IPMG accelerates efforts for making women, girls count through national gender data portal

Islamabad: The 17th Inter Provincial Ministerial Group (IPMG) hosted by the National Commission on the Status of Women and UN Women brought together Secretaries of Women Development Departments (WDDs) and Chairpersons of Provincial Commissions on the Status of Women (CSW) to accelerate efforts for launching the National Data Gender Portal - a digital platform for collecting information and knowledge on gender issues in the country.

This portal will contribute significantly for generation of an evidence base which will inform policy and programmatic interventions to improve the situation of women’s rights and address areas of concern on a priority basis. The IPMG is the only inter provincial coordination forum having the potential and effectiveness for supporting the women’s empowerment and gender equality agenda through sharing of experiences, fostering peer learning, and developing strategies to fulfill the country’s national and international commitments. The group is structured to ensure representation of Ministers and Secretaries of Women Development Departments from four provinces, Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and the Chairpersons of National and Provincial Commissions on the Status of Women.

Member NCSW, Rubina Naz, in her opening remarks, appreciated the provincial WDDs and CSWs for their utmost efforts to protect and promote women’s rights in Pakistan. She expressed her gratitude to the participants for gathering at the very important platform of IPMG. She also thanked UN Women for its support in arranging the meeting as well as continued technical assistance offered to WDDs and CSWs.

Sharmeela Rassool, Country Representative, UN Women welcomed the participants and said, “IPMG is an innovation platform, and it gives me great pleasure to see that the entire women machinery of Pakistan is together collect today to strategize for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The idea of a Gender Data Portal was born in 2019 in a similar meeting of IPMG to address the issue of data credibility. Today we have successfully set it up. The National Gender Data Portal is designed to address this issue by collating gender related information and statistics on one platform, the first of its kind in Pakistan. All of you have an important role to play going forward to make it an effective and useful tool for understanding the situation and taking appropriate measures to improve it. Pakistan has the normative legislative framework for gender equality, however, there are immense challenges in the implementation of these laws.

The portal will generate trends analysis and to help us identify these gaps. Nothing can stop us from achieving our goals if we keep this spirit of teamwork alive.” Provincial Ministers and Secretaries shared information and updated the participants on future plans with a view to enhancing coordination and collaboration among the women machineries of the country. Due to the prolonged COVID-19 emergency situation and other factors, resource mobilisation for women empowerment and gender equality has become a challenge that was discussed by the participants. They also deliberated on strategies to mobilize resources for ensuring that women and girls are not left behind in social and economic recovery.

Androulla Kaminara, European Union’s Ambassador to Pakistan, thanked the participants and said, “I’m really happy to see the effort towards formulation of credible data. Countries cannot achieve big change without credible data. We are supporting Rule of Law and Access to Justice initiatives in Pakistan and promotion of gender equality remains one of EU’s core values. We have signed a Strategic Engagement Plan with Pakistan, and the country’s GSP plus status and preferential access to EU market is linked with the implementation of its international commitments for gender equality. With the 18th Constitutional amendment, it is very important to enhance coordination and collaboration, and the IPMG is a huge step in the right direction.

The country’s future depends on this group telling the policy-makers what works and where to direct their efforts.” Humera Khan, Secretary NCSW thanked the dignitaries, and representatives of provincial government departments, secretaries, and development partners for participating at the IPMG meeting. She provided an overview of NCSW’s structure and key achievements and added, “the IPMG is a very effective forum for regular updates and information sharing and will be instrumental in ensuring the efficacy of the National Gender Data Portal. Through this initiative Pakistan will be able to generate credible data and analysis on women-related indicators.

This will help NCSW in providing meaningful and relevant analysis for policymakers and legislators. Another important support for the NCSW is the formulation of the three-year strategic vision. This is an initiative the present commission can leave for the next commission as a roadmap. I hope that our way forward through the strategic vision may materialize soon.”