Women councillors asked for follow-up training
By Hina Kiyani

ISLAMABAD—Thousands of women councillors who have completed capacity-building training under the auspices of the Ministry of Women Development have urged the ministry to plan follow-up workshops as a refresher course.
Some 14,652 councillor have already completed extensive training while another 13,348 are to undergo training after Ramazan.
The 4.5 million-dollar project titled "Women's Political School" has been funded by Norway and is being implemented by the Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with UN Development Program.
Manager of the training project, Rehana Hashmi, said the training would enable the councillors, drawn from all the four provinces, to discharge their functions and responsibilities more effectively.
The proposal for follow-up workshops has been made to the ministry by most of the councillor as they think this would serve as a refresher course, she said.
Secretary, Ministry of Women Development, Mehmood Salim Mehmood told APP Sunday the feedback from the project clearly suggests the need for holding follow-up workshops for the councillors.
He also said that the ongoing training program would be completed in March, 2007. "Women councillor have to play a vital role at the grass roots level and the training will equip them to fulfil the mission," he said.
The Secretary said in Punjab 12,755 women councillor had been trained so far while in NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh 877, 581 and 439 women representatives respectively had received the training.
Sabrina Javed, one of the project trainers, said follow-up workshops would serve a "very useful purpose."
She said follow-up workshops were required to ensure 100 percent achievement of the desired goals. The trainer pointed that the project syllabus covers a long list of subjects.
The syllabus included introduction of local government system, study of decentralization and its link with development, gender sensitization, advocacy and its methods, formation of monitoring committees and their role, budget preparation and approval, role and duties of political and administrative officials and their hierarchy in the local government system.
"Most councillor are in favour of holding follow-up workshops as they feel this will provide them with much-needed opportunity to refurbish what they have learnt during the current project," she said.
Councillor Naseem Akhtar said, "Though I learnt a lot during the four-day training but I sincerely feel follow up steps are essential in the larger interest of all women councillor and their performance."
Another councillor Naseem Akthar said the training was highly rewarding but this process must be sustained.
A tehsil councillor, Syeda Tasneem Fatima, said the training gave her "courage and confidence" and she would contest for district council at the next local government polls.
"As a result of the training I am now in a better position to come up to the expectations of the people of my constituency," the councillor from Gujar Khan said.
Imtiaz Begum from Tehsil Potohar said, "I learnt how budget is prepared, how we can include our developmental projects in it and other techniques of our job."
Trainer Noshaba Mir also pleaded for follow-up workshops, citing similar reasons.
A mid-term evaluation report of the UN Development Program lauded the results of the training as a significant contribution to the human development efforts.
In view of the satisfactory feedback from the councillors, the WPS has also worked out a supplementary syllabus in collaboration with International Labour Organization (ILO), for labour councillors to effectively play role being public representatives at grass roots level.