Planned Budget (Total)
Other resources (non-core)
Country Indexes
outcome XM-DAC-41146-PAK_D_1.1
By 2027, women, girls and transgender persons in Pakistan, especially those at greatest risk of being left behind, benefit from an enabling environment where they are empowered and reach their fullest potential; and their human, social, economic, cultural and political rights are fully protected and upheld.
In this reporting period, UN Women PCO makes significant progress towards the Outcome. Pakistan’s first Anti-Rape Crisis Cell (ARCC) was launched in Karachi in August 2023 allowing survivors of sexual violence to access timely and effective justice. UN Women contributed significantly to the establishment of ARCC through rigorous lobby with the Government of federal and provincial governments for notification of the ARCCs and technical assistance to ensure gender responsiveness, victim-centered and human rights approach were effectively mainstreamed in the establishment and operationalization. After two months of its launch, the Karachi ARCC has assisted 21 survivors of sexual violence – 15 females and 6 minor males, or 32 percent of the total rape cases in the first ten months of 2022. The ARCC model is planned to be replicated across Pakistan. UN Women also partnered with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the EU-funded Rule of Law Programme to ensure that justice sectors are equipped with knowledge and capacity on law implementation and service delivery for VAW/GBV survivors. In addition, UN Women also engaged women and men community members in the establishment and operationalization of the Women Community Centers which acted as a community mechanism to provide supports on VAW and GBV essential services. A total of 18,031 women and girls benefitted from 90 Women Community Centers.. In response to Afghan displacement, enabling environment is enhanced in four provinces, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan through targeted interventions with the host communities, particularly with the elders and authorities of the local communities, to foster acceptance and trust between the displaced and host communities. A Memorandum of Understanding have been signed with Women Chamber of Commerce in one district and with a micro-finance institution to ensure sustainability of the business endeavours of the Afghan women. UN Women engaged local civil society organizations in developing and implementing gender mainstreaming socioeconomic interventions that best addressed the needs of displaced Afghan women and girls. As a result, a total of 1,971 Afghan women, 63 male family members and 556 Afghan children (117 male, 439 female) of women beneficiaries, benefit from enabling environment where they are provided opportunities for development of their livelihood skills, self-development contributing to their empowerment and sense of agency and lawful access to exercise their rights including immediate release from arbitrary arrests and detention. UN Women coordinated with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to ensure alignment and reflections of the interventions in partnership with CSOs were reflected in the Afghanistan Refugee Response Plan 2023. The Anti-harassment law was improved to enable victims of workplace harassment to seek justice. The amendment expands the definition of ‘harassment’ to include gender-based discrimination that creates an abusive and hostile working environment. UN Women provided technical support the Parliament on the gender review of the legal mechanism and implementation to promote gender balance in decision-making institutions and processes including the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) law. Advocacy efforts were directed towards the Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) law to address barriers to voter registration including a lack of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) by disenfranchise citizens, particularly women. UN Women worked with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and Ministry of Labour in addressing barriers in accessing social protection schemes and welfare faced by marginalized women including women home-based workers. As a result, a total of 11,500 women including 28 transgender persons operating from their homes were registered in the Home-Based Workers database and 22,200 women and girls obtained CNIC and other civic documents enabling them to access education, health care, legal protections and economic opportunities including access to markets. This has enabled the opportunities to engage in market, thus improving their income by 30%.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-PAK_O_1
Assuring an accountable organization through principled performance: UN-Women is an accountable and trustworthy development organization that manages its financial and other resources with integrity and in line with its programmatic ambitions and fiduciary obligations
The output was achieved during the year. The total utilization rate for regular resources (Core and IB) is 97 percent and 89.2 percent for other resources (XB and Non-core). The delivery rate was regularly monitored and updated to management and programme teams to ensure timely execution and adjustment. The PA Pool was rolled out on 1st January 2023 contributing to increased efficiency and coordination among the Programme & Operations teams. Systems and workflow on Operational functions were in place in line with corporate policy including relevant PPGs, Business continuity plan and Enterprise Risk Management policy with regular review to ensure effectiveness. Regulations on Finance, Procurement, Human Resources were upheld and communicated with all staff, Responsible Party, Implementing Partner and vendor to ensure accountability and transparency. A monitoring for both financial and programme implementation were conducted regularly including spot check for projects implemented by RP and IP.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-PAK_O_2
