderly, and care of persons with special needs. The other product is relating to “Women inclusion Strategies in Social Development and Political institutions”, which is still under-represented in our country even being one of the most important areas.
The event was made aa rememberable one, with participation from SDG Unit, senators, planning commission, Poverty Alleviation and other local organizations.
During the discussion Ms. Fajar Rabia Pasha, Advisor on Girls education, Ministry of Human Rights, Mr. Ali Kemal Chief SDG, Mr Raza Ali- Chief Peace and Justice organization shared their valuable thoughts and shared the way forward for taking the data and recommendation to NCSW , planning division for furtherance of Gender Justice and equality.
Senator Fauzia Arshad while responding to the Women inclusion strategies, shared that it is not only the responsibilities of political parties but also our collective efforts as citizen of Pakistan to promote women inclusion at the local level as well as at political level.
Senator Waleed wile responding to the questions by participants informed that women being a part of politics are overburdened with the responsibilities and that needs to be accounted for.
In the concluding remarks by Zaffarullah Khan, shared that women are being participated from the different areas and many have been elected 4-7 times from different constituencies. He asked that survey should be taken for correlation between involvement in politics and financial statements of political individuals. Being involvement in politics needs lot of finances and that very few women can afford in out country
The event provided an excellent opportunity for HRDN members, community practitioners, women / human right experts, academia as well as planning and policy makers to come together and establish shared learning and knowledge on existing gaps in women related laws and policies in a changing world and contribute to formulate suggestions and transform our collective actions as a way forward.