Workshop on gender research methodologies ends

Norwegian Ambassador to Pakistan Jains Bjorn Kamavin on Friday emphasised that raising women's status should be top priority of the civil society as well as the state level initiatives. He was addressing the closing ceremony of the Capacity Building Workshop organised by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW). The workshop was organised for the representatives of ministries, the academic institutions and civil society organisations. The workshop on "Gender Self Awareness and Gender Based Research Methodologies" was started on February 14.
The Ambassador hoped the status of women improved in Pakistan and NCSW got its board members appointed as soon as possible.
He hailed NCSW for taking an initiative, which reinforces the importance of research and that too, on gender issues. He assured the NCSW of his continued support.
The Ambassador said being part of the ceremony, he wanted to demonstrate how serious Norwegian government was in highlighting women's issues through innovative tools as gender-based research and capacity building.
Speaking on the occasion, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gender Unit Chief Faiza Affendi said the fact that such a diverse group of researchers gathers around one table to learn gender concepts and gender based research methodologies, made the workshop immensely important and significant.
She said involving people from ministries and educational institutions in research and learning process related to research, was rather a commendable step.
She said UNDP strongly believed in strengthening of the institutions like NCSW in order to enable it to achieve its objectives.
Former Justice and NCSW chairperson Majida Rizvi expressed hope that participants from a diverse background would work as a team in future to carry-out various researches on women's issues from much informed gender perspective.
She also hoped the government and organisations like UNDP would extend their continued support to the cause of raising women's status in society.
Present on the occasion were Ministry of Women Development Federal Secretary, representatives of UNDP, World Bank, Unifem, NGOs and intellectuals.
The participants from all the provinces and AJK attended the workshop. They were representing various government ministries, civil society organisations and higher-education institutions from all over Pakistan.