Young Women Feminist Leadership Development Program (YWFLDP), Pakistan

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

There is an urgent need to address the existing gaps in critical knowledge, awareness, and capacity building of local women leaders in Pakistan, especially from its conflict-ridden areas, for women to participate in political life fully, be included in leadership, decision-making roles, peace-making processes, and articulate equal rights and entitlements for women.

The project addresses the dire need to build civil society coalitions while simultaneously catering to the national need to construct a common agenda that promotes women’s empowerment and collective feminist peace and security.
Project activities directly contribute to the SDG goals, specifically to the mandate of UN Security Council resolution 1325.

The project outlined above aligns closely with honoring and amplifying the voices of marginalized women in Pakistan, particularly those from conflict-ridden areas. It aims to address critical gaps in knowledge,
awareness, and capacity building among local women leaders, empowering them to participate fully in political life, take up leadership roles, engage in decision-making processes, and advocate for equal rights and entitlements.
By building civil society coalitions and fostering a common agenda for women's empowerment and Yong Women's Feminist peace and security, the project directly contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Through the Young Women Feminist Leadership Course, 120 young emerging women leaders from different provinces in Pakistan will be trained, enabling them to understand their rights, strengthen their agency, and form networks to exercise influence within their communities.

The projects emphasis on provincial dynamics, regional analysis, cross-border strategizing, and the exchange of lessons learned underscores the relevance of gender and citizenship while countering the misappropriation of gender issues. By empowering grassroots young women feminists and promoting their effective participation, the project seeks to foster social vitality, political stability, economic growth, and enduring peace.

This project aims to provide a platform for connecting women peace advocates, enabling collective work across national borders in an open and respectful learning environment. It fosters collaboration on research, joint advocacy, and representation, while also implementing well-designed initiatives. By ensuring that grassroots women's concerns and voices directly shape political discourse, policy
development, and program implementation, the project aligns with a commitment to address the interlinked issues of peace and security, justice and governance, and growing militarization in South Asia.

The projects outcomes will generate a loop and a snowballing effect at all levels of socio-political engagements.

Local: Trained women leaders will conduct training in their constituencies: to build grassroots women's capacities in raising awareness on citizenship rights, governance, and conflict and peace issues, and training on strategizing, alliance-building, and advocacy.

Provincial: Partake in decision-making to form alliances; as leaders advocate for a gender-sensitive policy framework regarding issues of peace, justice, and women's security; gendered citizenship; emphasizing a political will and allocation of resources to include women at higher levels of decision-making, including themselves - such as legislatures, courts, executive boards, community councils—laws, rulings, and more inclusive decisions.

National/Regional: Become agents of change in building regional ties and support a regional analysis of the barriers to women’s participation and joint regional collaborative strategies and solutions based on the region’s commonalities and regional socio-political dynamics.

Project Vision: Empowering a United Sisterhood: Shaping the Future of Women's Leadership.

Project Mission: Our project seeks to bridge the knowledge and capacity gaps faced by local women leaders in Pakistan, especially those hailing from conflict-affected regions. We are dedicated to enabling full participation in political life, fostering inclusive leadership, and promoting active involvement in decision-making, peace-building, and advocacy for women's equal rights and entitlements.

Project timeframe: One Year/12 Months (January 2024-December 2024)

Project Objectives:

1. Empowerment Through Training: To provide 120 young emerging women leaders from various provinces in Pakistan with comprehensive training through the Young Women Feminist Leadership Course. This training will equip them with the knowledge of their rights, enhance their agency, and foster networks to influence their communities positively.


2. Civil Society Coalition Building: To create civil society coalitions that address the critical need for women's empowerment, advocating for feminist peace and security. Our project activities are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the mandate of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

3. Promoting Regional Solidarity: To emphasize provincial dynamics, undertake regional analyses, and engage in cross-border strategizing. We will exchange best practices and promote the importance of gender and citizenship. By empowering grassroots young women feminists, we aim to enhance societal vitality, political stability, economic growth, and lasting peace.

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4. Empowering Advocates for Change: To foster social and political change at all levels, from the local to the national and regional. Our project aims to: 

Local Level: Train women leaders to conduct educational sessions in their constituencies. These sessions will focus on raising awareness of citizenship rights, governance, and issues related to conflict and peace. We will also provide strategic thinking, alliance building, and advocacy training.

Provincial Level: Encourage women leaders to participate in decision-making processes and form alliances. These leaders will advocate for gender-sensitive policy frameworks related to peace, justice, and women's security, emphasizing political will and resource allocation to enhance women's representation at higher decision-making levels.

National/Regional Level: Empower these women to be catalysts for change, facilitating the establishment of regional connections and supporting the analysis of barriers to women's participation. Together, they will develop collaborative regional strategies based on commonalities and regional socio-political dynamics.

Project Geographical Areas: The proposed project will be implemented in five provinces of Pakistan i.e. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh, and Gilgit Baltistan. 75 young emerging women leaders (05 from each of the 5 provinces) will be trained in the Feminist Leadership Course.

Through this project, a growing number of grassroots young women feminists will be informed of their rights, empowered in their agency, and encouraged to form networks to organize/ exercise their influence, such that their communities will move from token representation of women to effective participation of women, leading to greater social vitality, political stability, economic growth, and enduring peace.

A provincial emphasis will focus on national dynamics simultaneous to accentuating comparative regional analysis, cross-border strategizing, contextual similarities and differences, exchange of lessons learned, underscoring the relevance of gender and citizenship, and counter misappropriation of gender issues.

