Introduction

Aided by the Royal Norwegian Embassy Islamabad in collaboration with UN Women Pakistan, the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) project is dedicated to fostering women’s social and economic empowerment in district Gilgit. It seeks to create an inclusive environment that enhances women’s agency and their access to essential services and skills, both for female workers and women-owned businesses. Moreover, the WEE project strives to ensure that women working or running businesses have access to safe, harassment-free workspace.

The core objectives of the project encompass multifaceted improvement in women’s empowerment. By fostering greater financial autonomy, UN-WEE seeks to enable women to assert more control over their economic circumstances. Additionally, the project endeavors to bolster income security, contributing to a more stable economic foundation for women in the District.

Progress

Over the past three months, we have successfully conducted a baseline survey in district Gilgit to assess the economic status of women. We provided orientation to a team of eight enumerators on the data collection process. They conducted door-to-door interviews to gather information on 1000 women, of which they successfully gathered the data from 806 working women. Subsequently, the data was analyzed and compiled into a report. 

Moreover, we held multiple meetings with multiple stakeholders including, government bodies, private institutions and local support organizations in various regions of district Gilgit. We also mobilized and organized more than 200 women and girls into groups, providing them with more information about various UN WEE activities.

Looking ahead, we are committed to providing a variety of capacity-building programs under the WEE project for women and girls in district Gilgit. These initiatives will cover training in e-commerce and digital marketing, business development and entrepreneurship, the craft of pattu making, cloth bag stitching, commercial cooking and hotel management. Furthermore, we will hold sessions stressing on eradicating violence against women and girls for boys and girls.

Sultanabad   

  LSO, Danyore