Rural Women in Pakistan Status Report 2018

The Report serves a timely need to develop a comprehensive profile of rural women in the shifting landscape of Pakistan that includes the commitments to the SDGs, information technologies and environmental change, highlighting opportunities and obstacles to their development, and to provide evidence and recommendations for action and advocacy by relevant stakeholders (government, civil society and international donors) that can influence and enhance their economic and social wellbeing. A series of meetings with diverse stakeholders has shaped the contents and analysis of this “Rural Women in Pakistan-Status Report 2018”, while the support of the Government of Canada and UN Women Pakistan has made possible its production and publication.

Pakistan’s national and international commitments recognize and acknowledge the significant economic contributions of rural women, their concentration in the low paid, vulnerable jobs and the informal sector, their role in ensuring food security and economic survival of their families, and their unpaid care work. The Report draws on national survey data (the Labour Force Survey, the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurements survey, the Demographic Health survey and others), as well as a host of qualitative studies.