Women’s rights around the world is an important indicator to understand global well-being.Yet, despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still exist in all areas of life, ranging from the cultural, political to the economic. For example, women often work more than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often are the ones that suffer the most poverty.

Many may think that women’s rights are only an issue in countries where religion is law, such as many Muslim countries. Or even worse, some may think this is no longer an issue at all. Gender equality furthers the cause of child survival and development for all of society, so the importance of women’s rights and gender equality should not be underestimated.

SOUTH ASIA PARTNERSHIP PAKISTAN (SAP-PK)

As member of South Asian civil society movement, is striving to empower marginalized sections of society and working to influence policies in favor of people.

SAP-PK derives its name from a regional network, i.e., South Asia Partnership. This is a volunteer network of participatory development-support organizations operating under the same name and for the same purposes in Canada and four South Asian countries, i.e., Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It has some presence in India as well, through a collective form of three different organizations. All these organizations and Sri Lanka Center for Development Facilitation collectively form SAP-International.

Vision:
South Asia Partnership - Pakistan’s vision is to create an engendered, critical society in South Asia based on the universal principles of human dignity, justice, democracy and peaceful coexistence.

Mission:
The mission of South Asia Partnership - Pakistan is to create enabling environment for participatory governance and sustainable collective action for peace, human security and regional cooperation at South Asian level, through organization of the marginalized sections of society and development of their capacities.

Goals:

Create enabling environment for democratic governance and effective citizens’ participation through informed and effective voice of the poor, especially workers and peasants.

Facilitate pro-people civil society initiatives at national, regional and global levels promoting collective actions for peace, justice, human security and livelihood.

Increase sensitivity and harmony among people; actions against structural violence in our society through peaceful means and movements.

Contribute to pro-people collaborations between and among international organizations on important international concerns.