Meet with PRP’s visionary leadership striving for girls and women greater education rights

Currently leading the USAID supported ($ 165 million) Pakistan Reading Project (PRP), Dr. Naeem possesses extensive experience in program design, management and implementation; teacher and education manager’s professional development; community mobilization; monitoring and evaluation; student assessment, teacher observation, Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and organization development.

Under his leadership, representation of women in PRP activities and interventions has greatly improved. He is a strong supporter of women in leadership positions and has always encouraged gender equality in the project.

Dr. Naeem believes in empowering women and is always willing to lend support to fellow women colleagues. “I proudly express my gratitude to all women employees of PRP for their incredible contribution. We would never have been successful without their invaluable leadership and the work they have done for the project!”

Dr. Ijlal Hussain is a practitioner in educational development with over 15 years of senior management experience in Pakistan, including 11 continuous years with USAID-funded projects. He has extensive experience in research on cultural heritage protection issues in Pakistan.

Dr. Ijlal is a strong advocate of girls’ education and has made tremendous contributions towards pro-women educational policies, programs and projects in Pakistan throughout his career. As the Deputy Chief of Party – Program, he has a pivotal role in ensuring that project benefits reach all beneficiaries, especially girls, female teachers and parents. He says, “We want to see our girls and young women excel in all fields. Pakistan can become stronger and more prosperous when girls are well educated and actively participate in the nation’s progress.”

Tayyaba Aurangzeb (Deputy Chief of Party - Operations)

Ms. Tayyaba has over three decades of experience in both the corporate and the development sectors. As the DCoP-Operations, she is leading various departments at PRP, including Admin, Finance, HR and Security. She has previously worked on many international assignments in Central Asia as part of the senior management team.

While talking about her contribution for other women, she said that her presence has always encouraged females to join her team. She also supported PRP in establishing baby nurseries in PRP offices facilitating women staff at the work place. Being the head of operations, she has drafted and implemented many pro-women policies that support female staff on business travel with their young children and baby sitters.

When asked for a message on International Women’s Day, she said, “Women leaders are challenged more often but it always motivates me to perform better. If we truly want to build a civilized, educated nation, we need to educate girls.”

M. Farooq Akbar (Advisor Program Coordination)                                            

Mr. Farooq Akbar is currently working as Advisor Program Coordination for PRP, representing the Institute of Rural Management (IRM), a project consortium partner. He has been with PRP since its inception and has previously served on many key positions in different education projects. He has also taught Physics at the Western Sydney University, Australia.

While talking about his contributions for the project, he responded that he ensured the implementation of project activities in highly challenging environments and regions of Pakistan that included Balochistan and the newly merged Tribal Districts of KP (previously FATA). He ensured that the project reaches out to all stakeholders, especially women. He strongly believes in gender parity in education and is proud of the fact that in Quetta, PRP has achieved an average 55% female inclusion in all activities. He said that Napoleon was right on stressing the importance of educated mothers; if we truly want to build a civilized and educated nation.

“The changing paradigms of development in the 21st century demand that we enable both males and females to participate in bringing about positive change. This, in my opinion, is our only path to salvation.”

Shahida Maheen (Technical Director, Supplementary Resource Development)

Shahida Maheen is an academic practitioner with over twenty-five years’ experience of working on education projects with numerous well-reputed development organizations, where she has supported Provincial Education Departments, Higher Education Commission, universities and schools. In PRP, she leads the process of Reading Learning Resource Material Development for early graders in close collaboration with provincial governments. She successfully developed the first-ever comprehensive reading learning package for early grade teachers and students in Pakistan.

Under her guidance, PRP has created very inclusive and gender sensitive Reading Learning Material packages in Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Brahui languages. The materials feature topics like student safety and security, disability, women’s empowerment, while aligning them with the national curriculum. A concerted effort has been made to ensure that the contents and illustrations depict a gender balance, and multiple stories on women in leadership positions have been added to the material. Ms. Shahida, like Margaret Thatcher, strongly believes in women’s power and states, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

Dr. Shaheen Ashraf Shah (Director Gender)

Dr. Shaheen has a PhD in Women and Gender Studies (Warwick-UK), MSc in Public Policy (Strathclyde-UK) and many other credentials in the field of gender and development. She served as a visiting research fellow to the University of Western Australia and Loughborough University, UK.

Dr. Shaheen is leading the gender portfolio of PRP. She has been the driving force behind PRP’s successful gender integration of activities and plans. She says that though it is often challenging to work for the rights of women and the vulnerable in society, but, “I personally believe that women in leadership positions have greater responsibilities to support women’s inclusion and make a difference for other women.”