In order to develop project proposals under its Gender Program in Pakistan, UNDP, in collaboration with the Government, conducted a series of participatory workshops involving representatives from the intended target group, Governme nt, other UN agencies, donors, NGOs and researchers to arrive at project concepts that could be developed into project proposals. Themes for the first three workshops included, Economic Empowerment of Rural Women, Social Empowerment of Women and Economic Empowerment of Urban Women. In all these workshops, mobility of women and the negative portrayal of women in media were cross-cutting issues that were highlighted throughout. Mobility was identified as an issue which encompasses all the above themes. W ithout being able to leave their homes and venture out into the world in search of education or livelihood, women are restricted in becoming economically, politically and socially empowered.

Hence, two additional participatory workshops were held, Women and Mobility and Women and Media. Based on the recommendations that came out of the Women and Mobility workshop, a project concept was developed to facilitate women's m obility.

Realizing the importance which UNDP places on sustainable human development and the advancement of women's role in economic development, UNDP proposes to support this initiative through a Preparatory Assistance for a one year period in order to improve women's access to education, employment, training opportunities and social services through the availability of adequate transport facilities and a reduction in discriminatory barriers against women's mobility.

As with other services for women, the Government has failed to address the problems faced by women commuters. This is all the more pronounced in a crowded, urban city like Lahore. Even though transport is a major problem for men and women both, the dimensions of this problems for women certainly are very severe. Out of necessity, women need to venture outside their homes for educational purposes, to gain employment and to avail existing social services. Social unacceptability of wom en to travel on any two wheeler limits their low cost transport options to small crowded wagons. The social pressure on women who go out of their homes in the form of family restrictions and harassment at the bus stops and in wagons adds to the gender dim ensions of the problems.

Budget deficits of the Government run transport system and the alleged corruption of staff of the Punjab Road Transport Corporation (PTRC) have been the key reasons for winding up of what was a workable transport system for Lahore i n the 1970s and 1980s. The provincial transport department has allowed private transporters to ply their buses and vans in the city of Lahore to ease the inconvenience of daily commuters. This has only met a limited need because of nepotism, corruption, c ompetition among the transporters, bribery in the traffic police department and lack of an overall organized system.

Women suffer most from this inadequate transport system. No attempts have been made by the department or the transporters, to make any extra provision for women to accommodate their needs. No attention has been paid to the physical and mental harassment of women who ride these means of transport. The same old system prevails where women have to run for a seat in the bus or van, as do the men, and in the rush often get pushed and bumped and more often then not do not get a seat and a re left standing at the bus stop waiting for the next bus or van. The transporters are not sympathetic to women waiting for the bus or van. For them a passenger is a passenger and in the attempt to earn more, they would much rather have three men than t wo women sit in the front seat of a van, which is primarily designated for women. Again, no attempt has been made to reduce the mental harassment for women who ride public transport. Mirrors are a must in every private van. it is extremely annoying for w omen to have a driver staring at them all the time through the mirrors fixed at places convenient to him in different sections of a bus. The traffic police are heedless to women's complaints against a bus or van driver, a conductor or even the general pu blic.

Statistics reveal that while 772,000 women were counted in the labor force of Pakistan in 1981, their number has increased to 5,164,000 in 1991-92. Despite the increase in the number of women in Pakistan's labor force and enhanced enrollment in educational and technical training centers over the last few years, safe means of transportation to facilitate their mobility has neither increased nor improved.

The problem of women's transport needs is all the more pronounced in urban areas. Undertaking to set things right in the whole country at the same time is not possible. In order to be able to assess the impact of UNDP's assistance in this new area, it was decided that a densely populated urban city be selected as the target area where transport facilities are inadequate, and where, if any innovative initiative is undertaken, it would be commercially viable. The fact that the prov incial transport department has realized its inadequacy to meet the transport needs of the people, especially women and girls, and where the department itself has approached private transporters to find a solution to the problem, facilitated UNDP in decid ing to chose Lahore as the target area for this initiative. Later cities like Rawalpindi and Peshawar would be explored for possible interventions.

Lahore's population is estimated to be around 7 million with a population growth rate of 3.7% per annum. As more and more women come out of their homes in Lahore, the emotional strain due to daily harassment in the buses and vans a nd at bus stops escalates. The mental tension due to having to wait for hours at the bus stops and having to run for a seat whenever the bus or van stops to pick up passengers, points to the need to address this issue for the residents of Lahore as soon as possible.

While donors have taken up projects relating to education, health and income generating needs of women, hardly any donor has as yet attempted to address this basic constraint being faced by women in urban areas in Pakistan. Japanese assistance, through the World Bank has been offered to conduct studies on urban transport systems of Punjab. However, it has not been materialized. The provincial government and the local authorities in Lahore have attempted to address this issue by unde rtaking the following projects to address Lahore's transport needs, though none of them cater specifically for women:

A sample survey was conducted last year as part of a study on "Lahore's Transport System and Environment" by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). This study highlights the problems faced by all sections of people (n ot just women) in Lahore using public and private transportation.

Research studies have been carried out by independent researchers and women-based NGOs (Aurat Foundation, Shirkatgah and Simorgh) to highlight the social, cultural and economic constraints under which Pakistani women live and work, though none of them have specifically addressed the problem of women and mobility in Lahore.

