Moot suggests action plan for rural women

The two-day festival-cum-conference, organised to mark the International Rural Women’s Day, concluded successfully here on Sunday at Shakarparian with certain recommendations to devise an action plan for peace and development for rural women in Pakistan.
The rural women from 100 districts participated in the event by way of meaningful and action-oriented deliberations. The event was organised by Lok Virsa (National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) in collaboration with several other institutions.
The special features were women artisans-at-work with display of craftrsmanship by craftswomen from different parts of the country with their tools, finished and semi-finished products, promotional stalls by NGOs working for empowerment of women, a conference to focus on women’s issues; audio-visual presentations on women’s issues and musical shows. The first four and last two sessions of the conference took place, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday, which mainly focused on the topic “From Food Security to Peace and Security.”
The speakers discussed various problems confronting rural women and gave ideas and suggestions for their solution. Balochistan Minister for Women Development Ms Ghazala Gola, KP Minister for Women Development Dr Nafisa Shah and Royal Norwegian Ambassador to Pakistan Ms Cecilie Landsverk also attended the conference proceedings and highly appreciated the role of Lok Virsa, PODA and other organisations for holding the mega event in such a beautiful and professional manner.
Lok theatre by Pattan Lok Natak and a rally for peace by rural women artisans were also important parts of Sunday’s programmes at Lok Virsa. The conference concluded with distribution of awards among rural women by the Norwegian embassy. Arieb Azhar Band also paid a musical tribute to rural women on the occasion. The partners who played a leading role in organising this year’s programme were Action Aid, Royal Norwegian Embassy, National Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations Entity for Gender Equity and the Empwerment of Women, Cavish Development Foundation, Alliance Against Sexual Harrassment (AASHA), Women Action Women, Rozan, Ministry of Human Rights, Lok Sanjh Foundation, Bedari etc.
While speaking at the closing ceremony, Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid thanked the participants and stakeholders for their effective contributions and expressed the hope that their input would go a long way in developing a joint strategy for the promotion of rural women in Pakistan.
He assured full cooperation from his organisation for all efforts aiming to document, preserve and project the cultural heritage of Pakistan and to promote rural artisans and craftswomen. He also shared initiatives that Lok Virsa had taken to safeguard various elements of the tangible and intangible heritage of the country.
The inaugural ceremony was graced by Syeda Fiza Gilani, daughter of the prime minister and goodwill ambassador for women’s empowerment on Saturday.