Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment in Pakistan

The project aims at providing working women of Pakistan with better income, better working environment and increased participation in household decisions. The project draws upon experiences and resources developed during the implementation of the CIDA-funded project “Women’s employment concerns and working conditions in Pakistan (WEC-PK)”. The project focuses on three components. First, to strengthen national mechanisms to promote equal employment opportunities for women in the country. Under this component project activities will be geared towards enhancing the capacity of stakeholders to design and implement policies and programmes for working women at all levels. This will include developing capacity of stakeholders in designing and implementing gender sensitive policies and legislative frameworks in line with international labour standards and in implementing programmes reflecting needs of working women. Coordination and implementation mechanisms will be established at federal and provincial levels, existing cells will be strengthened with gender expertise, women facilitation centres in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Development will be set up, and coordination mechanisms among Provincial Cells in Labour departments, Women Facilitation Centres (WFCs), Career Development Centres (CDCs) and Media will be developed. Second, to enhance skills and employability of poor in rural and urban areas of selected districts, 6,300 women and men will be trained in employable skills based on training methodology derived from ILO’s TREE methodology. In addition, capacity of training providers and other actors for implementing programs on TREE methodology will also be developed. For improving the process of job search and employment exchange, linkages will be developed between trained women and training providers, private sector companies and career development centres along with facilitative meetings and exposure visits to various markets for the women. Third, capacity of media will be strengthened to enable them to take an active role in raising awareness on issues related to working women. Under this component the capacity of journalists will be enhanced for gender sensitive and rights-based reporting, and on the policy frameworks and international obligations of Pakistan pertaining to women’s employment. Moreover, promotional packages and tools on women’s economic empowerment in national and regional languages will be developed and disseminated accordingly.

Project symbol

PAK/09/03/CAN

Admin unit

CO-Islamabad

Start date

04/03/2010

End date

31/10/2016

Total allocation

8042791

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

7993968

Development Partners

Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Pakistan

Country/Countries

Pakistan

Outcomes

Outcome 7: Adequate and effective protection at work for all