ISLAMABAD — Showcasing provincial strides in grassroots financial inclusion, a delegation from Punjab’s Women Development Department (WDD) actively highlighted its flagship rural development project, “SheThreads,” at the prestigious 9th Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Women.
The high-level global moot, hosted at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad under the central theme of socio-economic and political empowerment, brought together over 190 delegates spanning 57 OIC member states.
Representing Punjab’s progressive social-protection front, Ms. Zunaira Zubair, Focal Person for SheThreads, alongside Ms. Nida Mukhtar, Senior Policy Analyst at WDD, pitched the operational frameworks of the initiative to international policymakers, diplomats, and development partners.
Empowering the Rural Economy Through Craft
The presentation put a sharp focus on the project’s measurable success in driving the economic independence of marginalized rural craftswomen across Punjab. Core focus areas highlighted by the provincial delegates included:
- Direct Market Access: Dismantling exploitative intermediary supply chains by connecting rural artisans directly with urban corporate landscapes and digital marketplaces.
- Skill Redesign & Standardization: Training cottage-industry workers in contemporary design aesthetics, high-tier quality control, and financial literacy to make their artisanal goods competitive.
- Sustainable Livelihoods: Promoting micro-entrepreneurship models that enable stay-at-home mothers and rural laborers to build a steady source of income.
The inclusion of the SheThreads narrative at the ministerial conference comes at a critical time, as Pakistan formally assumes the two-year chairmanship of the OIC Ministerial Conference on Women. Provincial initiatives like those driven by the Punjab WDD are increasingly serving as scalable models for targeted, gender-inclusive economic development across the wider Islamic world.
