NADRA, UN Women sign MoU: NADRA facilitates women empowerment
ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority, NADRA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with “UN Women”–the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women–to maximise the technical assistance, cooperation and coordination to ensure the commitment for working effectively and in an efficient manner.
Alice H Shackelford, Country Programme Director, UN Women, Pakistan and Mr Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman NADRA signed the MoU today at NADRA headquarter in Islamabad.
UN Women is the primary UN Agency within the UN dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, acts as a global champion for women and girls to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
Under the MoU, UN Women will support NADRA by providing technical advice about gender equality and empowerment of women, exploring new opportunities to complement ongoing institutional efforts and determine other areas or services where cooperation and support may be mutually beneficial.
Deputy Chairman NADRA said this MoU will pave the way for the empowerment of women and will help meeting the goal of ensuring the appropriate involvement of women in mainstream development activities and to support innovative and experimental activities benefiting women in line with national and regional priorities.
Malik said NADRA has been empowering women and ensuring their social, economic and political rights by providing them computerised national identity cards (CNIC).
“CNIC has been made mandatory to register in voters list and vote casting. Women’s Right to vote can only be ensured by having a CNIC,” he said.
In the past three years, NADRA has increased women registration by 74 percent while NADRA has already registered 92 percent population of the country by issuing 86 million CNICs including 37 million to women, he added.
Malik said NADRA has been working as a catalyst in transforming e-governance agenda in Pakistan. It houses world’s largest multi-biometric database and has very effectively used the database to bring transparency in government’s citizen centric initiatives like Benazir Income Support Programme, Cash Disbursement Programme for Internally Displaced People and Citizen Damage Compensation Programme. These programmes have added public convenience, improved service delivery and ensured transparency and above all have empowered women, he added.
While quoting the example of NADRA’s role in women empowerment, Malik said that NADRA ensured women rights in transparent cash disbursement to flood victims by making women as head of family when required.
He said that NADRA has been working aggressively to increase female registration across the country particularly in far-flung and remote areas through its mobile registration vans, which provide services at their doorsteps. Moreover, he added, NADRA centres throughout the country have been reserved for women only on Fridays, whereas more than 20 women-only NADRA centres and mobile vans with female only staff have also been facilitating women in acquiring CNICs.
Source: Daily Times
Date:8/12/2011
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