Women empowerment: Denmark pledges $1m for UN programme

Ambassador says Danish govt promotes rights of women.

ISLAMABAD:

The government of Denmark has provided a grant of $1 million to support UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The Danish government wants to promote peace, security and humanitarian actions shaped by women leadership and participation, stated Ambassador of Denmark Jesper Moller Sorensen during a signing ceremony at the UN Women Country Office on Wednesday.

During the signing ceremony, the ambassador stated that “Today is an important day for us as Denmark pledges its support to a programme which has a new facet to support vulnerable women in Pakistan. This country has unfortunately suffered great losses due to various crises and disasters over the past years where women suffer disproportionately.”

We aim to promote security and protect the rights of women and girls in stabilisation, social reconstruction and peace-building processes through this partnership, he said.



“The programme also aims to ensure that women and girls are engaged as agents of change and promote gender equality commitments in disasters and complex emergencies on both the policy and institutional level,” he said.

The ambassador said that our support to work on gender equality is based on a rights-based approach that focuses on improving women’s access to rights and resources.

UN Women Senior Country Adviser Joana Merlin shared that ‘Women, Peace and Security’ is a central area in crisis situations, irrespective of whether it relates to man-made or natural disasters.

Recent crises affecting the country have highlighted gaps in emergency preparedness, early warning systems and other disaster-reduction and management capacities required for a comprehensive, swift and gender sensitive response towards stabilisation and social reconstruction, she said.

The funding from the Danish government will give continuity to UN Women’s work to ensure that peace, security and humanitarian actions are shaped by participation of women.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2014.