MINISTRY OF WOMEN DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Women Development, Yasmin Rehman Saturday left for Dhaka, Bangladesh for participation in 7th South Asia regional ministerial conference ‘Commemorating Beijing”, starting from today (Sunday) and continue till October 05.The Prime Minister of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh will inaugurate the conference. The year 2010 is a special one. It marks the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). The implementation of the BPfA was appraised at the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2010.In line with its tradition, UNIFEM facilitated national and regional processes in 2009 to feed into the global review in 2010 at the 54th Session of the CSW. This included support to a South Asia Consultation on Beijing +15, which took forward the “India Forward Moving Strategies for Gender Equality 2008. It provided a platform for women’s groups to prioritize their concerns and develop a consensus lobby document on key gender concerns in preparation for the CSW in New York. At this meeting an effort was made to transform the review process and go beyond it. In order to make it as cutting edge and strategic as possible, two critical challenges to gender equality in the region have been identified for focus, namely, economic security and rights of women and violence against women. A workshop mode and a conference mode are being harmonized to coalesce stock-taking and active learning on gender equality. It will also seek to lay an emphasis on partnership building. The consensus document of the meeting will delineate the current key priorities for South Asia. Participants to the reviews include Ministers responsible for Women’s Development, the SAARC Secretary General, Secretaries of the Women’s Ministries, a section of civil society and women’s organizations from the region.At the end of the conference, delegates are expected to draft and adopt a series of recommendations / forward moving strategies on crucial gender issues affecting women across countries in the region.
source:www.mowd.gov.pk