Advancing partnerships & resourcing; Effectively influencing for impact & scale: UN-Women effectively leverages and expands its partnerships, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing of the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate
The output was achieved during the year. In Half 1 2023, UN Women Pakistan actively promoted women's economic empowerment and workplace equality by engaging both traditional and non-traditional partners. Conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment in March 2023 brought together private sector companies, government entities, financial institutions, and civil society organizations to discuss accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Industry leaders from various sectors participated in panel discussions, sharing best practices and exploring potential synergies for joint programming. The conference also featured an exquisite handicrafts exhibition showcasing the work of women micro-entrepreneurs from different cities. Additionally, UN Women collaborated with UNICEF and the Pakistan Business Council to host a webinar on Family Friendly Policies in the Workplace. The webinar provided insights and information about workplace policies benefiting working parents, including best practices and the alignment of the Women Empowerment Principles with the Family Friendly Policy Agenda. In Karachi, UN Women partnered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to organize a premier ESG symposium focused on gender equality. The symposium aimed to move the needle on gender equality and featured engaging discussions on the topic.On International Women's Day, UN Women, the Pakistan Stock Exchange, and partners came together to ring the bell for gender equality and women's empowerment. The event gathered women leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, innovators, and corporate leaders, and included a panel discussion on developing an ESG reporting framework in the tech sector. Furthermore, UN Women conducted training sessions on creating dignified and harassment-free workplaces at Packages Limited in Lahore. The sessions aimed to implement the Women Empowerment Principles and strengthen the company's harassment policy and redressal mechanisms, with the active participation of senior leadership, including the CEO Mr. Hyder Ali.In collaboration with the Royal Thai Embassy in Pakistan, we conducted training for women home chefs to further enhance our existing partnership with foodpanda. During the training, over 20 home chefs were given the unique opportunity to learn first-hand from a Thai master chef about authentic Thai cuisine.In half one, 15 new private sector companies also joined the WEPs network while Pakistan was featured in both MPAS Private sector newsletter by HQ(Q1 and Q2). Pakistan also was nominated for the new private sector engagement strategy task force and contributed technically in its development. In second half, The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) in collaboration with UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA & private sector partner Jazz held a two-day conference to create a national policy framework and launch the report ‘Digitalisation & Women in Pakistan’. NCSW with its consortium partners produced a comprehensive report “Digitalization and Women in Pakistan” as a result of a rigorous country-wide consultative process, engaging public and private sectors, civil society, academia, media and think tanks etc. In line with this year’s theme, the report was presented at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women during the 8th March 2023 celebrations in New York. The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) in collaboration with UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA & private sector partner Jazz held a two-day conference to create a national policy framework and launch the report ‘Digitalisation & Women in Pakistan’. NCSW with its consortium partners produced a comprehensive report “Digitalization and Women in Pakistan” as a result of a rigorous country-wide consultative process, engaging public and private sectors, civil society, academia, media and think tanks etc. In line with this year’s theme, the report was presented at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women during the 8th March 2023 celebrations in New York. PCO also organized its first in-person training with private sector on ‘Transparency and Accountability Framework’ of the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in Karachi, Pakistan. The training was conducted at the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (CERB) bringing together 15+ companies from various sectors. The session provided introduction to the WEPs Gender Gap Analysis Tool with aim to encourage companies to assess their progress on gender equality and build goals and targets to promote women’s empowerment. As part of the ongoing partnership of UN Women Pakistan with Jazz for digital empowerment of women artisans. In August 2023, teams visited Swabi and Sukkur Region, covering 79 villages and targeting 2751 Women Home Based Workers in 11 days. Despite facing cultural and infrastructure