MITHI: Women empowerment is a prerequisite in all human development indicators in order to achieve United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This was stated by country director Patricia McPhillips of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) while visiting Thar Coal project’s block II on Thursday. She also visited Thar Foundation’s projects and, in particular, reviewed women empowerment initiatives at the project site.

She, along with other members of her delegation, inspected mining activity, power plant, Thar Foundation Hospital, New Senhri Dars resettlement village and biosaline agriculture pilot projects, including the ‘Thar Million Tree Programme’.

The delegation met women dumper truck drivers and female staff of the 5MW solar power plant, RO plants and Thar Foundation schools.

She said she was impressed by the initiatives involving women. “I have seldom seen such women empowerment and inclusive corporate social responsibility projects anywhere in the world,” Patricia McPhillips remarked.

She spent time with women workers at all projects to understand how their lives had been transformed with such empowerment.

She appreciated the TF for adopting SDGs approach in implementing its CSR programme.

Ms Patricia said that during her visit to Tharparkar, she understood the inclusive development model which was supporting the local community and propelling the development process forward.

“The community women are fully integrated in the inclusive development process which is a must to achieve primary SDGs,” she said.

She concluded with the note that the local people who lived for centuries, still lived together in great communal harmony and it was really educative and great to see that the TF initiatives were encouraging further social cohesion and harmony, which would ultimately take them to substantive and sustainable progress.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2021