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Thursday March 28, 2024

Planning Commission plans reviews of gender equality, women empowerment

By Our Correspondent
August 08, 2019

ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission has decided to conduct nationwide surveys to assess the progress made on women empowerment and gender equality under the United Nations sustainable development goal, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Member Health and Social Sector at the Planning Commission said the government is taking steps to achieve the globally agreed and nationally adopted agenda for sustainable development.

“It is, therefore imperative to set up a robust and regular coordination mechanism amongst all relevant stakeholders to track progress against the agreed national targets,” the official said during a meeting.

“In this context, SDG (sustainable development goal) 5 i.e. gender equality and women empowerment has been selected as a priority area by the Planning Commission for conducting an in-depth and inclusive review of progress made at the national and provincial level since 2016.”

Member Planning Commission Shabnum Sarfraz presided over the meeting attended by representatives from different provinces. The official added the exercise would also give insights into the initiative planned for gender mainstreaming and women empowerment.

Pakistan has committed to 17 SDGs 2015-2030 defined by the United Nations and vowed to address the challenges. The country ranked second from the bottom among 145 countries in the Gender Gap Index 2015.

The government prioritised the agenda of achieving gender equality by instituting a robust platform for coherent target setting, reporting progress and sharing successes by all stakeholders under the SDG 5 following the country’s first voluntary national review report presentation before the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July this year.

The SDG unit at the Planning Commission set up a robust and regular coordination mechanism amongst all relevant stakeholders for setting up targets, reporting progress, sharing successes and lessons learnt against the SDG 5.

The meeting brought together relevant federal and provincial ministries/departments, including human rights, women development, and other relevant stakeholders. Mohammad Idress, secretary social welfare from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said the provincial government is committed to provide women with a secure and enabling environment to ensure their rightful role in national development.

Aliya Shahid, secretary of Women Development Department Sindh said gender mainstreaming, empowerment and equality gained the commitment of the highest political offices, which are in the process of devising multiple policies, plans and programs.

The meeting reviewed progress along the multiple initiatives being undertaken towards achieving gender equality in all its dimensions. Areas for policy intervention were identified and all the participants agreed about regular holding of similar meetings for inter-provincial reflection and sharing of learnt lessons.

The provincial representatives requested the Planning Commission to facilitate development of a conceptual framework of establishment of gender management information system outlining the minimum data sets required by the provinces to be collected for reporting against global indicators. The Planning Commission agreed to constitute a technical working group with provincial representations.