Pakistan, July 12 -- The 9th OIC Ministerial Conference on Women will open in Islamabad under the ambitious theme of socio-economic and political empowerment across the organisation's 57 member states. Yet the central question is not what new language can be added to an already crowded catalogue of commitments. It is why so much of what the OIC agreed years ago remains unfinished.

The organisation does not suffer from a shortage of blueprints. Its Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women, adopted in 2008 and revised in 2016, already calls for equal access to education, equal pay, childcare, safe transport, workplace protections, financial inclusion, property ownership, gender-responsive budgeting and measurable national action plans. ...