Peace & Justice Network

UNDP N Peace Project Women, Peace and Security UNSCR 1325

Women, Peace and Security UNSCR 1325 with Local Government

On 16^th September, 2018, Peace & Justice Network Pakistan (PJN) initiated one of its kind project with the support of UNDP N-Peace Network focusing on Women, Peace and Security UNSCR 1325.

Under the Project, PJN will be building the capacity of female local government elected representatives from village councils and neighborhood councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in order to ensure their equal participation in the decision-making process so that they can better protect and promote the rights of women in conflict affected situations. PJN is targeting district Haripur for piloting the project.

Key Challenges project will be targeting:

Based on PJN’s past experience in district, women local government representatives in particular and women in general are facing following challenges;

Women Local Government Representatives are not involved in decision making process. Mostly decisions at district, tehsil and village/neighborhood council level are taken by male representatives. So in most of the development planning, women are not directly involved.
As most of them are elected for the first time under Local Government Election in 2015 in KP, so most of them don’t have desired leadership and advocacy skills.
Also women access to justice is very limited. Women those access our Community Legal Center (CLC) at district courts shared that it is very difficult for them to reach courts due to conservative culture and other social barriers.
Also mostly women are not aware of their rights. Not even elected representatives have any idea about women’s rights, including political, economic and social equality provided in Constitution of Pakistan.
In Local Government Act 2013, power has been granted to local government representatives for dispute resolution for local issues at village and neighborhood council level, but no such training has ever be provided to local government representatives in this regard. This is very hard especially for women representatives due to their limited exposure.

So these challenges limit in ensuring women's equal participation in the decision-making process as well as protecting and promoting the rights of women in conflict affected situations.

In order to achieve the project aim to build the capacity of women local government representatives to enhance women's equal participation in the decision-making process and for protecting and promoting the rights of women in conflict affected situations, PJN will design a capacity building program for the women local government representatives in District Haripur which covers following skills:

Leadership Skills
Legal Knowledge and Dispute Resolution Skill
Advocacy Skills
Local Government Act and Village Development Planning

Project will target all the 180 village and neighborhood councils as well as District and Tehsil Councils. Total 180 representatives will be trained under the program. Through the initiative, PJN will also ensure that the women local government representative must have their say in the decision making process at village, tehsil and district level. Program success will review through number of recommendations given by local government women representatives’ take-up by the local government and district administration. Also success will be measured through the letters send by women elected representatives on behalf of women community members for resolving grassroot issues to different departments and action taken on them.

PJN legal aid panel of women lawyer will also play their role in protecting rights of women in their respective districts by providing legal advisory and court representation services so that women feel secure.