News

Eco-responsibility Training in Vermicomposting 27 January 2023, Islamabad Omar Asghar Khan Foundation attended a half-day training on vermicomposting to improve its in-house waste separation and composting practices.

2022 Floods Aawaz II Partners' Recommendations on Social Inclusion 24 January 2023, Peshawar Omar Asghar Khan Foundation met with the Secretary-Relief & Rehabilitation and the DG and senior officials of the PDMA to share recommendations made by women, PWDs, transgender persons and religious minorities to make relief, rehabilitation and resilience more responsive to their needs & interests. The recommendations were made at an Aawaz II Provincial Consultation on Social Inclusion & 2022 Floods held in…

Improved Referral Pathways Exposure Visits to 16 Government Facilities for GBV, Child Protection, Drug Rehab, etc. Abbottabad, Haripur, Mardan, Nowshera & Peshawar December 2022-January 2023 Based on a needs assessment conducted in November 2022 involving 25 women’s organizations in 5 KP districts, the Foundation facilitated exposure visits to 16 government facilities including the Women Crisis Centre, Darul Amans, Child Protection Units, etc. Meetings were also held with the Social Welfare Departments and the District Reconciliation…

Meeting with Faculty & Students 10 January 2023, COMSATS, Abbottabad Following up on discussions in November 2022 between senior faculty members of COMSATS and Omar Asghar Khan Foundation on exploring ways to collaborate on development studies, the Foundation's team met with about 30 faculty members & students of COMSATS at its campus in Abbottabad. The Foundation's strategy, work and results were discussed in detail. Opportunities for students benefiting from experiential learning through participating in the…

Expenditure Tracking Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) KP Budget FY2022-23 27-29 December 2022, Islamabad KP's Women Parliamentary Caucus successfully advocated an allocation of Rs,3.5 billion in KP's Budget FY2022-23 with support from Omar Asghar Khan Foundation and Shirkat Gah. To track expenditure, the WPC was assisted in convening a two-day meeting that brought together legislators and senior government officials. Comprehensive presentations on budget allocations and projects/schemes updates were made by senior representatives from Social Welfare & Women…

Aawaz II Provincial Consultation 6 December 2022, Peshawar #16DaysOfActivismAgainstGenderBasedViolence Aawaz II in collaboration with the KP Commission on the Status of Women convened a multi-stakeholder consultation on referral pathways used by survivors of GBV & ways in which their access to available services may be better facilitated. GBV is a core focus area of Aawaz II. "We are striving to improve prevention, protection & prosecution of GBV," said Dr. Yasmin Zaidi, Team Lead of Aawaz…

Balochistan Budget FY2022-23 Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Meeting with MPs & Chair-BCSW 1 December 2022, Quetta Members of the Balochistan Assembly and the Chair of the Balochistan Commission on the Status of Women attended a meeting in which Omar Asghar Khan Foundation's gendered analysis of Balochistan's Budget FY2022-23 was shared. This meeting was hosted by the Foundation and Shirkat Gah in continuation of its engagement with parliamentarians & government officials under Fempower Pakistan to promote GRB,…

Gendered Analysis Meeting with Secretary, Balochistan Assembly 1 December 2022 "Consistent engagement with MPs is necessary to promote GRB," suggested Mr. Taher, Shah, Secretary, Provincial Assembly of Balochistan. He was talking with a delegation of Omar Asghar Khan Foundation and Shirkat Gah who called on him to hand over 65 copies of the Foundation's gendered analysis of Balochistan's Budget FY2022-23 for distribution among the honourable MPs. Agreeing with the Secretary, Ms. Rashida Dohad assured of…

Trends in Funding for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in Pakistan Launch of Report 29 November 2022, Islamabad Omar Asghar Khan Foundation analysed federal & provincial budgets (2015-20) to track funding for women’s economic empowerment in Pakistan. The study identified 1,674 projects, with a combined expenditure of Rs.131,998.8 million. It also assessed funding for women’s financial inclusion and women’s empowerment collectives. https://www.oakdf.org.pk/.../National-Funding-for-WEE-in... About 30 key stakeholders including government officials, business persons, CSOs and the media attended…

Building Capacities in Social Accountability Foundation & AAN Training Workshop 26-28 November 2022, Islamabad More than 30 women rights' activists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan attended a 3-day training workshop on social accountability facilitated by Omar Asghar Khan Foundation for Aawaz e Niswan (AAN).

