Addressing the participants of the "Training on women-led enterprises" he said that we cannot make progress by keeping half of our population aloof from the developmental process.
It is therefore imperatively necessary that women be imparted knowledge of their rights, be enable to express themselves logically in a convincing way, impart them training on locally marketable skills and provide them with necessary linkages for employability options and/or setting up and running of women-led enterprises, he added.
Speaking on the occasion Hina Noureen, vice President Baidarie, apprised the participants that Baidarie Sialkot for the last twenty five years has been continuously working for increasing economic, social and political inclusion of women, girls and other vulnerable social segments into the mainstream developmental process through knowledge building, social mobilisation, capacity development, skill enhancement and protecting women & girls from gender based discriminations & violence in the indoor and outdoor spheres of life.
It has also been making efforts for enabling the most vulnerable ones for making collective organised struggle for securing, protecting and promoting their basic human rights and raising their voices to be considered during policy/decision making processes at all levels.
The training has been provided in implementation of the UN WOMEN funded project "Women's Entrepreneurship and Gender-Responsive Procurement".
Giving details of the initiative, Prof Arshid Mehmood Mirza executive director said that the interventions of the project have been designed to strengthen women workers by providing appropriate knowledge and skills, as well as organising them for identifying and tapping into economic growth opportunities.
In more specific terms, the project focuses on equipping enterprising women workers with: training on locally marketable and demand-driven skills relevant to the needs of the industrial sector and enabling targeted women to setup women-led micro and small sized businesses and run them on profitable basis. Building women workers' capacity to protect themselves against harassment and exploitation and educating them on civic, economic and workers' rights are the added key endeavours.
Building linkages with relevant stakeholders and providing technical, financial and marketing support for the enterprising women workers is another strategic pursuit. All of these interventions are believed to not only positively influence targeted fifty women's capacity to challenge gender biased stereotypes and to take self-motivated decisions in social and economic spheres of their lives but also contribute to the development of a presentable, replicable and up-scalable model of "Women-led enterprise development".
Addressing the participants Shahnaz Rahat Kapadia CEO "Mera Man" said that a batch of selected fifty two women has been on development and successfully running women-led enterprises. They have been trained for conducting market feasibility, product development, financial management of the micro-enterprises, Budgeting & costing , purchasing of the raw material and accessories, production planning, cost-effective productivity maximisation, increasing profitability, linkages development and effective approaches and tools for sustainable marketing. Baidarie will support these women in development of linkages for setting up of enterprises and running them profitably.