ISLAMABAD, 6 April 2026 – The Ministry of ICT, which chairs the National Steering Committee of the Digitization of Women’s Economic Empowerment (D4WEE) project, held a high-level meeting at the UN Women Islamabad country office to review progress and strengthen coordination on the initiative.
The D4WEE project is a four-year program (2024-2028) funded by KOICA. The Steering Committee serves as the highest management body for the project, providing strategic oversight, guiding policy integration, and ensuring accountability.
The meeting was attended by key stakeholders from the government and the private sector to assess ongoing efforts and ensure effective implementation of the program objectives.
Federal Minister for ICT Shatha Fatima Khawaja highlighted the committee’s mandate to integrate project outcomes into institutional strategies, ensure sustainability beyond the project cycle, and track gender-disaggregated results. results In real time.
I noticed PakistanProgress in digital inclusion, noting that the gender gap in mobile Internet Usage has dropped from 36-38 percent to 25 percent over the past year.
She also highlighted the creation of more than 800,000 digital wallets by women within the framework of the Ramadan Digital Payments Initiative.
In addition, she emphasized the government’s efforts to expand access to digital services and financial inclusion by providing seven million free SIM cards to underprivileged women.
The minister stressed that integrating women into Pakistan’s digital economy is crucial to formalizing the largely informal sector, which accounts for about 50 percent of the country’s GDP. She said that increasing women’s participation would strengthen the workforce, enhance individual productivity, and help build a sustainable talent pipeline.
She also called for strategic preparedness for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to ensure they act as equalizers rather than widening existing disparities in access to opportunity.
The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment from all stakeholders to strengthen inter-agency cooperation, accelerate program implementation, and translate progress into lasting policy reforms.
By tracking measurable results and integrating digital inclusion into core strategies, the steering committee, chaired by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, aims to ensure women play a central role in Pakistan’s fast-growing digital economy under Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s Digital Nation vision.