Zubair Qureshi
The ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence’ campaign concluded on Sunday with a commitment from the partners and stakeholders to uphold the cause for women empowerment and support them in actively participating in all spheres of life including business and entrepreneurship, science & technology, politics, medicines, education and other areas.
The international campaign, which runs annually from November 25 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10 (Human Rights Day), is not just a call to action, but a global outcry against injustices faced by women and girls.
This year, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, Samantha Power launched USAID’s 2023 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy.
The USAID 2023 Gender Policy provides the vision for USAID’s work to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world – establishing its strategic objectives and guiding principles, and driving investments across its operations and programmes in order to achieve these aims.
In Pakistan, where women play pivotal roles across various sectors, including the economy, education, energy, and healthcare, USAID has made significant strides in promoting gender equality and empowering women, the USAID said in a statement.
The USAID’s efforts have thus far achieved the following milestones: Health, legal, and counseling services to approximately 61,000 female survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV); 6,600 higher education scholarships to young women; assistance to the HR Ministry in training 196 public prosecutors on laws safeguarding women’s rights, gender-related concerns; training and financial support to more than 50,000 women entrepreneurs; CNIC registration process for approximately 1.5 million women, thereby promoting women’s voting rights and others.
Training of nearly 16,000 female political party representatives was in addition to these achievements. The USAID’s support for women in various sectors has been extensive, it said adding in education alone, the USAID partnered with the Sindh government to enhance learning environment for girl students and rehabilitated girls’ primary schools in the Newly Merged Districts.
Training of female primary and secondary school teachers and provision of reading materials to young female students across the country was part of support in education sector.
