Denmark as first donor to pledge USD 1 million support for UN Women Pakistan’s work in Peace and Security

The Government of Denmark is the first donor, providing a grant of USD 1 million to support UN Women’s current Country Programme area promoting “Peace and Security, and humanitarian actions shaped by women’s leadership and participation”.

H.E. Jesper Moller Sorensen, Ambassador of Denmark and Ms. Joana Merlin, Senior Country Advisor, UN Women at the signing ceremony held at UN Women, Islamabad
Photo credit: UN Women/ Atif Khan

This was announced by the Ambassador of Denmark, H.E. Jesper Moller Sorensen, during a signing ceremony held today at the UN Women Country Office, in Islamabad.

During the signing ceremony Ambassador Sorensen stated that “Today is an important day to us as Denmark pledges its support to a program, which has a new facet to support vulnerable women in Pakistan. Pakistan is a country, which unfortunately has suffered great losses due to crisis and disasters over past many years, where women suffer disproportionately. Through this partnership, we aim to promote security and protect the rights of women and girls in stabilization, social reconstruction and peace-building processes. The program also aims to ensure that women and girls are engaged as change agents and promote gender equality commitments in disasters and complex emergencies on both policy and institutional level”.

The Ambassador stated that promoting gender equality is a consistent feature in all Denmark’s development and humanitarian assistance programs. Denmark has been actively supporting gender equality programs in Pakistan since 2010. “Our support to work on gender equality is based on a rights-based approach that focuses on improving women’s access to rights, resources and influence”, said Ambassador Sorensen.

Ms. Joana Merlin, Senior Country Advisor, UN Women, shared that ‘Women, Peace and Security’ is a central area in crisis situations, irrespective of whether it relates to human-made or natural disaster. Recent crises affecting the country have highlighted gaps in emergency preparedness, early warning systems, and other disaster risk reduction and management capacities required for a comprehensive, swift and gender sensitive response towards stabilization and social reconstruction.

The funding from the Danish Government will give continuity to UN Women’s work to ensure that peace and security, and humanitarian actions are shaped by the leadership and participation of women, including grass root women.  These funds will be utilized to support UN Women´s program to work with the Government of Pakistan and key partners in enhancing synergies so as to facilitate regional networking and partnerships; support advocacy for in-country and cross regional programming on integrating gender concerns in peace initiatives; undertake Training for Trainers on Gender and Peacekeeping with civil armed forces, as well as strengthen capacity for gender responsive policy frameworks and action plans.

The Danish grant will support the components within the Development Results Framework of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Country Program (2014-2017) in Pakistan and covers the period till December 2015.

Media Inquiries:

Faria Salman, Strategic Management and Partnerships Officer, UN Women Pakistan, Tel: +92 346 850 2114, Email: faria.salman[at]unwomen.org