Gender and Development

Pakistan

Barani Area Development Project - Phase II, 2000

The status of women in Pakistan remains of grave concern. While the primary objective of the Barani Area Development Project is poverty reduction, its secondary objective is to improve the status of women and to enhance their contribution to, and benefit from, the project. Significant gender disparity exists in the project area, with women having significantly less access than men to basic social services such as education and health. Overall, women's literacy in the project area is estimated at 8.5 percent but in some areas drops below one percent. Women are often malnourished as a result of their heavy workload in the subsistence sector, poor nutrition and frequent pregnancies, and have limited access to resources of any kind. The institutional framework is ill-equipped to deliver services to women.

To address these acute gender inequalities, the project developed a strategic framework of gender mainstreaming, that is fully reflected in the project's components, budget, implementation arrangements and benefit monitoring and evaluation programs. It is also detailed in the Loan Agreement and theproject administration memorandum (PAM) used by project implementation staff.

Design features built into the project include formation of separate women's organizations led by women; and placement of female credit officers to ensure that at least 30 per cent of borrowers are women. Skill and micro-enterprise training will be provided to women, together with support for their subsequent economic endeavours. This will be accompanied by social training and strengthening measures in village health, education, organization and networking; and rural infrastructure such as improved water supply and roads, to ease their household labour burden and improve their access to outside resources. Specific percentages have been agreed to ensure women's share in all these activities.

To further ensure the effective implementation of these measures, the project will place gender specialists in the project's management and implementation units and sub-units, to monitor and evaluate the process and interventions, and ensure further employment of women under the project. Efforts will also be made to ensure the balanced gender composition of project staff at the central level throughout project implementation. Following the high turnover of women staff in an earlier project, given the lack of social protection available to women living alone, the project will construct hostel and office accommodation for women, and provide double cabin vehicles which will be more acceptable for mixed-gender field visits.