Editorial

March was an exceptionally busy month for us here at World Population Foundation (WPF), Pakistan. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Education programme organized the 1st Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) in Madaris Forum to reflect upon the learning captured during the 15 months' pilot phase of the project. Moreover, the research on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Young People in Pakistan’ completed in December 2009 was also launched nationally during the first leg of March.

Alongside, WPF, Pakistan hosted a number of colleagues from the Headquarters including Ms. Dianda Veldman, Executive Director, Mr. Rolink Henk, Manager Overseas Programmes and Ms. Yvonne Bogaarts, Head of Advocacy at WPF-Netherlands. This provided the Pakistan team to share the progress of its various initiatives on the one hand and learn about the international perspective on SRHR related issues. It was also a good opportunity to network with stakeholders within government, parliamentarians, donors and media.

Among other things, the coming month will WPF, Pakistan gearing to scale-up efforts to promote the message of Safe Motherhood prior to Mother’s Night that will be held in the second week of May.


Scroll down and learn about the work that has been done so far and more that we plan to initiate for alleviating the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights indicators in our country! Happy reading!

Rights-driven Institutionalization of Sexual and Reproductive Health in Pakistan

SRHR Research Launched Nationally

World Population Foundation, Pakistan held the national launch forum for its European Union supported research on the ‘Status of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young People in Pakistan’ on 9th March, 2010. The launch was held here in Islamabad with key stakeholders including members of civil society and media, officials of government agencies and representatives of the youth.

The study has identified the prevalent level of SRH Rights’ awareness, status and the relevant inhibitors or enablers. The findings of the pioneering research will now be used in the second phase of this project by employing the information to embed SRH Rights in education curriculum and schooling; make Health Management System client-centered, and create an enabling policy and societal environment for the SRH needs of the young people in Pakistan. The final phase will encompass monitoring SRHR situation resulting due to institutionalization, i.e. develop a mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of changes introduced during the course of the second phase.

Programme Officer Communications and Research, while commenting on the broader conclusions of the study explained that the research manifested limited realization of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of young people all across the country. The situation was all the more perturbing in non-urban areas, she further elaborated. Moreover, the study also showed that community acceptance for most of the themes including abortion and family planning services was much more favorable compared to the attitudes of healthcare providers, particularly in the public sector. This highlighted the need to sensitize healthcare professionals to offer youth friendly services.

Mr. Mir Sachal, the keynote speaker on the occasion and a representative of the youth, while identifying some of the major needs that came out of the study emphasized the need to universalize Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) for adolescents, provide youth-centric and SRHR friendly healthcare systems and create an enabling environment at the domestic, school and community level where young people can propagate their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights without any inhabitation or fear. He also stressed upon the role of media organizations to break the silence around issues and violations of SRH Rights.

Country Representative, WPF, Mr. Qadeer Baig pointed out that the main target group of the project were young people, thus the success of this project will go a long way in effectively furthering the neglected cause of SRH rights of our youth.

Mr. Arshad Rasheed, Advisor to European Commission commended the role of WPF in providing empirical evidence through this research and hoped that it would go on to benefit initiatives all across the globe for the benefit of youth.

Ms. Dianda Veldman, Managing Director of WPF-the Netherlands, was also present on the occasion. She assured of her organization’s continued committeement to the cause of up lifting the sexual and reproductive health rights of young people.

Guest of Honour, the ambassador of Netherlands, his Excellency, Mr. Joost Reintjes while talking on the occasion felt that this research had filled a huge void between advocacy and empirical evidence to support efforts in the field of SRHR in Pakistan.

Capacity building of WPF and Partners working in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Pakistan

After successful completion of the Organizational Capacity Assesment (OCA) exercise, priorities of the partners have been identified in capacity development. Some of the major priority areas include:

• Involvement in strategic planning process; creating better support base for interventions
• Risk assessment
• expertise of Board in SRHR
• Project Management in general
• Job descriptions, supervision and coaching (HR in general for some)
• SRHR, mainly Sexual Rights
• Fundraising /diversification of funding
• Proposal writing (and)
• Networking at international level

Consultative Workshop on Drafting Recommendations for Population Policy 2010 Organized

A one day Consultative Workshop with civil society representatives was held on 4 March, 2010 to collaboratively prepare draft recommendations for Population Policy 2010 in Islamabad. This consultative workshop was held in partnership with Ministry of Population Welfare and National Trust for Population Welfare (NATPOW). Federal Minister for Population Welfare, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan was the Chief Guest on the occasion.

