ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Norway will provide Kroner 8.9 million to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for implementation of gender equality project in Pakistan.

Tore Toreng, the ambassador of Royal Norwegian Embassy, and Lena Lindberg, the acting resident representative of the UNDP, signed the agreement at the Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Under this agreement, the government of Norway will provide Norwegian Kroner 8.9 million for “Women‘s political participation and gender poverty alleviation strategy to be implemented within the framework of the ongoing Gender Equality Umbrella Project of the UNDP.

The objective of this project is to deliver a need-based capacity-building programme for the recently elected women councillors.

It also aims at linking enhanced political participation for women in decision-making in developing a gender sensitive economic strategy to address problems of poverty alleviation at local level.

It is being implemented keeping in view the unprecedented number of women, elected to district and union councils in the recently held local government elections that provided a strategic opportunity for women to make a difference in shaping and implementing the agenda for the local government.

The project will be implemented within the framework of the activities of the ministry of women development, the ministry of local government and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) in all the districts of Pakistan in two years’ time.