Democracy and Empowered Women

The project’s goal is to enhance inclusive democratic processes for the advancement of women’s rights and at risk population such as minorities and transgender communities in Pakistan. The project also aims to change the patterns of women's political and civic participation through changes in behaviors practices and performance of key institutions to promote the participation of disenfranchised people (whose right to vote was removed) in community development local governance and mainstream political decision-making processes. Project activities include: (1) providing training to women and youth for leadership in community and local government; (2) conducting voter education training sessions for women and youth groups and for chapters of Awaz-e-Niswan (AAN) a membership-based network of women voters across the country; (3) providing support for the establishment of four AAN district chapters for meaningful engagement with State actors and non-State actors; (4) providing capacity building support in gender-responsive governance to new and existing networks of women in local government in 15 districts; (5) providing technical assistance (TA) and training to media on gender-sensitive reporting skills to support women’s political participation in 15 districts given by elected representatives; (6) providing TA to women political party workers and key leaders and legislators (women and men) to advocate for women’s empowerment within political parties and in parliament; and (7) providing TA to set up a “Parliamentary Watch” to track progress on gender-sensitive legislation and policy actions.

The expected results of this project include: (1) community-based groups of women and network of women voters amalgamated into a strong and dynamic network (expanding it to 25 districts); (2) improved skills of women and youth to engage with formal and informal decision making foras at district and sub-district levels; (3) increased evidence-based advocacy by women youth and civil society organizations (CSOs) for advancing the rights of women and marginalized and transgender persons; (4) networks of women voters’ capacity increased in order to expand political participation of women; (5) enhanced networking of women in local government for collective action and responsive governance; (6) increased capacity of women youth groups and women councillors to develop gender-responsive community budgets and social accountability in 15 districts; and (7) improved participation and representation of women in mainstream political parties and in national and provincial parliaments.