A special training session for 80 police officers at the Sihala Police Training College in Islamabad was held early this year to improve the officers’ knowledge of existing gender-based violence laws. With other sessions held by the Sindh Police Department, this brings the total number of officers trained to over 200, who are now equipped to respond to abused women in a more informed and sensitive manner.

Violence against women is a serious problem across Pakistan and contributes to the low social indicators for women’s development in the country, with Pakistan ranked 141 out of 182 on the Gender-related development index compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This represents a major loss of productive labour in the economy, limits the participation of women in the development process and reduces women’s capacity to access resources and services.  Many forms of gender based violence in Pakistan are not even recognized as crimes or rights violations, and those that are subject to criminal law are often not dealt with accordingly.

Established in 2007, the Gender Justice and Protection Project (GJP) is a key initiative of UNDP funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID) and implemented by UNOPS. The $4.23 million project has established a fund to support promising initiatives to combat the prevalence of abuse against women. The GJP fund gives priority to projects which offer capacity building, advocacy and awareness-raising, research and documentation, legal aid and the up-scaling of promising practices.

GJP is currently funding over 30 sub-projects in 42 districts across Pakistan, addressing a wide spectrum of issues relating to violence against women.

Among many other schemes, legal aid centres have been created where women who have been forced to leave the family home can get assistance to fight for custody of their children or financial support from their husbands.  Help lines have been set up for victims to receive advice, local ‘Gender Justice Committees’ now help women receive the inheritance owed to them, and advocacy programs to reduce honour killings have been launched.

As the project implementing partner, UNOPS runs the Project Management Unit, employing a national project manager as well as consultants to undertake baseline studies of violence against women. The unit’s responsibilities include project monitoring and management, exploring funding opportunities with potential partners and managing a resource pool to support innovative and strategic activities that target violence against women.