April 18, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on Thursday signed an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide $3.7 million for the gender based governance systems project (GBG).

The agreement was signed by Country Director SDC Pius Rohner and Alvaro Rodriguez, representative of the UNDP.

According to a statement issued here on Thursday, the project will help for the capacity building of male and female government officers, local government representatives, parliamentarians and provincial assembly representatives on gender sensitive tools and methodologies for planning, monitoring and evaluation of development initiatives. An accountability mechanism will also be put in place under this project for the federal government officials to ensure that the gender needs are met in true spirit.

The GBG project is a component of the UNDP’s larger Gender Support Programme (GSP) which addresses the political, institutional and economic issues prevalent in Pakistan. The GSP has been financed by a pool of cost sharing donors - SDC, UK’s DFID, Norway and Canada.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Rohner said that the SDC was committed to support gender equality and improvement in local governance.