ISLAMABAD: In order to promote gender mainstreamed projects in infrastructure, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wednesday initiated a two-day workshop here to encourage women participation in such projects.
The workshop on “Strengthening Gender-Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia” is being participated by over seventy government and non-government representatives from different countries.
Inaugurating the workshop, Secretary Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform Shoaib Ahmad Siddique lauded efforts of ADB for taking such initiatives that would help encourage women participation in infrastructure projects and lead to economic development of the country.
He said that both women as well as men should equally benefit from the infrastructure projects adding that the government also focuses on such initiatives. The Vision 20205 also envisages gender equality, he said adding that infrastructure plays key role in promoting economic growth.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor and Head CWOD-PSG and West Asia Department of ADB, Nianshian Zhang said that ADB was committed to promoting gender equality. Zhang highlighted that it was imperative to scale up gender mainstreaming in hard infrastructure sectors.
Secretary, Ministry of Human Rights, Rabiya Javeri Agha said that government was focusing to improve women’s participation in project planning and implementation for better development outcome.
It is pertinent to mention here that participants of two-day workshop would thoroughly deliberate upon the ways and means to help enhance women participation in hard infrastructure projects.
The sub-regional workshop aims at enhancing the capacity of sector officials, project officers and implementers in designing, successfully implementing, monitoring and reporting on gender mainstreamed projects in energy, transport, water and other urban infrastructure and services and agriculture and natural resources sectors in Central and West Asia.
The workshop participants would review and discuss the institutional requirements and gender mainstreaming strategies of ADB as applied to energy, transport, WUS and agriculture and natural resources sectors.
The participants would share experiences on the issues and challenges in designing, implementing, monitoring and reporting on gender mainstreamed projects, identify bottlenecks and common issues, and come up with recommendations to address these.
The workshop would explore more innovative ways to enhance gender integration in project designs and to ensure successful implementation of gender actions. It is pertinent to mention here that the ADB has been specifically focusing on transport, energy and water, and other urban infrastructure and services sectors which account for a large share of its portfolio.
From 2005-2015, the ADB’s transport and energy projects accounted for 53% of the total portfolio while in 2016 projects in the transport, energy and water and urban services sectors comprised 35%, 25% and 13% respectively of the total portfolio.
