International Development CommitteeSupplementary written evidence from DFID
Whether DFID Pakistan has a gender advisory panel or gender adviser?
DFID Pakistan’s Head of Office is gender champion, responsible for ensuring gender remains at the centre of all of our work. There is a senior Social Development Advisor with lead responsibility for gender, and a number of other Social Development Advisors working on gender issues across the programme portfolio. The team in Pakistan is also supported by a senior Social Development Advisor specialising on gender based in London. DFID has regular policy discussions with the Government of Pakistan at all levels on women’s empowerment and uses the annual “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” as an advocacy platform.
If or how DFID works with women’s rights activists in Pakistan?
DFID works with Pakistani activists through national and international processes to improve women’s human rights. Recent examples include:
Joining with women’s rights activists to edit the Pakistan document in support of the draft recommendations of the Commission on the Status of women meeting (57) in New York, and meeting with key government officials to promote the agenda that Pakistani women’s rights activists had agreed for CSW 57 (which was the same as the UK agenda).
Discussions with women’s rights activists around the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and how to move forward the agenda in Pakistan.
Providing support through our programmes to women’s rights activists across several initiatives, including, recently, the 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women, and International Women’s Day (further details on programmes below).
What specific gender programmes DFID has in Pakistan especially on violence against women?—ie acid throwing, domestic violence, legal advice etc
DFID has programmes that specifically target gender equality and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Additionally DFID prioritises the needs and rights of women across all its programmes.
Gender specific programmes on violence against women
Through our Gender, Justice, Protection Programme, DFID supported a number of NGOs to advocate for vital legislation to protect women from violence. This has contributed to the passage of four important bills through one or both houses of Pakistan’s parliament over the last two years (Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, 2010; Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Amendment to the Pakistan Penal Code 2011; Prevention of Anti Women Practices, 2011; Domestic Violence, 2012).
In particular, direct support to the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) and Mehergarh enabled them to bring together powerful lobbying campaigns to lobby for Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Amendment Acts. DFID support to Acid Survivors’ Foundation has helped to support victims of acid violence in accessing state health services and in receiving rehabilitative care.
Our support has also helped in the roll out and implementation of this new legislation. For example, on the workplace Sexual Harassment law, DFID supported a number of NGOs to help government and the private sector establish sexual harassment committees, develop user friendly complaint mechanisms and adopt suitable codes of conduct on sexual harassment.
DFID has also supported the implementation of existing legislation, for example supporting the Al Mubarak Welfare Society International (AWSI), a group of Islamic scholars, to work with local communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to prevent the practice of Swara (the exchange of women for debt).
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, we have recently launched a new programme called “Aawaz” (Voice). This is tackling violence against women at provincial, district and community levels, through support to lobbying for and drafting of laws to protect women, support to district administrations to implement legislation and policies to promote women’s rights, and activities at community level with women, men and boys to reduce tolerance of violence against women and strengthen women’s knowledge of their rights to equal inheritance, voting and divorce. Aawaz is also strengthening women’s active and safe participation in public events and decision making fora so that their priorities are addressed.
Support for women across other programmes
In our Education programmes, Gender Based Violence (GBV) is included as a cross cutting issue in behaviour change and demand-side interventions. For example, harassment (or fear of harassment) of older girls on their way to school is a barrier to schooling, especially where distances are long. DFID is working with school councils and parent teacher committees in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to support communities in tackling it.
Of the four million children DFID aims to support in school by 2015, two million will be girls. In the last year, we have helped 400,000 girls go to school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by providing stipends.
In our Sub National Governance programme, an e-governance initiative will enable women to voice concerns such as refusal of police to register VAW incidents.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, the Peacebuilding Support to the Post Crisis Needs Assessment programme will improve police responses to gender based violence through supporting i) recruitment of women police officers to deal with crimes against women; and ii) establishment of Lady Complaint Units (LCU) in police stations.
In Health, VAWG has a direct impact on maternal and child health, unintended pregnancy, death in childbirth and sexually transmitted diseases. Gender-based violence also limits control of women and girls over family planning. DFID is tackling this through public awareness raising and behaviour change strategies. Our support to reduce maternal mortality, preventing 3,600 mothers dying in childbirth by 2015, will also improve women’s life chances. We are also providing support on reproductive health so that women are able to exercise greater choice on family planning.
The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) provides cash transfers directly to female heads of households. Early monitoring indicates this is enhancing their status and enabling them to have more of a say in household affairs. This has the potential to reduce tolerance of VAW in communities, and will be monitored. Our support to BISP is helping over four million women and their families every month.
In our humanitarian responses, we aim to provide safe spaces for women and children and help them easily access and obtain immediate and necessary support. Calls for emergency response and early recovery proposals in 2013 will specify inclusion of GBV issues. Our shelter programmes prioritise female headed households for housing, provide solar lamps for women at night to improve safety, and locate water points and latrines in safe spaces.
We will help almost one million women access microfinance loans.
We will support almost one million more women to vote in forthcoming elections.
How these gender programmes or gender mainstreaming is monitored?
DFID prioritises the needs and rights of women across all programmes by including gender specific results targets in all relevant programmes, and sex-disaggregated results data, which informs policy and programme direction. Sex disaggregated-milestones mean that results can be totalled to estimate the overall impact of DFID P’s programmes on women and girls. It also enables DFID-P to learn lessons in relation to working with women and girls and share best practices across programmes.
Who/what is the current anti-corruption body in Pakistan—is it still the National Accountability Bureau? What work does DFID do with it?
Pakistan’s main anti-corruption body is the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), established in 1999 and formally independent. It has preventive, enforcement and public awareness functions with a mandate to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.
The 2008 U4 paper Overview of Corruption in Pakistan notes that “the NAB is widely perceived to target politicians and civil servants from preceding civilian governments, discrediting political opponents and junior government officials. Judges and military officers as well as political allies of the government have been virtually immune from any investigations or being held accountable for their actions.”
In October 2012, the government introduced the draft National Accountability Commission Bill 2012 seeking to replace the NAB with a new accountability institution. The Bill lapsed with the expiry of the National Assembly’s term on 16 March 2013. The future of the NAB will be for the next government to decide.
DFID has worked with the NAB in the past, most notably supporting the drafting of the National Ant Corruption Strategy in 2002. This however has had limited impact. The U4 case study suggests that effective implementation of the Strategy has been hampered by the lack of political leadership and structural constraints as a result of NAB’s contested authority. Currently, HMG supports NAB through SOCA expertise, which includes advice on how to work with international partners to tackle corruption. Potential training opportunities are also being explored.
DFID’s approach to anti-corruption in Pakistan is set out in our recently published strategy. [http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Asia-South/Pakistan/]
March 2013