7 Pakistani CSOs working on VAWG, women's rights, healthcare, education & governance attended a five-day intensive training on budgets facilitated by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and the Foundation. The training helped participants become more familiar with budget documents, learn skills in budget analysis & advocacy, and also social audit. Case studies from Pakistan and other countries assisted learning from experiences. Participants designed advocacy strategies for using budget skills to further their organisational goals. The…

A new DWSS was demanded for Village Gali Banian which does not have sufficient supply as it is at the tail-end of four villages that is served by an existing scheme.

Abbottabad & Islamabad 29 female and 28 male community members from Ward-11 in Abbottabad and 26 WSSC workers attended a field-based training on kitchen/rooftop gardening, home-based & community composting. The training was delivered by the Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Trust. It was arranged by the Foundation under its project: Building Resilience of Urban Communities to Climate Change (2017-22), implemented in collaboration with Oxfam with ADB funding. The training included workshop sessions and a field visit…

An expanded membership & more field-based engagement were recommended to further strengthen the Provincial Forum in the next phase of Aawaz II. It was agreed that it is an important platform that brings together all key government and civil society stakeholders. These discussions were held at the 10th Aawaz II Provincial Forum (PF) meeting attended by 34 participants including PF members, PMU-British Council team and representatives of UNICEF and SNG II. The meeting also reviewed…

Omar Asghar Khan Foundation as the KP Provincial Lead of Aawaz II and the Sub-National Governance Programme jointly organized the consultation

The Foundation facilitated participation of journalists from KP in a TOT on gender-sensitive media reporting. The TOT was led by Simorgh and Digital Rights Foundation.

Stronger collaboration between Aawaz II and KP Labour Department was discussed with a focus on public information campaigns to prevent/respond to child labour/protection.

Completion Ceremony, Abbottabad, 1 June 2022 Since 2021, the Foundation has worked with WSSC and Oxfam to rehabilitate water tanks, upgrade distribution lines, install pumping machinery, construct staff rooms and provide other facilities to improve the supply of water to selected urban communities of Abbottabad. Rs.9.8 million was the cost of the rehabilitation. It is part of a pilot project: Building Resilient Urban Communities (2017-22) implemented with ADB support. The project seeks to increase the…

KP WPC presents GRB proposals to KP's Finance Minister Peshawar 30 May 2022 "Last year KP WPC's proposals led to an allocation of Rs.1 billion, reducing the gender gap in KP's budget FY2021-22. This year again they have made remarkable efforts that will lead to more funds, if not double than that allocated last year," said KP's Finance Minister, Mr. Taimur Khan Jhagra at the conclusion of a meeting hosted by the KP WPC in…

Fempower - CSO Partners Meeting 23-24 May 2022, Islamabad The Foundation brought together about 100 activists from more than 50 CSO partners from across KP in a 2-day meeting to share experiences in helping women and other vulnerable groups to claim their rights and entitlements using social accountability and networking. Strategies were also developed on moving forward, building on successes.

17-18 May 2022, Islamabad At the completion of Aawaz II’s first 2-year phase, the British Council brought together the Foundation and 19 other partners from KP & Punjab to celebrate achievements, reflect on lessons, and plan for the next 2-year phase.

29 April 2022 in Abbottabad In collaboration with the Social Welfare Department, District Abbottabad, the Foundation distributed one month's food items to about 100 poor families, giving priority to those with trans and differently-abled people. This was made possible through assistance provided by Fempower-Pakistan and local philanthropists.

Peshawar, 30 March 2022 Members of Aawaz II PF reviewed the past two-year progress & made suggestions for building on success in the next two years. They also followed up on key legislative, budget, policy & perfomance issues at the provincial level.

District Haripur, 1 March 2022 The Foundation facilitated members of the Aawaz II District Forum-Haripur & local activists using social accountability for improved public services under Fempower to attend a meeting in which DC-Haripur presented a Citizen Budget FY2021-22 with support from the Sub-National Governance Programme. Using the opportunity presented by the event, the Foundation presented details of over 600 social accountability plans developed by women and men in some of the poorest areas of…

1 March 2022, Abbottabad OXFAM and the Foundation handed over hardware material to the District Administration & the Water & Sanitation Company (WSSC) in Abbottabad as part of its demonstration project to help governments & urban communities build resilience to the impacts of climate change. This project funded by the Asian Development Bank also helped government, service providers & communities to become more familiar with climate change and ways to mitigateits impacts.

Aawaz-II Provincial Consultation 23 February 2022, Peshawar Aawaz-II's district dialogues commemorating the World Interfaith Harmony Week in early February 2022 identified critical issues faced by non-Muslim citizens in KP. At the Aawaz-II Provincial Consultation on 23 February 2022 about 100 women & men representing different religious minority communities from 9 KP districts prepared policy & budget recommendations to respond to these issues. These were presented to three legislators who represent them in the KP Assembly:…

16-17 February 2022, Islamabad P’s Women Parliamentary Caucus in collaboration with the Foundation & Shirkat Gah held a 2-day intensive meeting in which budgets for FY2021-22 were reviewed & gender-responsive proposals were drafted for FY2022-23. More than 30 parliamentarians from the ruling PTI and also from JUI-F, ANP and PML-N participated in the meeting along with senior government officials from Planning & Development, Social Welfare & Education Departments. Mr. Mahmood Jan, Deputy Speaker & Patron…

Social Accountability Actions 25 January 2022, Pabbi-District Nowshera About 30 women activists were assisted by the Foundation to present public petitions for drinking water, healthcare facilities, waste disposal and other public services to the DC Nowshera, Mir Reza Ozgen, and, the Additional DC-Finance & Planning, Ms. Quratualain Wazir, at a Khuli Kutcheri organized by the District Administration.

The Foundation discussed Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) with Sindh MPs and the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women at a two-day roundtable held in Karachi on 10-11 January 2022.

Aawaz-II Consultation ‘Local government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is significant as it will help build social capital, improve the delivery of public services, and help citizens assert their rights.” Ms. Farida Shaheed, Executive Director, Shirkat Gah & Member-Aawaz-II Provincial Forum emphasised in her key note address at the Aawaz–II consultation on Social Inclusion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s New Local Government. Better facilities for birth, marriage/divorce registration at the Village/Neighbourhood Council level will reduce gender-based violence and early-age marriage.…

Punjab Budget FY2021-22 Meeting with Punjab parliamentarians, government officials & CSOs 29 December 2021, Lahore About 35 participants including MPs, government officials, academics and CSO members attended the meeting to review details of the Punjab Budget FY2021-22, analyzed by the Foundation using Shirkat Gah’s assessment of Pakistan’s achievement and obligations with regard to CEDAW & SDG 5. Appreciating the analysis, MPA Uzma Kardar said, “It will help us in legislative oversight & examining expenditures of…

In the second half of 2021, the Foundation developed leadership and communication skills of nearly 3,000 women and 600 men from local communities in 5 KP districts. The trained leaders became more familiar with gender equality, human & constitutional rights. They also learnt communication and advocacy skills. The trained leaders will help their communities become more socially inclusive and reject all forms of discrimination. These efforts are part of Fempower-Pakistan.

Government actions on 321 public demands by local CSOs trained by the Foundation improve the delivery of public services to some of the poorest communities in 5 KP districts (Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Mardan & Nowshera). The largest number of demands (78) related to water & sanitation, followed by local government (75) and education (63).

Emphasizing the need for public backing for effective implementation of laws, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, KP’s Secretary Social Welfare & Women’s Development, said “Aawaz-II is strategically placed to provide this support through its tiered presence and interventions at the district and sub-district levels.” He was speaking at the Aawaz-II Provincial Consultation on Child Protection. More than 100 civil society activists, journalists and  academics from 11 KP districts including merged areas actively interacted with government officials,…

KP WPC & government officials discuss budget implementation

The Provincial Forum reviewed its past year’s work and achievements. This included: (a) bringing all key government and non-government stakeholders together on a platform; (b) creating understanding & visibility of Aawaz-II: its objectives, strategy & institutional structure from villages to the province; and, (c) specific interventions in Aawaz-II themes: GBV, early/forced marriage & child protection as well as cross-cutting focus on vulnerable groups. The meeting also defined key interventions to be taken including follow up…

The Foundation assisted Shirkat Gah in facilitating KP's WPC to review the legislative/planning efforts of its committees and to chart future directions. More than 20 MPs from the ruling PTI and opposition parties: JUI-F, JI and ANP attended the meeting. "The WPC has set impressive examples of working across party lines for the rights of women and the marginalized," commended Mr. Mehmood Jan, Deputy Speaker of KP's Assembly and Patron of the WPC. Dr. Sumera…

A discussion on KP’s Budget FY2021-22 was held a day before it was tabled in the provincial assembly. The consultation was organized by British Council under Aawaz-II in collaboration with the Sub-National Governance-II Programme. Speaking at the event, Dr. Sumera Shams, Chair-KP Women Parliamentary Caucus, stressed the need for gender-responsive budgets and gave details of proposals submitted by the cross-party WPC to the Minister Finance. These include requests for allocations for the District Protection Committees,…

The Foundation is helping Shirkat Gah & Simorgh build social accountability skills under Fempower Pakistan