An International Conference on "Gender mainstreaming and millennium development goal" is being held in Islamabad from March 26. This was stated by a spokesperson of All Pakistan Women's Association (Apwa) here on Friday. She said the title and theme of the Conference was 'Equality, Empowerment and Education'. That was a tribute to their Founder President Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, who's birth centenary would be celebrated at the Conference.
She said it was indeed her vision and hard work for the development of women in Pakistan that they were inspired by and hope to emulate. She said the Ministry of Women's Development was the host Ministry, and the All Pakistan Women's Association (Apwa) was the lead co-ordinator.
The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education were associate ministries. Since that was an International Conference, they had a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the steering committee.
The spokesperson further stated various United Nations Agencies were their partners; Unicef, UNDP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, and Unesco, who were also members of the Steering Committee. Other organisations that represent civil society on the steering committee were AMAL Human Development Network and Aurat Foundation.
International delegates from the SAARC countries; Iran, South Africa, Morocco and many more countries had been invited.
The Conference would have three main themes, Legal and Political Empowerment, Education, and Health. The objectives of that conference were to enable Pakistan to meet the challenges of Gender Equality as outlined in the "Education for All" initiative, the Millennium Development Goals and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
To commit to sustained non-negotiable mobilisation of resources from domestic sources and international partners up to 2015 for girls and women's education and training. To launch a national awareness and training campaign for enabling women to exercise their political and legal rights through local governments and civil society organisations. To mobilise girls and women to become an integral part of the knowledge based societies.
The spokesperson stated the rationale behind that conference was to highlight the "emerging challenges" faced by women in Pakistan today.
She said it was their sincere wish for the women in the country that as a result of the conference, they could positively tackle the challenges identified here and help to show them the way forward.
Comments
Comments are closed.