ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will provide $7 million for initiation of three projects focusing on socio-economic empowerment of women in the country.

In this connection, the project agreements were signed between the UNDP and the government here on Thursday.

The documents of the projects were signed by UNDP Resident Representative Onder Yucer, Economic Affairs Davison Secretary Shuja Shah, Ministry of Finance Additional Secretary Asif Bajwa, Local Government Secretary Ezdi Shah, and Planning and Development Secretary Humayun Farshori.

Others present on the occasion included Adviser to the Prime Minister on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Salman Shah, and the UN assistant secretary-general, Hafiz Pasha.

The three projects are Gender Justice Through Musalihat Anjuman; Gender Responsive Budgeting; and Gender Mainstreaming Through Planning and Divisions and Development. These projects are part of the UNDP's Gender Support Programme (GSP), designed within the context of Pakistan's national development priorities.

The GSP is anchored in the Millennium Development Goals and aims at strengthening and gearing national institutions and organizations to support women participation in politics, and their social development and economic empowerment.

The UNDP has contributed $2 million to the GSP, and the remaining amount will be raised with the help of donors. The Norwegian Embassy has already made a major financial contribution to the GSP.

The Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) project aims at supporting the government in its gender budgetary and policy commitments. Specifically, the project will focus on raising awareness about the GRB and training of core trainers from various government and non-governmental institutes.

The project will develop curricula and resource material together with a strategic plan for dissemination of budget research and analysis reports. It will foster civil society- government partnership in conducting research-based gender analysis. The Gender Justice Through Musalihat Anjuman project aims at providing gender justice by promoting non-formal community- supported dispute-resolution mechanisms.

The project will provide men and women an alternative mechanism through which they can obtain gender justice; build the capacity of Musalihat Anjuman to dispense gender-responsive justice; enhance public engagement with, and utilization of the services of the Musalihat Anjuman; promote awareness among women about their legal rights; and active participation of men in ending gender-based violence.

The $4.5 million Gender Mainstreaming Through Planning and Development Divisions project aims at bringing gender into the mainstream of government decision-making structures and processes in the Planning and Development (P&D) division/departments at the federal and provincial level, and in FATA, the capital territory and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir.