KARACHI: The Women Development Department in collaboration with HomeNet Pakistan and Aurat Foundation organised a consultation meeting on formation of a Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Network in Sindh, supported by UN Women, on Thursday. The main objectives of the WEE Network will be to create a platform within the Women Development Department for dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment; to improve coordination amongst donors, private sector, women’s organisations, NGOs/INGOs and government departments on issues and programmes related to economic empowerment; creating a referral system to support women startups and women entrepreneurs for promoting and strengthening economic empowerment through linking them with skills/business development, service delivery channels, market linkages, strengthening capacities & knowledge sharing, safe working environment, as well as creating linkages for resolving issues with Ombudsman offices and labour courts etc. Moreover, facilitating the implementation of Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) especially SDG 5 gender equality and; SDG goal 8 decent work and economic growth; and promoting evidence-based research on WEE. Ume Laila Azhar of HomeNet Pakistan shared an extensive research on economic empowerment of women focusing on Pakistan’s status among countries and women’s participation ratio and share. Even when not explicitly focused on women’s empowerment, the social enterprise sector is providing greater opportunities in employment than the wider economy. Women workforce in Pakistan is 22%; whereas women’s share in the social enterprise workforce is 37%; women percentage of leaders in for-profit sector is only 5% and the percentage in social enterprise sector is 20%. “The graph of women growth is not heading towards a steady growth pattern because there is a disconnect between policy and practice,” Ume Laila said. WDD Secretary Haroon Ahmed Khan explained the structure and concept of WEE and said that WDD recognised its due role in composition of the body and would try its best to play an effective role for overall women economic empowerment. He said that he expected cooperation of all stakeholders in making the network a strong and strengthened body to further enhance the agenda of women empowerment in Sindh. Tahira Raza, the president of First Women Bank, highlighted the importance of financial institutes and was of the view that keeping in view of importance of digital marketing and ecommerce, there was a need to develop a website to cater the needs and to display the valuable work of women entrepreneurs/home-based workers. Nuzhat Shirin of SCSW, Musarrat Jabeen of WDD, Renuka Swami of UNFPA, Taniya Hafeez of SMEDA, Shaheen Mangi of Labour Dept, Mayor of Hyderabad city, Naheed Syed of HomeNet, Mahnaz Rahman of AF, gave their constructive input for formation, structure and strengthening for WEE Network in Sindh. All the stakeholders appreciated the concept of WEE Network and stated that this network was a need of the hour to provide a platform and to make coordinated efforts for women empowerment in Sindh in all sectors. It was agreed among the participants that the launch of the network would be undertaken in the second week of May, as Labour Day fell on May 1st. The Network would comprise a body under the chairpersonship of the WDD secretary. The members of the WEE network will be from organisations working on women’s economic empowerment, women owned businesses/ women entrepreneurs, private companies, banks, financial institutions, academia, scholars, and UN Agencies and donor agencies. Published in Daily Times, April 27th 2018.