The three-day International Conference on Gender Mainstreaming and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be starting on 28th. The Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with All Pakistan Women's Association (Apwa), UNDP, Unicef UNFPA and Unesco is organising the conference. The MDGs are a set of eight time-bound measurable goals, which have become the commonly accepted framework for measuring development progress.
Pakistan had played a key role in the discussions leading to the formulation of MDGs, which include reducing by half extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS; ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships for the achievement of the goals.
The Millennium Declaration calls for the achievement of the MDGs by the year 2015. The vision behind the conference is to initiate a concrete and effective partnership between civil society, governments, the United Nations, the private sector and the donor community for gender equality and the implementation of the MDGs. Pakistan, as a signatory to the Millennium Declaration (2000) is hosting this international conference to examine the progress of the Asia-Pacific region towards achieving the MDGs, with a focus on Goal 3 of the MDGs, gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The agenda also includes reviewing the progress made in implementing the recommendations of various other international conferences, conventions and declarations. Over 300 delegates will attend the conference from international, national and local governments; civil society organisations; parliamentarians, members of academia, representatives from the private sector and foreign and local media.
The idea of holding a Conference of this nature originated from Apwa to mark the centenary birth anniversary of its founder and Patron-in-Chief Begum Raa'na Liaquat Ali Khan, who was also the wife of Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.