Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that a gender roadmap will be adopted by the government to achieve equality.

While chairing a high-level meeting here on Saturday, the Minister Planning, Development and Special Initiatives expressed his concern over the rising proportion of out-of-school children following the pandemic globally as well as in Pakistan, sharing the Government's intent in tackling this challenge as a national priority.

He highlighted the need for exploiting the e-school experiences from the pandemic and using COVID19 as an opportunity for introducing innovative e-solutions, e-schools and accelerated learning programmes for reaching out of school children.

While reviewing the proposed innovative employment generating and skill-building strategies, the Minister advised that the same be reviewed in tandem with the existing interventions under the Kamyab Jawan Programme to consolidate efforts and resources under one umbrella for an optimum impact.

Asad Umar desired for a comprehensive proposal to be presented in this regard in the coming week. He emphasized the national priority accorded to gender empowerment and the urgency to respond to the current situation.

The Minister asked for the proposed two-year roadmap to be presented before sectorial experts, industry, leaders, and policy think tanks, and their inputs sought while finalizing the same.

During the meeting, Member Social Sector and Devolution presented the draft gender roadmap which proposed gender integration across all national policies, programmes, offices and key management processes.