Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Wednesday announced AUD$0.2 million in aid for a new 'women's economic empowerment skills training program to facilitate marginalized women and girls in Pakistan. She made this announcement during her first visit to the country while addressing a function on "women's empowerment and gender equality", organized by the Australian High Commission here.
She said that the program will support 5000 poor women and girls in rural and remote areas to develop skills suitable to the local job market and access to finance to establish small businesses. The program will be delivered by the Commonwealth of Learning and Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan, she said, adding the purpose of the program is to bring them into the mainstream economic activities as well as politics.
In her speech, she specified three areas on which the women's role can be highlighted ie economic empowerment of women, political empowerment and empowerment against domestic violence. "No doubt, the plight of women in Pakistan is getting more global attention", she said. However, she highly recognised the services of brave women of the country particularly mentioning Malala Yousafzai who got global attention when targeted by the terrorists for her cause of girls' education in the country.
She said that women economically empowerment and their participation in every field was also important for the over all national development of the country. "Not anything else is important other than giving the women and the girls their voice", she added. She pointed out that Australia is addressing gender based violence in Pakistan through a four year (2014-2018) AUD $7.5 million partnership with an international non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Moreover, she stated that Australia has provided more than AUD$30 million since 2013 to reduce violence against women in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This support is part of the package of over AUD$24 million in development assistance which the Minister announced for Pakistan earlier during her joint press conference with Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
According to Julie Bishop some of the aid includes the program aimed at reducing violence against women through training, and providing services for women and children affected by domestic violence including innovative approaches to engaging with men, women and community leaders to challenge attitudes and behaviours to eradicate violence against women. During her first visit as Foreign Minister, she met with high level political ministers and officials to build the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries.
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