The UK Government has launched its new strategic vision for girls and women, focusing on maternal health, girl’s education, tackling violence against women, and economic empowerment.
In Pakistan, 14,000 women die every year in childbirth; two-thirds of women are illiterate; more than nine million girls do not go to school; 70-90 per cent of women in rural areas are victims of domestic violence, and a women is raped every two hours, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Most rapes go unreported, due to stigma, shame and fear of speaking out. The country has one of the worst ‘gender gaps’ in the world, ranked 132 out of 134 countries by the World Economic Forum due to prevalence of issues including honour killings, forced marriages, and physical and sexual violence.
Priorities for the UK in Pakistan over the next few years include steps to get more girls in to school; reduce the number of women who die in childbirth; allow women to choose when and how many children they have; help women access financial services such as micro-loans and bank accounts; tackle all types of violence against women, including domestic violence and honour killings; empower women to get involved in decision making; and strengthen legislation on land rights, marriage rights, and domestic violence.
Investing in women and girls is transformational – for themselves, their family, and their community. Women invest nearly all the money they earn back in their family, educating and nourishing their children, and girls who go to school go on to have fewer and healthier children, and to earn more money.
Over recent years, UKaid support for women and girls in Pakistan has helped:
? Prevent 340,000 children and 19,000 mothers dying since 2003;
? Nearly halve the number of women dying in childbirth from 533 to 260 women per 100,000 births since 1999.
? More than double the number of Lady Health Workers up to 100,000 since 2002;
? Provide 30,711 women victims of violence with counselling, rehabilitation support, and legal aid;
? Facilitate 1.2 million microfinance loans to poor women, helping them to lift their families out of poverty;
? Provide monthly stipends to some 680,000 poor girls to help keep them in school, and provided millions of free school textbooks;
? Support implementation of legislation tackling domestic violence, honour killings, sexual harassment, acid burning, and unequal rights in marriage, property, and inheritance;
? Provide nutrition for half a million malnourished young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women following the devastating floods in 2010.
Head of the UK’s Department for International Development in Pakistan, George Turkington said:
“We are putting women and girls at the centre of everything we do. Reaching girls early enough can transform their lives, enabling them to make informed choices and give them a better future. Women with more years of schooling have better maternal health, fewer and healthier children, and earn more money. So we will prioritise getting millions more girls in to school. We will also help Pakistan implement legislation protecting women, continue working to improve mothers’ health, support women’s involvement in decision making, plus much more. Transforming women lives will transform Pakistan potential for economic growth and eliminating poverty”.
Some of the things the UK will do for girls and women in Pakistan by 2015 include:
Maternal health
? Prevent 3,600 mothers dying in childbirth by 2015 by increasing skilled midwives, doctors, nurses, and Lady Health Visitors;
? Save the lives of 110,000 children, including 44,000 newborns, by expanding basic health services at community level with a focus on family planning, nutrition, and healthcare for women and children;
? Fund training for an additional 10,000 Lady Health Workers and 12,000 community mid-wives by 2015, as well as strengthening emergency delivery services throughout the country;
? Help 400,000 couples to choose the number of children they have by providing family planning and contraceptives in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Education
? Get more than two million additional girls in to school;
? Supply more than six million text books sets, around half of them will go to girls;
? Construct or rehabilitate more than 43,000 classrooms, half benefitting girls;
? Construct new schools which 6,500 girls will go to in conflict affected Border areas; and another 3,874 girls in earthquake affected areas.
Finance
? Help an additional 1.5 million poor people (60 per cent women) access microfinance loans by 2013;
? Fund job and skills training for 125,000 people in the Punjab by 2015 and help 75,000 rural dairy farmers, predominantly women, increase their income by improving the quality and quantity of meat and milk they produce by 2015.
Violence against women
? Support legislation to make domestic violence illegal;
? To help Pakistan implement all legislation to protect women.
Democracy
? Get two million more people (almost half women) to vote in the next General Election.
Women’s rights
? Provide legal aid to 5,000 women in the least stable parts of Pakistan;
? Increase women’s involvement in decision making at all levels, so that women’s voices are heard and their needs addressed.
Pakistan is lagging behind on the Millennium Development Goals to promote gender equality and empower women, and improve Maternal Health.
The UK’s strategic vision for girls and women is ahead of Commonwealth Day on Monday 14 March which has the theme of ‘Women as agents of change’ and coincides with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, with events throughout March around the world to mark the economic, political, and social achievements of women, and call for further action on women’s equality.