Among other projects of the Ministry of Women Development, Women's Political School (WPS) is being widely appreciated for its crucial role to groom women councillors for assuming the role of leadership as public leaders and educate them about their legal and constitutional rights.
The 4.5 million-dollar project had been funded by Norway and is being implemented by the Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
About the project, Federal Minister for Women Development and Youth Affairs Sumaira Malik has said female councillors will have better understanding of women's constitutional and legal rights as a result of the training under the project, besides developing capacity for public service.
"The programme is expected to usher in a silent revolution for the uplift of womenfolk as it also aims at moulding women councillors into a dynamic female leaders at grassroots for the uplift of their fellows, which will lead to development and prosperity of the whole nation," she observed.
She said the government was committed to empowering women at grassroots level and the project would go a long way in this regard. This project had been designed as sustainable and a long-term initiative to institutionalise the process of enabling and empowering women in public office aimed at raising their issues in policy agenda and addressed through public policy, she added.
The annual performance report of the government from August 2004 to August 2005 said: "An important project entitled Women Political Schools (WPS) under the Ministry of Women Development had been initiated with the aim of promoting gender balance in political sphere."
National Project Manager Rehana Hashmi told APP on Friday that women councillors, being the public representatives at grassroots level, would have better understanding of their constitutional and legal rights as a result of training under the project, besides developing capacity for public service.
She said under the project as many as 400 women councillors had been prepared as master trainers, who would impart training to as many as 28,0000 women councillors across the country through a four-day workshop in subsequent phases of the programme.
She said that from Punjab and Sindh, a total of 130 and 100 master trainers (Lead Mentors) respectively had been prepared, while 50 and 120 women councillors were groomed as master trainers from Balochistan and NWFP to train the rest of the councillors.
She said that in Punjab, the training for the councillors was being kicked off from July 10, while in other three provinces it was under way with logistic arrangements of the local government officials.
About the training course, she said that a comprehensive syllabus, in line with the lady councillors' requirements in public offices, had been worked out while thoroughly studying course contents of those organisations that imparted training to women councillors in past.
She said training course of WPS covered all aspects related to public office at local government, including gender sensitisation as to let them know about their legal and constitutional rights.
She said that they were also being educated on the process of preparation and approval of budget after passing through various stages, beside responsibilities of monitoring committees for effectively utilising the national resources.
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