MoWD to lunch training programme for nazims, naib nazims next month
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—Ministry of Women Development would start training programme for as many as 12,000 male nazims and naib nazims of union councils across the country from next month, an official in the ministry told APP on Friday.
The ambitious programme is being kicked off as part of UNDP’s project“Women’s Political School” which is already underway at a total cost of 4.5 million dollars for grooming of 24,000 women councillors across the country.
The source said that thousands of female representatives being groomed under the WPS were demanding the ministry to train male nazims and naib nazims to effectively discharge their duties for the benefit of masses.
The donor agencies, the official said, were also asking the ministry to look into the councillors’ proposals and bring male nazims and naib nazims within the fold of its WPS training programme to achieve concrete results in the wake of local government system for the welfare of entire society.
The official further said the network’s officials also called for reviewing the district support network mechanism to further strengthencoordination among the local representatives of the people in the local government system to bring positive change at lower level.
The official said that Inter Agency Network for Gender and Development(INGAD), a donors’ group, held a meeting with the ministry’s WPSofficials in which the network was given a presentation by National Project Manager Rehana Hashmi on pace of progress of Ministry’s WPS project, who appreciated for its positive feedback from the female public leaders.
When asked whether the same WPS’s syllabus would be used for training ofmale representatives, she said in addition to the existing training materials, some new concepts with main focus on gender sensitivity would be incorporated into the course.
She said that these representatives would be trained through 2-dayworkshops all across the country while for the master trainers, she added, the ministry would hold 5-day long workshops.
To another question, she said that the ministry would utilize the services of the same trainers who were already imparting training to women councillors.