The US Senate has approved a $170 billion spending bill for the fiscal year 2023 including a whopping $200 million to promote gender equality in Pakistan.
The package approved by the US Senate on December 22 includes $858 billion for the defence sector, $787 billion for non-defence local programs and $15 billion for other programs.
The multi-purpose bill is a document that combines a number of measures, the last bill passed this year to fund the US government by September 2023.
$200 million has been allocated to promote the gender equality program but this amount will not be used for abortion. Overall this package is much higher than the packages in the previous years.
In December 2020 the US Congress approved $10 million to promote gender equality in Pakistan and $15 million to promote democracy but the $200 million for the year 2023 is 20 times more than in 2020.
According to the 2022 report released by the World Economic Forum Pakistan has been ranked 145 out of 146 countries in the Global Index of Gender Equality worldwide.
Afghanistan is ranked 146th and India is ranked 135th in the global index while Bangladesh is ranked 71st but Nepal is at the top in regional performance with 96th rank.
