ISLAMABAD, May 28: The government followed the directives of international financial institutions (IFIs) while preparing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and did not involve the civil society organizations.

These were the views of the participants of a consultative meeting for mainstreaming gender in the PRSP organized by the Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education on Wednesday.

The representatives of the civil-society organizations criticized the government for showing lack of concern towards the marginalized sections of the society.

Asim Sajjad of People’s Rights Movements (PRM) regretted that the PRSP only talked about macro-level economic policies, and not about gender-streamlining.

“It is on record that internationally-renowned economic wizards have termed such policies as disaster, especially for a developing country,” he said.

He said the gap between the rich and the poor in Pakistan was on the rise, adding that with the introduction of the PRSP in the country, it would further worsen the conditions of the poor.

Mushtaq Gadi, another participant, accused the government of bypassing the ground rules — consultations — for preparing such an important document (PRSP).

He said the recently-held Pakistan Development Forum was organized at a time when the parliament had literally been paralyzed due to the ongoing stand-off between the government and opposition.

Even at present, tenants are being killed relentlessly in Okara military farms, and kutchi abadis being demolished throughout the country, he added.

Talking about gender-streamlining in the PRSP, Farzana Bari said the document needed to be reviewed to make it a women- friendly paper.

It may be added here that according to one of the findings of the Participatory Poverty Assessment carried out recently by the federal government that was shared with the participants, women were the poorest and the most vulnerable in the country.

“Lack of skills, limited opportunities in the job market and social and cultural restrictions limit women’s chances to compete for resources in the public,” it underlined.

At the end of the meeting, participants made recommendations on the PRSP. They recommended that the actual participation of the poor people in the process of formulating poverty reduction strategies was essential to make them responsive to the needs of the people concerned.

They said keeping in view lack of information on women it was necessary to gather and compile reliable statistics on women so that effective policies could be formulated for their welfare.

Speaking on the occasion, the advisor to the prime minister on women development, social welfare and special education, Nilofar Bakhtiar called upon the participants, especially women, to make the best use of this opportunity for providing input to the poverty alleviation policies of the government.

She said these recommendations would be included in the PRSP for mainstreaming gender in the upcoming policies focussing on poverty alleviation.

In her welcome speech, the secretary of ministry of women development, Parveen Qadir Agha, said the ministry had prepared a report on gender gaps for recommending steps to be included in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.

Mushtaq A. Khan of the Planning Commission said the PRSP was a continuous process and would be reviewed and revised every year, thus leaving ample room to incorporate perspectives and inputs from various segments of the society.