ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank will assist Pakistan in enhancing the country’s capacity to better understand how heat stress affects women and men differently, and help identify gender-responsive adaptation solutions to extreme heat, including policies, actions and investments, to reduce gender, social and economic impacts.

In this regard, the ADB has approved a technical assistance worth $1 million under ‘strengthening women’s resilience to heat stress in Asia and the Pacific’ project which will also cover Cambodia besides Pakistan.

The bank says the impacts on women from increasing heat stress have not been sufficiently examined, resulting in limited understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

A significant share of women is informally employed compared with men, and women homeworkers in South Asia comprise nearly 25 per cent of total female employment compared with 6pc of men. Heat impacts their ability to work, with women reporting up to a 30pc loss in income.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2023