Hundreds of rural women from the flood-affected areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh will gather, here on Tuesday, to demand budgetary allocation for a comprehensive flood rehabilitation package for women on priority.
Flood affected women will have an interface with media, students, civil society, general public, parliamentarians and policymakers using interactive theatre to highlight their issues in the aftermath of floods, such as issuance of Watan Cards to flood-affected women, women's land ownership and control over productive resources and prioritisation of these issues in flood rehabilitation process.
Supported by ActionAid Pakistan (AAPk) and Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA), the women's caravan will travel within the capital city for two days, demanding their rights, at Comsats institute of Information Technology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Fatima Jinnah Park, with culmination at National Press club in a women's assembly. Policymakers and media will be invited to have an interface with the flood affected women who will present a 'Charter of Rights' to demand women specific provisions in the upcoming budget.
To mark the one-year anniversary of devastating floods of 2010, ActionAid Pakistan has planned a series of events to highlight issues facing women and poor flood-affected people one year after the disaster. The objective of this commemoration is to highlight an urgent need for improved disaster risk reduction mechanism, institutional capacity building and government's focus on women's rights, governance and food security issues to bring the focus of authorities, donors and civil society to post flood recovery and rehabilitation, strengthen civil society to engage with and lobby for key policy agenda pertaining to women's rights, food and livelihood, and governance.