Gender network is a forum where those interested in gender issues can meet to strengthen participating organisation as well as share experiences and promote learning of the same. Through this forum further cooperation and coordination will also be enhanced amongst like-minded organisation especially those working for gender concerns. In addition to this it will also provide an opportunity for organisation to build their capacity to undertake gender related activities especially for conducting training workshops.
During a gender trainers ToT which was Organised by SRSP in December 1998 this network was formed. IUCN, SSEP, FRC, Pak-CDP, and AWARE participated in this training. As an initial step the group decided that they should meet regularly to build and enhance the capacity of the forum for future direction.
The meetings are held on rotational basis every quarter by the member organisation. The secretariat services again are provided on rotational basis for maximum one year by an organisation. SRSP provided this support for the first year in April 2000. In the second year ending in April 2001 the secretariat ship was handed over to SSEP. In third year Kwendo Kor was serving as focal point for the network, their tenure ended in April 2002. Strengthening Participatory Organization SPO served as the focal point for the network in April 2003. In 2004 SRSP once again was nominated as the secretariat for the forum. Currently SPO is serving as the secretariat for the Gender Voices forum for 2005. Today members of the Gender Voices are SRSP, AKRSP, IUCN, SPO, Sungi, and Khewndo Kor.
The purpose of the ‘Gender Voices’ is to facilitate and support members (organisation and individuals) to institutionalize gender concerns in their area of work for equitable and sustainable development.
- Develop GAD appropriate strategies/approaches through information sharing and exchange of experiences.
- Build capacity of the members/member organisation through GAD training and seminars.
- Develop strategies for making the network a viable and sustainable forum.
An activity plan was made in the first meeting, which was revised in the fourth meeting held in IUCN. The second meeting was held in SSEP, which was also a strategic planning workshop. In this workshop mission, vision and objectives were chalked out besides the membership criteria and fee.
It was decided that member organisation will assist and support each other in gender related activities especially gender workshops. In this regard SSEP conducted a gender sensitization workshop with cooperation and facilitation of SRSP social Sector and Gender Issues Section.
A seminar on the situation of human rights in Pakistan from gender perspective was held in April 2001. In this regard a member of the HRCP gave a lecture on the state of affairs in the country. In September 2001 the network arranged a seminar on ‘Gender and Islam’ scholar were invited to speak on the subject. They highlighted the various rights given to women Islam. The purpose of this was to highlight the fact that gender is not an alien concept and well within the frame of Islam.
SPO has organized a lecture on pardah and harassment, in which a lot of local NGOs participated. The main purpose of such forums is to bring awareness among the other organization as well as to share information.
Exposure visit was also carried out by SRSP in collaboration with IUCN for the members of Gender Voices to the organizations working for gender awareness in Lahore. “Gender Experiences in NWFP” for the first time in the province has also been published by SRSP in collaboration with IUCN, this was also meant to create awareness and share the initiatives taken by the Civil Society Organizations in different themes such as Micro- Finance, Livelihood, environment, education etc in gender perspective.
In addition to this members of Gender Voices forum also serve as resource persons in gender.
Membership is revered both for organizations and individuals. Interested organization should be working in field of development gender they must be willing to commit time and resources as well as share experiences. Membership fee for organization is Rs. 1000 renewable annually.
Individual decision of acquiring membership must also fulfill the above criteria. Membership fee for individuals is Rs. 200 renewable annually.
Keeping in view the objectives of the network, which are to develop gender and development appropriate strategies/ approaches through information sharing it, has been a continuous processes to attain this goal. The members’ organization has on this regard provided a number of gender training:
1) IUCN, SPO and SRSP have provided training’s to their staff as well as the other partner organization.
2) Interactive sessions are arranged to create awareness on gender issues as well as to share information.
3) Quarterly published newsletter “Gender Voices” which is one of the tools for sharing Information and advocacy
4) The member ship is done on equal bases; some of our members are also the members of other networks also.
5) Building the capacity of the member’s organisation through providing training’s and workshops.
1) Turnover at the organizations, a lot of members of the network at some point
have left the network as they had left the organisation they were presenting.
2) More motivation is needed for the members, as the members are over
burdened in their work they sometimes can show that commitment.
3) Need for the exposure to contemporary ideas.
4) Inter organizational coordination is needed which can create positive attitudes of our organizations.
5) There is a need for income generating activities, which can help in the sustainability of Gender Voices Network.
- Sense of devotion and responsibility is found in every member.
- Organizational and personal commitment
- Mutual trust and transparency, which has uptil, now helped the “Gender Voices” network to survive.
- Up till now no funds has been taken from any donor. And besides this entire network is not a political network we do believe in teamwork.
- Work on awareness and sensitization and capacity building of public sector.
- Stakeholder at the grass root level.
- Strengthening / involvement of the new members in network.
- Involving academia will do awareness regarding gender issues. During the awareness campaigns the teachers, professors from the different universities, collages and schools will be actively involved. Debates can be arranged on the gender issues and seminar in the universities will be arranged in which eminent scholars can be invited to present papers on different issues.
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