US Ambassador’s Fund to Award 200 New Grants

John Hoover, Chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan— On September 13, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) publically launched the next round of the Ambassador’s Fund Grant Program with a ceremony announcing the first eleven grant recipients.  During the current five-year cycle, running from 2017-2022, this program will award approximately 200 grants in support of high impact efforts by Pakistani organizations working to improve the economic and social conditions of the people of Pakistan. Chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy, John Hoover, told those gathered for the event that, “This program helps people address local problems by implementing […]

CRTI Invites Entries for RTI Champion Award 2018

Islamabad, Sept 4: The Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI) has invited entries from Pakistani citizens and journalists for the prestigious Right to Information (RTI) Champion Award 2018. The RTI Champion Award 2018 will be given to: (a) the selected citizen who effectively used RTI laws to seek information from public bodies; and (b) the selected journalist who used RTIs law to not only write investigative stories but also unearth government malpractices. The award ceremony will be held on September 28 – to coincide with the International Right to Know Day. The award committee comprises eminent journalists and civil society […]

CIEP and partners launch new project TRANSition

CEIP recently launched their TRANSition project with partners; The Gender Guardian and Go Green Welfare Society. The launching event took place on 17th August at Hotel Pearl Continental, Lahore. The program started with members of the transgender community singing the national anthem, followed by a theatrical performance that highlighted the issues faced by this community.  To create awareness on the vulnerability of transgender in our society and to highlight the efforts made on an institutional level, a panel discussion was organized on ‘Policy level changes for acceptance of Transgender.’  The panel consisted of the chief guest Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib […]

The PELP website has been launched!

The PELP Team has announced the launch of the Pakistan Evidence and Learning Platform (PELP) website, which is available at https://pelp.org.pk. The website is available in both English and Urdu and designed in a way that it is user-friendly and accessible. The contents will be updated on a regular basis, particularly on any upcoming events and announcements.  PELP is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder and multi-million project funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and implemented by UNITAR. It is the ‘systems-building’ component of the DFID-funded Multi-Year Humanitarian Programme (MYHP) 2014-2019 and aims to strengthen knowledge management processes by ensuring that knowledge […]

14th National Assembly Ends with Legislative Distinction

ISLAMABAD, June 01, 2018: Despite political controversies in the past five years, the 14th National Assembly took up an unprecedented legislative agenda by approving 205 bills as compared to 134 and 51 bills passed by 13th and 12th National Assemblies during their five-year terms, respectively. (Source FAFEN Website)  The House approved several important pieces of legislation, including five constitutional amendments during 56 sessions comprising 495 sittings, that provided for setting up military courts for an initial period of two years and their subsequent extension for another two years, reallocation of National Assembly seats among federating units on the basis of […]

Writing a Professional Email

by Safeer Ullah Khan, and Ashley Barr Writing a professional email is considered a very simple task, and we often believe that there is no need to get any lessons for this basic business requirement. However, we have all received emails that do not make any sense or have missed some of the most important information. These issues are especially problematic when sending emails to donors or important partners. Below are some guidelines for writing a proper professional email. Be Clear about Your Purpose: You need to be very clear what you want to achieve through the email you are […]

Unprecedented registration of 4.3 million women voters in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, May 24, 2018: Unprecedented efforts of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and civil society in registering eligible-age women have successfully led to an unparalleled increase of 4,307,553 women on the electoral rolls in the last seven months. This increase indicates the success of the ECP’s Women NIC and Voter Registration Campaign as only around 4.9 million women voters were registered between May 2013 andSeptember 2017. Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA), supporting the ECP’s ‘Women NIC/ Voter Registration Campaign’ initiated for reducing gender gap on electoral rolls, implemented interventions in 103 districts across Pakistan, targeting […]

Federal and Sindh governments failed to implement consumer protection laws , CPDI

Islamabad, May 22: Provision of consumer friendly environment to the citizens is the least priority of Federal and Sindh provincial governments. Despite the presence of consumer related laws and making commitments, both Federal and Sindh government have not taken any concrete measures to establish food authorities in their respective jurisdiction, this was said by Faisal Munir, senior research officer Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) in a statement. Mr. Munir stated that Islamabad has the foremost consumer law Islamabad Consumer Protection Act 1995 whereas Sindh government has Sindh Consumer Protection Act 2014 .In both cases food authorities, consumer courts, […]

Community Mela (IFC’s ‘Lighting Pakistan’ Campaign)

A Community Mela promoting the use of solar-energy products was conducted by CEIP Microfinance Institute, in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC), on Thursday 29th March 2018, in Lahore. The fair brought to close IFC’s ‘Lighting Pakistan’ campaign, which was being implemented by CEIP in Punjab, under which over 25,000 households have been provided access to subsidized solar products for use at home and workplaces. “Our female borrowers faced difficulty in expanding their businesses due to power outages”, said the CEO, Begum Shaista Jan. She said that “providing energy solutions to women[-led businesses] can utilize the untapped potential of Pakistan’s […]

WAction demands legislative assemblies to consolidate, upgrade and implement labor laws

ISLAMABAD, May 13, 2018: The Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies need to improve the quality of labor legislation to make it consistent, applicable and in accordance with the law of the country and best international practices, besides ensuring that special measures to address women workers’ issues are incorporated in them, observes Women Action for Better Workplaces (WAction), a project implemented by Trust for Democratic Education & Accountability (TDEA), in a statement here on Sunday. A qualitative analysis of the federal and provincial labour laws passed by the incumbent legislative assemblies was conducted by WAction that states that Pakistan has inherited […]