The final recommendations presented at the end of the workshop focused on demand generation, advocacy and community mobilization; strengthening public and private partnership as well as the need for more vibrant mechanisms on reproductive health and family planning service delivery.

Parallel Education Systems

1st Life Skills Based Education Forum Held

After the successful completion of the pilot phase of its Life Skills Based Education in Madaris initiative, WPF held the 1st Annual LSBE –Learning Forum on March 2nd, 2010 in Islamabad. The Forum which followed the theme of “Life Skills Based Education in Madaris – Bridging the Gap” was aimed at capturing the learning of the pilot phase and also devising strategies for furtherance of LSBE in religious educational institutions in other parts of the country.

Religious scholars from across Pakistan took part in the learning forum and reinforced the needs of providing Life skills based education to young people in Madaris to bridge the gap that exists between various education systems in Pakistan. The way forward recommended by many of the participants was to replicate the programme in various Madaris in various districts all across Pakistan as well as to include it in the curriculum of various systems including Wafaq-ul Madaris and Rabt-ul-Madaris.

Dr. Atta-ur Rehman, Mohtamim Madrassa tul Rashad from Quetta, strongly endorsed Life Skills Based Education and emphasized the need to up scale the project in Madaris in other parts of the country.

Programme manager, WPF, Pakistan, Ms. Cyma Ashraf while sharing the experience from 15 months explained that opposite to the assumptions of many, the heads of Madaris in Quetta and Peshawar had embraced the idea of Life Skills education in Pakistan with open arms and had offered all possible support for its smooth implementation.

Concluding the Forum, Mr. Qadeer Baig, Country Representative WPF, expressed the resolve to up scale the initiative to other provinces of the Pakistan and hoped that Madaris youth will receive equal opportunities to learn about behaviours, attitudes and skills that will benefit them all through their lives.

SRHRE Team meets EKN at WPF office

A meeting was held at WPF office on March 19 between the officials of WPF’s SRHRE department and Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands (EKN). Mr. Fritz Meijndert First Secretary Education and Mr. Saadat Ali Senior Programme Officer Education and Governance, of EKN participated in the meeting, while Country Representative WPF and SRHR team were also present to debrief on the one year project “ LSBE for Youth Madaris”. The objective of the meeting was to comprehensively overview the learning of the project and shed light on the obstacles and the lessons from the pilot phase in up scaling of the project. The meeting also looked at the future funding for up scaling life skills education in new Madaris in parts of Punjab and Sindh provinces. Albeit the election season in the Kingdom of Netherlands has brought the EKN’s funding decision in abeyance till the establishment of next political government however, the EKN team showed willingness for extending support for Madaris’ youth.

Empowering Girls – Transforming Communities

One day Workshop on Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning, 11th March 2010

A workshop on Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) was held with Implementing Partners, i.e. Sindh Agricultural Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization (SAFWCO) and Bargad. The workshop was aimed at developing a better understanding of the concepts and processes for applying/utilizing MEL by the partners of the Packard Pakistan; undertaking a stepwise participatory process for developing monitoring frameworks by the individual partners and following a process of developing/strengthening of monitoring plans and systems ensuring logical linkages with monitoring framework of the Packard Pakistan.

Provincial policy Dialogues Held to Innovate Ways To Lobby for SRHR in Pakistan

For the month of March, Provincial Policy dialogues remained the primary focus of We Act team. With the title of “LSBE Moving from Policy to Implementation - Way Forward” these policy advocacy forums were organized in Peshawar, Quetta , Karachi and Lahore with WPF’s four local partners in each. The agenda was to bring influential personnel and government officials on board so to fortify the idea of universal LSBE education all through Pakistan by policy implementation.


Policy implementation needs political will. Health, Education, Youth Affairs and Population welfare ministries were enthusiastic in implementation and were of the view that the provision of LSBE is crucial for the constructive development of young people. Each Ministry shared its agenda points and plans of how it supported other ministries in this realm. WPF showed its commitment in providing technical support to the relevant ministries. It was concluded during the course of these sessions that LSBE implementation required public and private partnership and the efforts needed to be geared at the federal, bureaucratic as well as at the level of parliamentarians. However, it was also concluded that at the provincial level non government organizations can facilitate the provinces by identifying means to speed up the process of policy implementation. WPF anticipated that all government and non government organizations will help in building a strong case to present to the parliament for reinforcement and projection of LSBE curriculum implementation at national level.

