Gender sensitisation: IFC arranges first consultative session for women

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Pakistan in collaboration with New World Concepts arranged 1st Consultative Session for Women on Gender Sensitisation in the field of Alternate Dispute Resolution here on Wednesday evening.
The workshop was organised under the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Project focusing on dialogue targeted at women lawyers, advocates and counsels based in Lahore. The specific aims of the consultative session were to share lessons and benefits of alternate dispute resolution for discussion.
Gender specialists from New World Concepts highlighted problems faced by women entrepreneurs and women litigants in resolving disputes in courts and detailed how mediation can provide a much better option to women in settlement of disputes. Benefits such as lower financial costs as well as quicker resolution time were highlighted.
As explained by Ms Navin Salim Merchant, IFC Pakistan ADR Programme Manager, the main objective of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Programme is to institutionalise court-referred/court-annexed mediation and other forms of ADR for more speedy and cost-effective commercial dispute resolution, offering greater access to justice for entrepreneurs. It supports the application of ADR by enhancing the legislative framework and creating more efficient judicial systems by building the capacity at courts to apply ADR. It introduces new best practices in ADR through the establishment of pilot commercial mediation centres and professionalizes mediation by transferring skills and know-how to practitioners.-PR