ISLAMABAD, June 9: The ministry of women development, social welfare and special education has proposed establishment of women and social development sections in the key federal ministries to promote gender equality, official sources told Dawn.

These sections will ensure mainstreaming of gender in the the ministries in collaboration with the ministry of women development.

In the ministries that will be gender sensitized through these sections, their existing planning, development and coordination departments will be upgraded to take on the responsibility.

The sources said that to make this proposal a success story the ministry of women development would also impart training to the staff of the concerned ministries.

The ministry has suggested that initially one gender expert would be employed for a certain time period to man each section till the time internal capacity building was generated.

Besides, every ministry will be asked to review its mandate, organizational setup, activities and development programmes from the gender equality and women’s development angle, the sources maintained.

The field organizations and line agencies of every ministry will also be accounted for under the new arrangements and this task can be undertaken by the proposed sections in the ministries.

The sources added that previously the idea of appointing gender development focal persons in other ministries had not worked well because of a comparatively informal nature of such arrangements and lack of willingness on part of the responsible quarters.

Adequately amended rules of business, a permanent internal support system in the shape of women and social development sections and a corresponding arrangement in the ministry of women development for a continuous assistance will definitely make a difference, they added.

This time, they said, the proposed focal persons in the concerned ministries would not be of less than the rank of joint secretary, with the supervisory authority of the women and social development sector.

Various assessment reports of the ministry of women development have shown that there had been no effective accountability mechanism to ensure that all ministries are given adequate attention to promote gender inequality in their works.

Since the strategy of mainstreaming gender cannot be accomplished by the ministry of women development alone, other ministries, therefore, have to be brought on board, they added.

For this purpose, an inter-ministerial steering committee has also been proposed under the federal minister for women development to report on national and international commitments on gender equality.

Officers not less than the level of secretaries will represent their ministries on the committee, which will also be responsible for supervising the process of mainstreaming gender in other ministries and cross-sectoral commitments on enhancing the status of women.

The committee will meet at least once a year and submit a report to the cabinet and then to the parliament.