The First Ladies of Iran, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan will be among the delegates from 17 countries to the third summit of the Regional Steering Committee for the Advancement of Rural and Island Women of Asia Pacific Region (RSC-AP) that begins here on Tuesday.
The First Lady of Pakistan, Begum Sehba Musharraf, as current chairperson of RSC-AP, would preside over the three-day meeting while President Musharraf would inaugurate it.
Begum Sehba Musharraf was elected as the chairperson at the second summit held in Kuala Lumpur in 2000.
The main issues to be discussed at the Islamabad summit are reversal of the persistent and increasing trend of feminisation of poverty, enhancing and mainstreaming rural women's role in economic activity, and ensuring participation of rural women in political decision-making at all levels.
The RSC-AP was founded in Beijing in September 1995 with the main objective of ensuring the implementation of the goals of the 1992 Geneva Summit for Rural Women at the regional level.
The committee comprises 17-member countries represented at the level of the First Ladies.
The third summit will specifically focus on political empowerment of rural women and the role of micro-credit in it.
Among the participants are likely to be included three First Ladies, ministers, personal representatives and women leaders from China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The conference will review the results of the initiatives of member-state and adopt the Islamabad Declaration.
The Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education has made elaborate arrangements for the conference, under the supervision of PM's Advisor Nilofar Bakhtiar.
The Personal Representative of the First Lady on all RSC-AP matters, Shahida Jamil, has been associated closely with the substantive aspects of the conference.
Comments
Comments are closed.