challenges in these rural areas, Jazz and UN Women teams successfully concluded the training sessions and digitally empowered women by issuing SIMs, access to cheaper internet data, and financially including them through Cash Wallets thus enabling them to become a part of the digital network. Moreover, over 131 home-based workers were empowered by providing denim material for upcycling. This initiative was supported by Inditex and Soorty Enterprises through in-kind partnership and complimented the existing work of WEE programme.In November 2023, over ten signatories of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) from Pakistan participated various sessions of the 2023 Asia-Pacific WEPs Forum. The forum was organized as part of the new supported program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, ‘Advancing the implementation of WEPs for accelerated business action for gender equality in Asia & Pacific’. Participants from Pakistan included Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Pakistan Stock Exchange, Engro Corp, Interloop, Soorty Enterprises, Pakistan Business Council and foodpanda and highlighted best practices from Pakistan at regional forum. A collaborative effort was initiated PCO partnered with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), UNFPA, and UNICEF to address the issue of child marriage. This joint campaign aimed to collectively advance the campaign against child marriage. On International Day of the Girl, UN Women in collaboration with UNICEF, UNFPA Pakistan, and NCSW, hosted a two-day "National Stakeholders' Conference to #EndChildMarriage" in collaboration. This consultation was supported by the FCDO Gov UK under its flagship program AAWAZ II. In a collaborative effort, PCO partnered with the Sweden Embassy, Dastak NGO, and media agency Olomopolo to launch the initiative #globalguytalk. The innovative concept revolves around assembling a group of men to engage in conversations about topics that are often left unexplored. Utilizing conversational guides available on the initiative's website and complemented by short videos, #globalguytalk aims to create an open dialogue on subjects seldom discussed by men. The overarching ambition is to provide men with the opportunity to actively contribute to building a more equal society, starting with introspective conversations and personal reflections. Within the Gender Theme Group, PCO collaborated on joint messaging during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Messages from seven agencies, including UNDP, WFP, IOM, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNICEF, and UNODC, were recorded and disseminated. In addition, all UN agencies in Pakistan adopted the social media toolkit crafted by UN Women for the 16 days. The united effort by the UN to promote #NoExcuse resonated and gained amplification from external partners, including the EU, Norway, Germany and Sweden. Led by UNAIDS, a collaborative effort involving UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, and UN Women emerged to advocate against the stigma associated with AIDS and promote equitable services for transgender individuals.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-PAK_O_3
Advancing business transformation: UN-Women strategically plans for and transforms its business model to deliver impact at scale, through agile and ethical leadership rooted in a continuous improvement culture
The output was achieved during the year. In response to the evolving global landscape and the imperative for heightened impact, UN Women has strategically undertaken a comprehensive business transformation initiative including a division of single large Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Portfolio into two covering normative and Access to Justice, roll out of PA Pool, enhancement of Women’s Political Participation (WPP) Programme to a full-fledged portfolio as well as introduction of Gender Financing and Financial Inclusion Programme. This initiative is designed to reshape our organizational structure, enhance operational efficiency, and amplify our impact at scale. Our commitment to agile and ethical leadership, deeply rooted in a culture of continuous improvement, underscores our dedication to delivering sustainable change in pursuit of gender equality.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-PAK_O_4
Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UNWomen culture: With its unique and inclusive culture, UN-Women is an employer of choice with a diverse and highly performing cadre of personnel that embodies UN values
The output was achieved during the year. All employees have equal access to opportunities for growth, development, and advancement. This includes fair access to training programs, and mentorship opportunities. Implementation of flexible work policies to accommodate diverse needs. This includes flexible hours, remote work options that support work-life balance A zero-tolerance policy for discrimination and harassment. Implementation of 2 respectful workforce facilitators (RWFs) in office to ensure that there are clear reporting mechanisms and that all reported incidents are promptly and thoroughly addressed. RWFs coordinate with Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) focal points on complaints as required. Two briefings on the role of RWF were provided to staff. Polices and initiatives implemented in PCO were monitored and reviewed. Seven meetings were held with senior management to update on progress to maintain PCO as a good respectful workplace with conducive environment for all.Showing 1 - 5 of 6