WUNRN
West Africa - Mainstreaming Gender
in Peace Support Operations
The
Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-Africa), ECOWAS Gender
Development Centre (EGDC), and Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training
Centre (KAIPTC) through support from the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)
organized a Training of Trainers’ (ToT) Workshop on Mainstreaming Gender and
Women’s Issues in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations. The workshop was
held on the premises of the KAIPTC in Accra, Ghana, March 31 –
In
many ways, the workshop is a response to UNSCR 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and
Security and more recently to UNSCR 1820 (2008) on Sexual Violence. The United
Nations adopted these landmark resolutions to address the impact of war on
women and spur greater participation of women in peace keeping and peace
processes. Both resolutions grew out of the advocacy of women in war-torn
regions who wanted a greater voice. This Workshop and the resulting Manual will
provide women in
The
Training of Trainers’ Workshop served three purposes: First, as a pilot course,
the workshop provided the opportunity test a draft manual on Mainstreaming
Gender and Women’s Issues in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations in West
Africa; Secondly, authors and participants were able to
collectively review, enrich and improve each module within the draft manual;
and, Thirdly, the review process itself resulted in the development of a new
cadre of trainers from a variety of institutions in
The
Training of Trainers’ Workshop addressed the myriad of issues specifically
affecting women and girls during peace support operations and provided
participants with the tools to use these lessons in their own institutions and
organizations, using concrete sub-regional examples. Through discussions,
debate and a review of the draft manual, participants were also able to provide
vital feedback and suggest additional case studies that will be included to
further enhance future courses through practical illustrations.
Upon
publication, this region-specific manual will be a new, practical tool to
strengthen institutional capacities on gender mainstreaming issues in the
context of multidimensional peace support operations. In fact, KAIPTC already
intends to use modules from this new tool in their upcoming Peace Support
Operations course (IPSO) to be held at the Center in June 2009. We expect that
this is simply the first opportunity for ECOWAS countries to benefit from the
manual, particularly given the prominent roles played by a number of West
African countries in contributing personnel to peacekeeping operations throughout
For
more information:
ECOWAS Gender
Development Centre (EGDC)
GTZ
http://www.gtz.de/en/index.htm
Women
Peace and Security Network
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WIPSEN-Africa
Signs Memorandum of Understanding
With
ECOWAS, KAIPTC and GTZ
The Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) has formalized its collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is aimed at promoting the mainstreaming of gender and women's issues in peace and security in West Africa.
The MoU specifically defines the terms of the tripartite partnership between WIPSEN-Africa, the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC) in Dakar, Senegal and the KAIPTC/GTZ to among others,
The project will be focused on, and implemeted with stakeholders from the Fifteen (15) ECOWAS Member States. Special focus will however be placed on Five (5) countries which provide represntative cases of unique conflict and peace systems with natural socio-cultural, economic, political, and security inter-linkages; namely: Liberia (post-conflict), Guinea Conakry (simmering conflict zone), Cote d'Ivoire (fragile), Niger Delta, Nigeria (a region recently transiting from armed violence) and Ghana ("peaceful").
For more information on the project please contact wipsen@wipsen-africa.org.
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