KARACHI, May 15 Experts at a seminar on Saturday stressed the need to focus on health and education, especially that of women, for social progress.

They were discussing two reports — Public expenditure on education and health a dynamic analysis through the gender lens, and Trade liberalisation and gender dynamics of employment in Pakistan. The event was organised at a local hotel by the Social Policy and Development Centre, under its Gender Research Programme, aimed at providing the government with a policy framework to deal with gender sensitive issues. The programme is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy Pakistan.

The SPDC's managing director, Khalida Ghaus, said that these two reports, the first of their kind in a series, would help the government build policy initiatives regarding women.

She said the reports would help take a closer look at the pattern of spending on key areas that impact gender greatly and would determine the impact that trade has had on the female workforce.

Mohammad Sabir, the principal economist of the SPDC, in his report 'Public spending on education and health in Pakistan a dynamic investigation through gender lens', said the persistence of gender inequality has hindered access to education, resulting in the marginalisation of women. He asserted that to rectify this trend gender sensitive budgeting must be prioritised. He also stressed the importance of reallocation of budget from other sectors to gender and the need to enter into public/private partnerships to address issues that hinder access of rural women to health and education.

Mr Sabir said the private sector was playing a major role in providing health facilities in all provinces except Balochistan.

He added that a relatively progressive pattern of expenditure in all provinces, except Sindh, was observed where “the rich enjoyed greater subsidy than the poor”. Similarly, the women of Sindh as compared to those of other provinces enjoyed a smaller share of health subsidy to men. He stressed the importance of health subsidies across all segments of society regardless of gender to address this issue.

Iffat Ara, also the SPDC's principal economist, in her report 'Trade liberalisation and gender dynamics of employment', critically examined the impact of trade liberalisation policies on female labour force participation in Pakistan.

According to the report, there has been an increase in female labour force participation from nine per cent in the 1970s to 21.7 per cent in the 2000s. Despite this change, it was observed that 78 per cent of women still remain outside the labour force and 63 per cent of the employment status of women comes under the category of unpaid family helpers.

She said women in Pakistan were largely employed in agriculture, forestry, manufacturing industry and community, social and personal services. “The report indicates a limited effect of trade liberalisation on female participation in the labour force and their presence continues to be limited to traditional sectors,” she said.

Robert Kvile, the Norwegian ambassador to Pakistan, said injustices and disparity against women had reached an endemic stage in Pakistan and reports that highlighted gender sensitive issues in this country were a must. He lauded the efforts of the SPDC in this regard.