LAHORE: UNDP in Pakistan hosted a webinar highlighting the importance of achieving economic independence for the country's women to mark International Women's Day.
It was organised through UNDP in Pakistan's Punjab SDGs Support Unit with Milkar Pakistan. The webinar, 'Closing Pakistan’s Gender Gaps through the Economic Empowerment of Women’ suggested measures to overcome structural barriers as well as provide actionable policy recommendations to close the gender gap.
Pakistan ranked third last in closing its gender gap on the Global Gender Gap Index 2020. So it stands at 151 out of the 153 countries.
These pre-existing structural inequalities have exacerbated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, where women overall and especially those in low-skilled informal jobs have been disproportionately affected.
"In line with Quaid's vision for Pakistan, the economic empowerment of Pakistani women is essential because they form over 50% of the population and if they lag behind, we as a country can never prosper,” said Uzma Kardar, the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Gender Mainstreaming and Women Development in Punjab.
The webinar provided a platform to engage a panel of highly experienced gender experts and policy practitioners to hold cross-sector consultations on a diverse set of thematic areas.
With 90+ Milkar volunteers present in the meeting raising their questions and concerns about the topic, the 90-minute virtual discussion underscored the need for women's economic empowerment to ensure the sustainable economic growth of Pakistan, the legal and policy reforms required for inclusion of women in the economy, protection of women's rights in the informal sector, mitigating the gendered impacts of COVID-19, and the private sector's role to help the government address structural barriers for the economic emancipation of women in Pakistan.
Kardar, Punjab Education Department School secretary Sarah Aslam, Rah Center for Management and Development Gender Adviser/ CEO Fauzia Viqar, Nestle in Pakistan & Afghanistan Head of Corporate Affairs Waqar Ahmad, UNDP Pakistan Development Policy Unit analyst Umer Akhlaq Malik and international geneder strategy specialist Salman Sufi were on the panel.
To watch the webinar, you can visit.
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