UNDP to seek Smeda’s partnership for gender promotion project

Lahore: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has agreed to engage Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) as an implementing partner to undertake its gender promotion project in Pakistan.

A three-member delegation met with SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Shahid Rashid and discussed scope of the Smeda's partnership in the project and agreed that the authority had an adequate capacity to work out industrial sectors identified by UNDP for the project.

The delegation included Assistant Resident Representative, Poverty Reduction and Gender Unit Chief Faiza Effendi, Programme Analyst, Poverty Reduction and Gender Unit Cyra Syed and National Project Manager in Faisalabad Sajeel Butt.

The officials told SMEDA chief that earlier the project was being carried out in collaboration with Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in the Sindh region and Faisalabad Institute of Textile and Fashion Design in the Punjab region.

The UNDP has established a project management unit in each region and hired a consultant company KSA Techopak for all training-related activities. Skills development for females is being carried out in selected garment factories, the officials said. About 1300 female operators and 190 master trainers have, so far, been trained and employed in 20 garment factories countrywide under GenProm project, they added.

Shahid Rashid appreciated the UNDP GenProm project for focusing its attention on filling the skills gaps and generating employment opportunities for female workers in garment industry. He also apprised the UNDP officials about the work done by SMEDA in textile and garment sectors.