QUETTA: The Governance and Policy Project (GPP) Balochistan has taken an initiative to support development of gender integration in the government sector to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the title of Gender Mainstreaming for the Implementation of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Policy (2020-24) and the Balochistan Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2016.

The sub-grant was approved with the financial assistance from the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), administered by the World Bank to be implemented by the Planning & Development Department of the government of Balochistan.

The initiative has been taken by the Balochistan government to overcome gender gaps and disparity in the province. The direct beneficiaries of the grant includes the Women Development Department (WDD), Government of Balochistan and the Provincial Ombudsperson on Anti-Harassment at Workplace Balochistan.

As per the details of the support to WDD, the comprehensive and pragmatic plan with the department includes Gender-Based Analysis of Government Departments secondly, the Women Empowerment Baseline Survey in Balochistan for generating primary data to determine women’s socio-economic & political status in all districts of Balochistan, in line with SDGs specifically Goals-5,8,10 and 16 for the implementation of the Balochistan Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy (GE&WEP) 2020-24, and thirdly the Capacity Needs Assessment (CNA) of both entities through the Centre of Excellence for Research-Based Management (CERBM) -University of Balochistan.

The additional support will include Training & Workshop on Gender Responsive Budgeting: Planning, Designing and Incorporating Women Development Projects in PC-I in PSDP schemes; Improving access to gender disaggregated data through the development or deployment of the Gender Management Information System (GMIS) at WDD.

The initiatives will also help develop strategic linkages between local academia and the government as the academia, through the employment of scientific methods for primary data collection and analysis, would carry out the Women Empowerment Baseline Survey in Balochistan.

Similarly, as far as the assistance to the provincial ombudsperson on anti-harassment at workplace is concerned, the tangible support to the provincial ombudsperson on anti-harassment at workplace includes: provision of technical assistance in functional operations of the ombudsperson’s office; provision of need-based psychiatrist and counselor for providing urgent counseling to survivors; training of all members of anti-harassment cells & the gender focal person at departmental, divisional and district level; organising a provincial level conference besides conducting public awareness campaigns in the province including at all public universities for disseminating information regarding the anti-harassment act; assimilation of the grievance redressal mechanism, the anti-harassment complaints management information system for proper lodging of cases online, tracking case statuses and progress and the timely redressal of harassment cases; translating the code of conduct into urdu and native languages; designing tool kits and knowledge products on the referral mechanism and investigating of harassment cases.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2021