ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved technical assistance of $0.2 million to support the implementation of Tranche 4 of the multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) for the Second Power Transmission Enhancement Investment Program in Pakistan.

Official documents revealed that specifically, it will help address the limited participation of women in technical and leadership positions in the National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited (NDTC) by promoting a workplace environment with equal opportunities for recruitment, skills development, and professional advancement of female personnel. It will also integrate community-based skills development for women as part of the NDTC’s gender-responsive sustainable business practice.

The subproject aims to contribute to increasing the pool of potential technical and managerial women personnel for the power subsector.

In the NDTC, gender policies and mechanisms will be established to promote equality in the workplace. These encompass personnel recruitment, skills development, grievance management, and staff promotion within NDTC.

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Gender-responsive community outreach approaches will be integrated in the NDTC’s internship and scholarship programs to promote responsible investment within the NDTC’s corporate practices. These will be expanded to include community-based capacity building for women to increase their access indirect employment in services related to the NDTC’s operations such as food services for workers, and health and social services.

Designing these actions and implementing them will require gender diagnostic, community consultations, and training for personnel, women in communities around NDTC areas of operation, and female students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022