The ultimate goal of all peace efforts is a lasting, sustainable peace, and the use of a gender perspective represents one of the means to this end. Over the years, many policy frameworks globally, and particularly in Africa, have echoed and reflected a critical normative shift towards greater gender parity in peace processes. This shift should be accompanied by strengthening institutions to be able to implement the gender agenda and therefore support implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at the regional and at Member State level. To this end, IGAD conducted a Gender Mainstreaming Skills Training Workshop for IGAD Peace and Security Division (PSD) in Djibouti from 01-03 May 2018. Based on ACCORD’s long standing partnership with IGAD, ACCORD was invited to facilitate the training.
The training sought to promote a common understanding about key gender concepts, normative frameworks and mandates on gender equality and women’s empowerment in peace and security contexts. The training also sought to equip participants with necessary tools and skills for gender mainstreaming in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of peace and security programmes. It also sought to provide an opportunity to the participants to review selected projects from a gender perspective and suggest appropriate remedial measures that enhance attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues.
To realise these, the training covered the following sessions: Overview of IGAD Gender Policy Environment-Policies, normative frameworks, strategies, guidelines and tools; Conceptualizing gender equality and women’s empowerment-Key concepts and approaches; Overview of UNSCRs 1325 and subsequent resolution and overview of IGAD Regional Action Plan on UNSCR 1325; Gender Analysis: A pre-requisite for gender mainstreaming and an overview of Gender Analysis Tools; Practical exercise on Gender Analysis of PSD Projects; Overview of Gender Mainstreaming in Planning; Practical exercise on gender mainstreaming in PSD projects/ strategies; Overview of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in conflict settings; and Overview of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
The training adopted a methodology which was participatory and the plenary discussions were strengthened by the experience of the IGAD staff working on peace and security. The training strengthened institutional practice in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation by further capacity enhancement of the IGAD staff on mainstreaming gender in the various PSD programmes and projects.
ACCORD continues its work on gender mainstreaming and on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 towards strengthening the regional bodies in the continent to undertake inclusive peace process in terms of women’s effective participation and on gender issues.
