United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) has set up a Programme Office in Pakistan on the request of the government and United Nations country team.
While talking to Business Recorder of Thursday, Unifem representatives said that the fund supports all initiatives to promote women rights in term of economic security, political participation and non-violent environment.
They said that Unifem works in collaboration with governmental organisations, UN and other NGOs on gender equality issue. However, Unifem's South Asia Regional Office (SARO) in Islamabad is already working to provide technical advice on gender equality framework in Pakistan as well as its regional level programmes, they said.
Unifem is committed to support women movements of Pakistan worldwide, they added.
Focusing on theory of change, they said that Unifem's objectives target following areas, include taking measures against aligning laws and creating policies for women empowerment and protection, strengthening institutions and organisations in work processes and capacity to fulfil obligation of Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the committee was formed after signing a convention in regard to protect women rights and eradicate any kind of discrimination against them, they said.
Unifem supports the implementation and monitoring of the CEDAW, which was ratified by Pakistan in terms of technical support, implementation and monitoring, they said.
For incorporation gender equality in national policies and strategies Unifem's role as the technical expert of the UN in the context of ensuring that gender equality is incorporated as an essential development principle for which accountability is raised in the implementation phase, they said.
Unifem's particular interventions amongst others include provision of technical assistance to the Ministry of Labour in drafting of the National Employment Policy in collaboration with ILO, GTZ and CIDA, they said.
Unifem has initiated joint collaboration with the Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Agency (ERRA) in the implementation at field level of the recently approved gender policy to strengthen delivery on the ground, they said.