The Ministry of Women Development is imparting training to 28,000 countrywide women councillors, which would be completed in five months for effectively discharging their public duties at grassroots level in March next year.
A spokesman of the Ministry said here on Tuesday that $4.5 million project "Women's Political School (WPS)" had been funded by Norway, and was being implemented by the Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with the UN Development Programme.
The spokesman said that under the programme, which is to be completed in 2007, about 20,000 women councillors had been trained so far.
He said that women councillors were being groomed through four-day training workshops on various subjects pertaining to their responsibilities being public leaders with the help of about 200 trainers at four provinces of the country.
He said the programme was being eulogised by the councillors and asking the ministry to sustain the ambitious plan as a permanent feature for sustainable development and prosperity of the entire country.
Elaborating the course, he said, besides other concepts and contents, the lady representatives were being trained about the local government system, decentralisation and its link with development, gender sensitisation, advocacy and its methods, formation of monitoring committees and its role, budget preparation and process of its approval, role and duties of political and administrative officials and their hierarchy in the local system.
He said woman councillors were demanding the concerned officials to take a realistic view of the whole scenario and evolve a viable strategy to initiate follow up series training for the women representatives to achieve prosperity and sustainable development of the whole society.