August 23, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed a five-year‘gender support programme (GSP)’ worth Rs1 billion with the government as a step towards eradicating poverty in Pakistan through gender-responsive governance and a rights-based approach to sustainable human development.

The new programme follows the success of the UNDP assisted GEUP (gender equality umbrella project) which has achieved notable success in the last three years.

The UNDP will contribute Rs1 billion towards the programme. The GSP will provide assistance to Pakistan in the areas of gender related policy analysis and coordination, capacity development, cutting edge research, and awareness raising.

In order to address the historical and deep rooted gender inequality and help Pakistan maximize the potential of women, the programme will work at federal to provincial and from provincial to local level.

The programme has been designed within the context of Pakistan’s National Policy for the Development and Empowerment of Women and the National Plan for Action as well as international agreements like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Millennium Development Goals.

The GSP will adopt an unified strategy and will have four components like women’s political participation; economic empowerment; enabling social environment and institutional strengthening.

The UNDP senior gender adviser, Socorro Reyes, said: “The GSP hopes to help Pakistani women to find their voices and develop their skills in order to play a central and constructive role in the political, economic and social life of the country.”

The UNDP resident representative, Onder Yucer, said: “An economically independent woman can take a better and stronger stand for her rights and those of others”.