$8m Canadian grant for skill development of women
ISLAMABAD: The Canadian government has announced to contribute $8 million to a project that will help increase employment opportunities for women in Pakistan.
The Canadian contribution will be utilised to impart skills training to more than 6,000 women and men, and help strengthen coordination mechanisms to bring key stakeholders together at the national, provincial and district levels.
The new investment builds on the Canadian contribution of $3 million in 2005 through the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to provide skills training and entrepreneurship support to more than 5,000 women in the formal and informal sectors, including training of 450 women in the textile industry that resulted in a 90 per cent employment rate.
The project will be implemented by the ILO, for which an agreement was signed in Islamabad on Wednesday between Pakistan, the International Labour Organisation and the Canadian High Commission.
Canadian High Commissioner Randolph Mank, Secretary Labour and Manpower Tariq Iqbal Puri and ILO Director Donglin Li signed the agreement on behalf of respective sides.“The Canadian government is committed to supporting employment opportunities for women and helping to ensure that they receive the skills and training support required to participate in the workforce,” High Commissioner Mank said after the signing ceremony. “Supporting the economic empowerment of women is one of the key priorities of our development efforts in Pakistan.”
Secretary Tariq Iqbal Puri called upon ILO to focus on the economic development of women, especially those related to agriculture sector in Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/4/2010
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