Pakistan
Country Programmes

Moving from Charity model to Rights based work – Delivering as ONE for empowerment of Women with Disabilities

Start DateOngoingEnd Date
 
 
26 Feb 201830 Sep 2020
Programme Status
Closed
Programme Budget
US$ 397,234
Financial Information
Thematic focus: Awareness Raising, Employment, GBV & Sexual and Reproductive Health, OPDs capacity building, Social Protection

Implementing Partners

UN Agencies

  • UN Women
  • ILO
  • UNV

Government Organizations

  • Ministry for Human Rights of Pakistan
  • National Commission on Human Rights
  • National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW)

Organizations of Persons with Disabilities

  • National Women with Disabilities Network

The Programme

In Pakistan, estimates of the number of persons living with disabilities varies between 3.3m and 27m, of which almost 70% of women with disabilities live in rural areas. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted in 2008 and ratified in 2011 by Pakistan, stressing the importance for their equal participation in society, and to remove barriers to their inclusion. Currently the UN Country Team (UNCT) in Pakistan is working with the government of Pakistan in implementing the SDGs. Mainstreaming CRPD guidance through the UNCT, with support from the advocacy platform of the UN Human Rights Task Force (HRTF) and will ensure that concerns around disability exclusion and inequality at institutional, attitudinal, physical and legal levels are addressed. The project interlinks three distinct influencers, namely the civil society and disabled persons organizations (DPO) movement with the UN system that in turn links with government enablers.

Approach

The project intervention included working with the Ministry for Human Rights and other national and provincial departments on reporting and tightening legislation through the refinement of Disabled Persons Act;
reporting to the CRPD committee, and reporting on violence against women with disabilities through the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) Alliance at relevant national and provincial forums, while garnering the support from women parliamentarians and through media campaigns to strengthen national discourse around rights or women with disabilities.
The project supported policy formulation across the project districts for targeted action improving accessibility of workplaces and capacity building of employees and employers to ensure working environment are inclusive.
Through various trainings, technical support, partnerships between recruitment services and employers, educational and vocational trainings and partnerships between DPOs, for women with disabilities to gain the right to employment.
Finally, the intervention focused on improving prevention and response services to GBV of women with disabilities.

Programme Documents