Presently, GIZ employs around 45 international and 350 national staff and implements projects throughout Pakistan, a male and Muslim dominated country. Cultural as well as gender considerations differ considerably from Western norms with gender mainstreaming often considered to be a theoretical and donor-driven approach. Women and men in society and at home struggle with different problems and concerns when it comes to security issues. GIZ and KfW staff members regard intercultural and gender related problems as interrelated and occurring on various private and professional levels such as social interaction, emergency and other. The GIZ/KfW Risk Management Office (RMO) has taken up gender and gender equality issues and made them part of the mandatory security briefings for new comers and returning visitors to Pakistan.
The RMO, established in 2012, has 17 staff members: 13 in Islamabad (11 ♂ and 2 ♀) and one Regional Risk Management Advisor (RRMA) in each of the four Pakistani provinces, namely Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan.
Gender – A quality feature of our work
In order to contribute to the implementation of GIZ’s Gender Policy and guiding principles the RMO is actively promoting gender responsiveness and gender equality in three areas:
● Awareness and gender knowledge: Development and amend RMO documents and training materials to address and reflect on gender and cultural considerations.
● Gender competence: Provide tailor made, participatory trainings and workshops on gender and cultural considerations on demand to GIZ Pakistan staff, involving all senior male and female staff on a rotation basis. Increase the number of female professionals working for the RMO by encouraging women to take up full and equal responsibilities as a “Security Focal Point” or a “Floor Marshal”. Provide staff in need the option to talk to female or male RMO staff.
● Strategic endeavours: Continuously identifying specific threats, needs and gaps related to gender in safety and security and prioritizing future actions to address among others: travel-related risks, sexual harassment and strategies on how to handle injured male/female staff in an emergency
Gender impact
The situation is far from perfect. Continuous feedback and improvement is needed to further improve the gender responsiveness of the RMO documents and training materials, to reach out to and follow-up on the staff members. Key outcomes so far are: Numerous RMO documents reflect gender / cultural considerations Functional structures within the RMO responding to gender issues in a safety or security situation, according to questions such as: Where and why are women insecure? Where and why do women have a perception of insecurity? Openness to the issue of gender and other “soft subjects” that at first glance are not related to safety and security The number of female Security Focal Points (3 out of 25) and Floor Marshals (7 out of 33) is increasing.
Full information: 2018 EN GenderAward RollUp Pakistan
Competition entry: 2018 EN Project Documentation Internal Gender Mainstreaming And Implementation Of GIZ Gender Strategy
Download their contribution to the Gender Slam: Gender Slam Pakistan RMO Pakistan Gender Slam
Have a look at the pictures of the Gender Slam Team performing:
Contact:
Nazia Kanwal
Risk Management Office Islamabad
Nazia.kanwal@giz.de