Yearly Archives: 2024

19 March 2024, Peshawar Since its inception in 2020, Aawaz II’s Provincial Forum in KP meets every quarter to review actions to promote social inclusion and work collectively to prevent gender-based violence and child marriage. At its 16th meeting, the Forum’s government and civil society members reviewed progress by its sub-committees. Rights of religious minorities: the sub-committee reported multi-stakeholder consultations on rules of business to improve the implementation of the Hindu Marriage Act 2018. Members…

8 March 2024, Peshawar The Executive Committee of Aawaz II's Provincial Forum in KP formally delivered Aawaz II’s nominations for Child Protection District Committees in 14 KP districts to Mr. Ijaz Khan, Deputy Chief of the KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission. Mr. Khan assured the Provincial Forum members that these nominations will be forwarded to the relevant district administration. Moreover, it was agreed that nominations for Village and Neighbourhood Child Protection Committees will be…

5-6 March 2024, Islamabad More than 200 community partners of Aawaz II from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the Learning and Sharing Forum. They shared experiences from Aawaz II and also engaged with government officials, sector experts, and, others to highlight the importance of community engagement and behaviour change in eliminating gender-based violence, child marriage and intolerance. At the Forum, stalls were setup by provincial and district support partners from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to…

5 March 2024, Karachi Shirkat Gah-Women’s Resource Centre, Collective for Social Science Research, Omar Asghar Khan Foundation and Ms. Kausar S. Khan, Ms. Khawar Mumtaz and Dr. Yasmin Qazi constitute the Core Design Team (CDT) of the Women’s Voice & Local Ownership project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 15 CDT members reviewed progress on project implementation including meetings and MOUs (in process) with key stakeholders including PPHI, RMNCH, etc., discussions with key…

3-4 March 2024, Karachi About 25 community women, councilors, civil society activists and service providers (Lady Health Workers, Community Midwives, etc.) from District Khairpur came together to assess causes and impacts of poor uptake of family planning. They defined women’s health as a right to social, physical and mental well-being identified blocks to achieving it. Participants identified key stakeholders (enablers, opponents and fence sitters) and ways to engage them. This two-day workshop was part of…

Institutionalizing Public Engagement & Behaviour Change in KP Aawaz II Provincial Consultation Peshawar, 20 February 2024 Aawaz II forums at village, tehsil and provincial levels are demonstrating ways to help governments engage with citizens to improve outcomes of laws, policies and public budgets on preventing gender-based violence and child marriage, and, promoting social inclusion. This and similar successes from Aawaz II other initiatives led by civil society and the government were discussed at a consultation…

Hindu Marriage Act 2018: Rules of Business Aawaz II Stakeholder Meeting Peshawar, 31 January 2024 The Sub-Committee on Minority Rights of Aawaz II’s Provincial Forum in KP in collaboration with the National Commission for Human Rights-KP convened a meeting to discuss implementation of the Hindu Marriage Act 2018 in KP. Seven legal experts and representatives of Aawaz II, Faith Friends, Aurat Foundation participated in the meeting. The lack of subsidiary legislation, rules of business, was…

Gender Budget Tagging (GBT) Training Workshop for Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 4 January 2024, Peshawar On 4 January 2024, Omar Asghar Khan Foundation designed and conducted a training on Gender Budget Tagging for about 40 government officials from key departments including Finance, Planning & Development, Social Welfare & Women's Empowerment, Health, Education, Home, etc. The training was part of the technical assistance provided by the Foundation since February 2023 through the Sub-National Governance Project to…