October 27, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: Some renowned US experts on gender empowerment have underlined the need to systematically enhance the capacity of Pakistani women in critical areas of conflict management and negotiations.

They were speaking at the concluding session of a three-day workshop on ‘leadership skills for women’ on Thursday jointly organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

These experts were of the view that there existed a greater urge amongst Pakistani women to acquire skills for managing conflicts by mastering appropriate negotiation styles. But despite significant awareness on the role of women in governance, civil society and corporate sector, Pakistani women continued to struggle for real empowerment.

Ms Nina Sughrue and Dr Linda Bishai from the USIP covered various aspects of leadership like recognising different conflict styles, gender and negotiation, negotiation challenges facing women, responding to stereotypes biases and how female negotiators maximised their effectiveness.

The workshop also focused on enhancing the capacity of Pakistani women in communication and problem solving. It provided a forum for working women to network and build relationship, which would help strengthen and empower women.

Group exercises and case studies written in Pakistani context were used to learn lessons and reinforce the major themes of the workshop.

The participants representing the public, private, corporate and NGO sectors, and academic institutions from across the country participated in the workshop.

During the event, the participants were helped out in developing a clear understanding of practised rules of corporate culture, emulate successful leaders, adopt strategies to demonstrate confidence, prepare will for negotiations, focus on mutual interests and gather information as much as possible to make the process of managing conflicts effectively.

The skills imparted in the training workshop is likely to help the participants to deal confidently with the challenges of real life situations and to effectively manage conflicts both in their professional spheres as well as at home.