National Committee on Saarc Gender Info-Base (SGIB) held a meeting Monday in connection with the 6th Population and Housing Census in the country. The meeting was organised by the Population Census Organisation (PCO) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Funds for Women (Unifem).
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Census Commissioner Khizar Hayat Khan said that SGIB has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Unifem to help the states strive towards the goals of gender equality, based upon the empowerment approach. The MoU was signed in December 2001. He the PCO is working as a Nodal Agency for the preparation of SGIB in collaboration with Unifem. National Committee on SGIB comprises on eleven Ministries/Divisions/Departments.
Khizar Hayat said that the PCO has conducted series of meetings with the national committee members to discuss the proposed SSGIB. It would facilitate and strengthen networking of regional level advocacy and would further facilitate drafting of a South Asian Regional Plan of Action to promote gender equality, peace and end gender discriminations.
He said that Saarc provides a platform for the people of South Asia to work together in spirit of friendship, trust and understanding. Saarc believes that the objective of peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity is best achieved by fostering mutual understanding.
He said that Saarc has outlined a number of initiatives in the area of women development. He appreciated the support and partnership of Unifem in ensuring the success of the initiatives. The importance of SGIB is also apparent from the fact that it has become key point of reference for a number of Saarc initiatives, he added.
South Asia with its dense population, half of which are women who are impoverished and lack access to basic facilities such as health care and education, could only be developed through a process of SGIB. Senior officers of PCO and various ministries, divisions, departments and representatives from Unifem discussed the validation and collection of data for the SGIB.
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