The aim of this Preparatory Assistance is to prepare a project to improve women's access to education, employment, training opportunities and social services through the availability of adequate transport facilities and a reduction in discriminatory barriers against women's mobility. This will be done in collaboration with the Government of Punjab's Transport Department, private transporters, traffic police and the community. In addition to project formulation some activities will be initiated and a mechanism to implement the project in a participatory way will be established. The location for this pilot project is Lahore. Based on results achieved, it is planned that similar interventions will be replicated in other cities of Pak istan.

In addressing the above objectives, the initiative will have the following strategy:

While women in Lahore have been identified as target beneficiaries, the fact that this project will assist in the establishment of an effective and efficient transport system, direct recipients will be the Transport Department and i ts staff, who in turn will serve the target beneficiaries through their smooth functioning. In addition, one of the activities envisaged is an operational community-managed transport system for women. Hence, the women of the community/locality selected as a pilot case will also be direct recipients. Lastly, under the awareness component of this programme, the drivers, other transport services personnel, traffic police and the general public will be direct recipients. Changes in their behavior will hav e a direct impact on their attitudes and treatment towards women who are our target beneficiaries.

Outputs of the Preparatory Assistance Phase will be:

Activities during the PA phase will be clustered into the following six categories:

i) Setting up the management structure. This will include appointing the Project Coordination Committee and hiring of consultants and staff.

ii) Project Preparation. Through regular meetings and discussions of the stakeholders the project concept will be developed. It will be written into a proposal document by the project experts and a consultant. The PC-I will also be prepared.

iii) GIS data base. This data base will be developed for transport system of Lahore. Data will be collected for a selected area to assess the systems potential as a planning tool.

iv) Research Studies. A situation analysis of women and mobility will be conducted for Lahore. This will collect the base line data on attitudes and perceptions on women's mobility. It will also study the level of transport service available to them and their experience and perceptions of this service. Performance indicators will be developed for measuring the short and long term impact.

A feasibility study for a community based transport system will be conducted for a specific community in Lahore.

v) Awareness Activities. Promotional material will be produced in the form of posters, stickers and pamphlets and distributed for raising awareness on issues related to women's mobility. Plays will be performed and awareness worksho ps will be conducted for the same purpose for drivers, conductors and other groups of the community.

vi) Evaluation and Monitoring. A participatory monitoring and evaluation will be done of the PA phase. The Project Coordination Committee will be responsible for the monitoring of the PA. The review/evaluation will be done by a cons ultant in collaboration with the stakeholders in April/May.

The above mentioned activities are proposed activities. In the spirit of the PA and the flexibility of the process these may be modified as necessary by the Project Coordination Committee in agreement with UNDP.

A Project Coordination Committee will be formed with representatives from the Government, private transporters, community members & traffic police. There will be four members on this committee from the Government, including Secr etary, Transport, Chief, Transport Planning Bureau, representatives from P&D and the Traffic Police. There will be two members representing the private sector, one from the workers side and the other from the owners and four members from the community , representing NGOs and users of the transport.

The task of the committee will be to steer the overall direction of the PA. It will monitor the formulation of the comprehensive project proposal and review the implementation of pilot activities. It will also ensure that the needs of women's mobility are kept in perspective at every stage of the PA.

A national Project Coordinator will be hired, who will be placed in the Transport Department. His/her responsibility will be to ensure implementation of the components taken up by all the stakeholders. S/he will be follow-up the for mulation process of the project document/PC-1 and, in collaboration with the Government representatives on the Project Coordination Committee, get it approved by the Government. S/he will keep the Project Coordination Committee informed of the progress

In addition to the Project Coordinator two other national personnel will be recruited for eight months to assist the project. This includes an expert in Transport Planning and a women activist/social scientist who will ensure focus on issues specific to women and mobility.

Short-term consultants will be hired to undertake two studies: one on the situation analysis of mobility issues faced by women in Lahore and the second to prepare a feasibility study for a community-managed bus service.

Certain activities will be carried out by the NGOs and the transporters themselves. The Project Coordinator will ensure the reporting of these activities to the Project Coordination Committee.

The awareness activities, research and developing GIS data base will be subcontracted to NGOs, consultants or companies.

Among the personnel a project director, transport planner and a social scientist will be hired as National Professionals. One systems analyst and one administrative support personnel for the project office and one coordinator for th e activities of the private transporters will also be hired. This group of experts will provide the technical support to the project and work in collaboration with the Project Coordination Committee.

The office space for the project office will be given by the Government and some equipment and office furniture, including 3 computers and a photocopier will be provided through this PA.

Four international tours will be arranged to countries that have dealt with their transport problems effectively. Two persons from the Government, one from private sector and one from community will go on these observational tours. The community representative will be sent to a city with an example of community based transport system.

In congruence with the PCM approach, the monitoring and evaluation of the PA will be done in a participatory manner.

Monthly progress reports will be prepared by the Project Coordinator and will be sent to UNDP as well as the Project Coordination Committee. Detailed minutes of the monthly monitoring sessions of the Project Coordination Committee w ill be documented.

Evaluation of the PA will be undertaken by a process consultant in a participatory manner by the sixth month. This will provide the opportunity for the project to incorporate the results into the final stages of the project document writing.

1. Pakistan National Report - Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, September 1995. Page 1.

2. Federal Bureau of Statistics - Women and Men in Pakistan, 1995. Page 62.

3. Extracted from an article by Arif Shamim entitled "Killing Bit by Bit" The News of 9 August 1996.

4. Extracted from an article by Mayed Ali entitled "The Pile-up" The News of 9 August 1996.

5. Extracted from an article by Jalees Hariz entitled "The World's Biggest Metropolitan Village" The News of 9 August 1996.