Women mentoring initiative launched

Islamabad: To equip women with the skills, research and community support for shaping up policies that positively impacts the lives of vulnerable groups in the county, a new initiative ‘Women in Policy Pakistan (WIPP)’ was launched on Monday.

Inaugurated on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the WIPP will work to inspire women to become policymakers. In a country where women are significantly underrepresented in parliament and bureaucracy, WIPP aims at filling the critical gap of empowering future female policymakers in order to enhance women's full and effective participation and leadership in policy through capability building programmes, research and advocacy and the establishment of a community hubs.

“During my 36 years of public service, time and again I felt the need for strong female mentors and support. I was motivated to establish WIPP to ensure that the next generation of women in policy have the skills and support networks to navigate their professional lives and reach their full potential,” said Rabiya Javeri Agha, former Federal Secretary and co-founder of WIPP.

The recent UN Secretary-General’s report stated that women are Heads of State or Government in 22 countries, and only 24.9 per cent of national parliamentarians are women. At the current rate of progress, gender equality among Heads of Government will take another 130 years. The situation in Pakistan is even worse. Of 342 national assembly parliamentarians, only eight women were elected in 2018. In the Federal Secretariat, there are only five women secretaries of the total 42 divisions.