International Development Grant
Support to the Implementation of Gender Reform Action Plans
Project Number: CA-3-A032475001
Status: Closed
Country/Region:
Maximum Contribution: $3,000,000.00
Start Date: March 18, 2005
End Date: May 25, 2006
Duration: 1.2 years
Project Description
This partnership with the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Pakistan supports a unique opportunity to mainstream gender equality in the day-to-day operations of governance in Pakistan. The project provides a combination of expertise and strategic activities to assist the Government of Pakistan with implementing a series of major gender reforms to governance structures and processes. The Gender Reform Action Plans take the form of one national and four provincial Gender Reform Action Plans (GRAPs). The GRAPs not only propose a series of reforms but also present budgets financing plans implementation plans and monitoring plans for executing the GRAPs. The GRAPS focus on four areas to promote greater mainstreaming in Pakistani governments: (1) increasing women's political participation; (2) institutional restructuring especially of Ministries and Departments of Women's Development but including other ministries as well; (3) policy and fiscal reforms (tools and mechanisms) beginning with gender mainstreaming in budget and planning functions; and (4) capacity development in gender equality for government stakeholders.
Progress & Results Achieved
Results at the end of the project (October 2011) include: The technical assistance (TA) increased the availability of information resources on women's issues through the establishment of a Resource Center at the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW). The NCSW used four analytical reports supported by the TA in seeking civil society input and providing its recommendations to the government on integrating gender equality into national health and education policies political parties and local government laws. The TA supported the strengthening of 20 public sector training institutes throughout Pakistan by reviewing and revising 40 curricula from a gender perspective and developing a pool of 60 gender trainers (45% women) within the provincial governments. In addition assistance provided for the strengthening of 130 industrial training centers of the Women Development Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province through training of trainers helped to introduce new skills and curricula leading to enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity of women in the province. The training of 55 selected government officials from the Women Development Departments in Sindh and Balochistan provinces (47% women) has strengthened the capacity of the respective departments and enabled them to take on additional responsibilities after devolution brought about by the 18th constitutional amendment. The Punjab female internship program left a model to be followed in future to encourage young women graduates to join the public sector. The gender strategy developed and adopted by one of the largest districts in Faisalabad served as an example for other district governments to follow including Lahore. One federal and four provincial policy dialogues were supported by five analytical reports on fiscal and political participation reforms institutional restructuring and capacity development and women's employment in the public sector. The findings of the reports were shared through
Key Information
Executing Agency:
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AsDB)
Reporting Organization:
Global Affairs Canada
Program:
OGM Indo-Pacific
Last Modified:
September 19, 2025
Development Classifications
DAC Sector:
Aid Type: Contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by implementing partners
Collaboration: Bilateral
Finance Type: Aid grant excluding debt reorganisation
Selection Mechanism:
Pre-APP