 

​​​The Founders and Leadership Team behind the Initiative

 

Rukhshanda Naz

 

Rukhshanda Naz is an activist in the Pakistani women’s movement since the early 1990s. A lawyer by profession, worked with several NGOs on issues of violence against women and children including women’s empowerment programs. Her work for peace started with issues of Afghan Refugees and peace movements for India and Pakistan. In her volunteer capacity, she is a member of the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy and UN Women (Civil Society Advisory Member), and Women Regional Network. She obtained LLM (Int. Law) and Master in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from the Coventry University. As a professional, she served one of the country’s leading civil society organizations for women’s rights, Aurat Foundation, and run the Global Human Rights Field office (Afghanistan/Pakistan) as head of the Field Office from Nov 2000-Mar 2001. Her last formal job was as head of UN Women Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/Federally Administered Tribal Areas division. In 2019, she was appointed as the first women ombudsperson-KP for the Protection of Women against Harassment at Workplace for Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Several awards from the government and non-government organisations have acknowledged her work. 

Shad Begum:

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Deeply influenced by the social inequalities around her and inspired by her father’s social work in her early age, Shad Begum would become a known figure nationally and internationally because of her determined struggle to improve the conditions of the marginalised segments, especially women, of her community in the northwest of Pakistan. Shad Begum is the founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Association forBehaviour & Knowledge Transformation (ABKT), an organisation working toward the economic and political empowerment of communities in underserved areas of Pakistan. Her organisation was uprooted during the Taliban extremism in Swat- Malakand region and due to massive displacement of people in 2009- 2010. Her resilience kept ABKT alive during enormous odds. Ms. Begum previously worked with the U.N. Human Settlements Program as a consultant for the “Building Gender Ladder Project,” as well as with UNDP’s Women Political Participation Program. To encourage women at the grassroots level, Shad contested local elections in 2001 and 2005 as an independent candidate and served as councilor for 8 years in Dir Lower. Shad Begum is Ashoka fellow, Acumen Fellow and Regan-Fascell Democrcy Fellow at NED, USA. Shad is the recipient of numerous awards, including the U.S. Department of State’s “International Woman of Courage Award” (2012) and the “Prize for Creativity in Rural Life,” awarded by the Women’s World Summit Foundation (2008). Shad is a TED speaker and has given her first official TED talk in Palm Spring, California on 29 November 2018. In 2019, Shad has founded Women’s Voices Pakistan, an initiative to feature, connect and amplify the efforts of Women and Girls for an equal andjust world. Shad is the former Country Coordinator of Women's Regional Network (WRN), Pakistan. Currtny Shad is leading this inniatve as a Coordinator.

Fazrana Ali:

 

Farzana Ali is working as journalist in Khyber Pakhunkhwa from last more than 26 year. She is Bureau chief in Aaj News Peshawar from 12 year and the first women bureau chief in KP and second in Pakistan ,so its honor for her to be at this post in Pukhtoon society .Most of her work is on human right issue and terrorism, and Pak Afghan issues specifically women based stories .she has some work in documentary and written shape also .During war on terror she did live show "Hot Frontier” from Peshawar .That was first live show on mainstream media from Peshawar done by women journalist. During war and conflict time her focused was on women IDPs issue affected by terrorism. She did fellowship on Militarization and GBV issue and produced documentaries on these issues. From last 10 years she also associated with some organization as trainer and Mentor.

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Neeelam Hussain:

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Neelam Hussain read English Literature at the universities of Punjab, Leeds and Sussex and taught English at Kinnaird College Lahore for over 22 years. She left Kinnaird in 1995 for Simorgh Women's Resource and Publication Centre, Lahore as Executive Coordinator, editor, writer and translator. She has written children's rights based stories as well as conceptualised and produced tri-lingual primaryschool readers to promote mother tongue learning and language acquisition skills for children as well as the "Kaleidoscope" HumanRights School Readers with Rubina Saigol and Anjana Raza and is senior editor of Simorgh's bi- annual socio-legal journal "Bayan". Ascountry coordinator for the Zubaan series on sexual violence and impunity in South Asia she edited "Disputed Legacies - The PakistanPapers" and co-edited "Engendering the Nation State" and "Politics of Language" and compiled and annotated a book of Punjabifolktales: "The Romance of Raja Rasalu and Other Tales as well as translated Zaheda Hina's "Na Janoon Raha Na Pari Rahi ("All Passion Spent" and Khadija Mastoor's "Angan" ("Inner Courtyard"). As a member of Women's Action Forum she is actively engaged in issues pertaining women's rights, education, peace and Conflict locally and regionally. She is a member of Women’s Regional Network– Pakistan.

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Huma Qurban Fouladi:

 

Huma Qurban Fouladi has been a women's rights defender and social worker since 2006 in Quetta, Balochistan. While working, sherealised that women are major victims of corruption/discrimination cases in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Hence, for them, sheregistered an organisation with the name Rights Research & Development Foundation (RRDF), and under the umbrella of RRDF she worked on Home based workers with the name of the Hunaristan program. Currently, she is focused and working on Legal awareness and free Legal Aid Service and has also initiated a women's drug rehabilitation centre named Komak Program (temporaryfrozen). Besides she is also working as an independent researcher and is researching different tribal and social issues women arefacing in the Balochistan province. She is a Master's in Business Administration from Pakistan and has availed of many short courseprograms internationally. She is a freelancer social activist working for humans and specifically on women's rights. In 2017, she was awarded by Women have wings courage award in California.

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Empower Youth: Join Our Mission for Safe Spaces!

 

We're reaching out to individuals and organizations, inviting them to join our fundraising endeavor. Our goal is to establish safe, inclusive, and accessible spaces for young leaders through this project. Would you be interested in joining us to support our fundraising efforts this year?

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For further information, please don't hesitate to contact us!

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