Download this section in PDF

 

Many crucial ARSH issues in Pakistan are closely linked to the social status of women and girls.  As already stated earlier to a large degree, a young person’s life in Pakistan is influenced by their sex.  Therefore it has to be central to ARSH programming and planning to include effective and long-lasting girls and women empowerment strategies.  The Institute of Development Studies and Practices (IDSP), which is based in Balochistan, the poorest and most under-developed province of Pakistan, analyzed the following facts as hindering women’s and girls’ development in that province ¹⁵⁵ :

• The participation of women in development remains project-oriented and activity-based, with almost no priority for human resource development.
• The Province is unable to create a critical mass of women as professionals in the development of the community as a whole. Women are hired to implement social sector programmes intended to benefit women.  These women field workers lack conceptual and practical knowledge of development.  Thus they are unable to contextualize their work for women.  They also miss the opportunity for their growth and empowerment, as women and as professionals.
• There is a serious lack of female role models in development in Balochistan. Therefore there are almost no opportunities for women to be experiential learners and play leadership roles. 
• The funds and resources allocated for women’s development get diverted to more general development work, with men placed in almost all the decision-making positions, while women will be at the lowest, harder working and less rewarding positions.
• The academic institutions are not creating the mass-level awareness for women’s role in development.  Very few effective research institutions accept women as serious professionals. 

Although above analysis focuses on obstacles to the development of women in the province of Balochistan, the issues also apply to general ARSH programmes in Pakistan that aim at improving the (health) status of adolescent girls and boys. Future ARSH planning and programming should take these issues into account and include comprehensive empowerment and advocacy components.   
 

Guidelines for Advocacy Programmes

ARSH advocacy programming in Pakistan is in its early stages.  The crucial role of advocacy in the area of ARSH in Pakistan is fully recognized, however, further programme monitoring is needed to provide data for in-depth evaluations and resulting lessons learned.  This should allow for the identification of successful advocacy strategies and techniques and the extent to which advocacy affects programme indicators. 

 

An evaluation of the Government of Pakistan – UNICEF Advocacy and Social Mobilization Strategy in 2002 recommends that programme implementers should document non-programmatic and high-level programme advocacy more systematically in order to track progress and capture important lessons ¹⁵⁶ .  Details about advocacy strategies and methods are currently missing from existing documentation,  and future advocacy guidelines depend on them.  Generally however, it is recommended that any advocacy efforts in the area of ARSH target men in general, and religious and community leaders in particular, as they are the decision-makers in almost all reproductive health related decisions related to the family and to the community acceptance of ARSH interventions.

 

Guidelines for IEC/BCC Programmes

As identified in the 2004 study on knowledge of personal and sexual development among young people in Pakistan, information is acquired very differently by young women and young men ¹⁵⁷ .  The strong gender differences have critical implications for any information dissemination program which focuses on young people in Pakistan.  Such programmes need to be gender-specific to target young women in the home or family environment, while young men can be accessed through social and community networks.  Prevalent fears and misperception, for example regarding the use of contraceptive methods, have to be explicitly addressed in IEC/BCC programmes.  Furthermore, men (male head of households, husbands, older brothers etc) should be specifically targeted with ARSH IEC/BCC programmes.  Evidence from research shows that men are involved in most reproductive health decisions in Pakistan and that they are expected to retain significant decision-making power even as fertility declines and the Pakistani family undergoes changes ¹⁵⁸ .  The aim should be to incorporate men in supportive roles that enhance options for their wives and daughters and, above all, do not obstruct them from seeking appropriate reproductive health care.  Any programme of sexual education needs to consider the balance of socio-cultural information with an emphasis on fundamental reproductive biology.  In addition, appropriate timing of delivering such information is critical.