ISLAMABAD: Experts at an event organised by United Nations agencies in connection with International Women’s Day, emphasized the implementation of the ‘Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Act 2019, saying it would ultimately ensure rural women’s right to property.

The event was jointly hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, UN Women Pakistan and International Labour Organization (ILO).

According to FAO, out of Pakistan’s 132 million rural population, 65 million are women whereas 62pc women work in the fields while only 19pc women are in paid employment and 60pc work as unpaid workers on family farms and enterprises.

The unpaid work is valued at 2.6pc of the national GDP. Only 1pc women are entrepreneurs in Pakistan; 20pc of rural women are classified as own account workers, 14pc in agriculture and 6pc in non-agriculture work.

Country Representative of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mina Dowlatchahi while moderating the panel said: “Women are not paid equally to that of their male counterparts. Despite steady progress in representation, women are still not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”

Two panel discussions were organized where development sector actors, NGO representatives, and rural women discussed the existing policies and frameworks to safeguards the rights of rural working women.

Senior Gender Adviser of UN Women in Pakistan Younas Khalid said: “We cannot claim to be on the road to advancing gender equality if we do not promote rural women’s participation in decision-making and involve them in the design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all relevant policies and strategies with focus on climate change.”

Fewer rural women make decisions about paid work, marriage or family planning, he said, adding rural women face limited access to financial services, health and basic services.

“We must strengthen rural women’s access to health and other basic services, including education,” he said adding the government should ease burden on rural women through labour saving devices and improving agricultural work through tools and equipment.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2020