Commercial sex work has been classified as a major source of spreading HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. Female sex workers (FSW) that form one group of people exhibiting high risk behaviors for the spread of HIV/AIDS are the most deprived women in our society. Their sexual and reproductive health rights are with held merely due to the stigma attached with their involvement in the sex market. Many female sex workers are not empowered enough to make sexual and reproductive choices according to their own freewill while others face violence and discrimination.

In Pakistan little is known about the cultural and socioeconomic background of female sex workers hence it remains ambiguous as to “why these women sell sex commercially?” The National Study of Reproductive Tract Infection (NACP 2004) has revealed that majority of the FSWs had a mean age of 33 years and were selling sex for last 6 years. Among them 13.1% reported migration or trafficking into the sex business while 16% reported that they had been living in the same house or brothel since their birth. However, limited conclusions can be drawn from these responses as almost 70% female sex workers did not answer the question about their background. This raises the questions about the familial descent, geographic affiliation and socioeconomic status of Pakistani women who are in the sex trade.

Little can be said about whether these women are victims or stay in the sex trade by their own freewill, without examining their detailed stories/accounts. The scribe happened to interview a female sex worker once and below is the account of her story.

The woman that was interviewed was a 40 year old, poorly groomed female selling sex for the last 15 years. She had been married twice and had one daughter from her second marriage. Her family lived in a suburb outside Lahore and was the youngest of 3 siblings. Her father died when she was 7 years old and both her elder brothers were married.

At the age of 12 her mother decided to marry her off outside the family. The interviewee, who will be referred to as Salma for the purpose of concealing her identity, did not wish to marry outside family as she was interested in her cousin. Nonetheless, she was married against her will and her marriage ended in a divorce after 6 months. Divorce was a relief for her as she happily returned to her parents’ house. But her mother blamed Salma for her divorce and punished her with verbal and physical abuse. Consequently, Salma ran away from her house with her cousin and moved to Karachi with all of her jewelry.

In the beginning of this new life, Salma sold her jewelry for living expenses but soon her cousin/beloved sold her at a “kothi khana” (brothel) where she was forced to sell sex to pay off the debt, which his cousin took from the owner of the brothel. Initially Salma was hesitant to get involved in the sex business but with peer pressure, she adapted herself to the environment.

During her sex work in Karachi, Salma met a man from Baloch community who married her and took her to his house. Salma lived with her in laws and had a daughter from her marriage but continued to sell sex as she explained, “I started enjoying that work and had to pay my debt off”. However, her husband didn’t know about her sex work and when he found out about it he ended his relationship with her. She took her daughter and migrated to Lahore.

In her 15 years of professional life most of the time she has worked with some pimp or madam. The major advantage was protection from police who charged monthly tax in return of that protection, while disadvantage was share of pimp/madam into her income. She shared her observation that every month police usually charged 30-40 thousands / house. If they have raid or arrested someone, they got additional money for that. Otherwise legal procedures were so complicated that we could not afford to have any kind of dispute.

Her awareness about condom was raised over a time period, owing to different projects in her community. “I do not compromise on using condom” she said.

Once she tried to leave sex work and do some domestic labor. At those places usually male owners used to harass her. Since they knew she lived in “Shahi Muhalla”, they tried to sexually exploit her, forcing her to revert back to sex work. Though Salma had been in the sex trade for 15 years, her daughter didn’t know about her profession and Salma didn’t want her to indulge in the sex business. She wanted her daughter to study, work and get married in a respectable family. Her objective in life was to give education to her 11 year old daughter who was studying in a school.

New UN Women’s Agency Now Much Closer

By also requiring the Secretary-General to submit to it a comprehensive proposal on the mission, structure and funding of the entity, the General Assembly set in motion a critical process. In January 2010 the Secretary-General gave his comprehensive proposal in which he suggested:

• The mission of the composite entity will be to work towards the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women and the achievement of equality between men and women. Its role would be to lead and coordinate UN system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action, and to provide strong and coherent leadership to states – in partnership with civil society.


• Like UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA, the composite entity be a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and report to it through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).


• The composite entity will have three levels of operation: country, regional and headquarters level.


• An Executive Board will oversee the operations of the composite entity. The Secretary General set out two options:
1. An autonomous section be carved out of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board;
2. A completely new Executive Board be set up.

• The normative support work of the composite entity will be funded by the UN’s regular budget, while its operational and programming work will be funded by voluntary contributions.

For more information please logon to: www.wpfpak.org

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