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From August 20 to August
29, 2014, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders* and its Congolese
members will continue their implementation of the Localization program in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), through a Capacity Building and Formulation of Local
Legislation workshop and a Training of Trainers. The Localization work in
DRC will be complemented by activities of the Girl Ambassadors for Peace program in
the South Kivu
province.
The Capacity Building and Formulation of Local Legislation workshop
will be held on August 20 and 21 in Goma, the capital city of the North
Kivu province in Eastern DRC.
This workshop, co-organized by GNWP and the Synergie des Femmes pour les
Victimes des Violences Sexuelles (SFVS), will convene local authorities
such as governors, mayors, traditional, cultural and religious leaders,
women leaders, civil society representatives and other local key actors.
Together, these local actors will examine DRC's National Action Plan (NAP)
on UNSCR 1325 and 1820 and its applicability to their local context. They
will also harmonize the NAP with existing national and regional laws and
policies on gender equality, human rights as well as commitments to end
sexual violence in conflict.
Participants will identify
specific provisions of the NAP that are most relevant to the social,
cultural and political context of their communities; and discuss how these
provisions could be integrated into local development plans. In the absence
of operational local development plans, participants will formulate their
own contextualized interpretation of the NAP by drafting Local Action
Plans. Additionally, participants will express their personal commitments
to implement the NAP in their communities.
The workshop in Goma is the
fourth Capacity Building and Formulation of Local Legislation workshop in DRC.
In March 2013, GNWP-ICAN and its member Cadre Permanent de Concertation de
la Femme Congolaise (CAFCO) held the first two workshops in the Katanga province: one in Lubumbashi and one in Likasi. GNWP-ICAN and member organization
Synergie des Associations Féminines du Congo (SAFECO) also held a Capacity Building and Formulation of Local Legislation workshop in
Bukavu, South Kivu province, in November 2013.
As a follow-up to the
workshops in Katanga and South
Kivu, comprehensive Localization guidelines in
integrating the NAP into local development plans have been developed to be
used by local officials throughout the country. These Localization
guidelines will be field tested in conjunction with the Training of Trainers (ToT) that will be held
on August 27-29 in Kinshasa. The objective of the Training is to train a pool of
experts on UNSCR 1325 and 1820 that can ensure the sustainability of the
Localization program.
The Capacity Building and
Formulation of Local Legislation workshop and the Localization guidelines
constitute the 2 components of the Localization program, a bottom-up
approach to the implementation of the WPS resolutions, with local authorities
and communities taking ownership of the implementation of the resolutions;
and with strong political support from the national ministries particularly
the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Interior. The Capacity Building and Formulation of Local Legislation workshops have
already been implemented by GNWP-ICAN and its member organizations in a
number of countries, namely, Burundi, Colombia, DRC, Liberia, the Philippines, Nepal, Sierra
Leone and Uganda. A Training of Trainers was held in Nepal and Colombia, and
DRC, Nepal, Burundi and Sierra Leone have now developed Guidelines for the integration of
WPS resolutions in local development planning.
In conjunction with the Localization program in DRC, GNWP and
SAFECO will hold a training for young women and girls as part of their
joint Girl Ambassadors for
Peace
program. On August 24 and 25, a group of
twelve young educated women and girls from South Kivu and North Kivu will
be trained on basic literacy instruction, leadership, gender,
peacebuilding, UNSCR 1325 & 1820 and the use of popular theater to
raise awareness of Women and Peace and Security (WPS) issues. Collectively
called the Girl Ambassadors for Peace, these young women and girls will
then travel to the rural community of Mumosho on August 26 to teach
literacy, leadership and peacebuilding and raise awareness of UNSCR 1325
and 1820 among young women and girls who do not yet know how to read nor write.
This program aims to increase literacy rates, develop the leadership
capacities of women and girls and contribute to peacebuilding efforts in
local communities. It highlights the links between women and girls'
literacy and leadership, human rights, sustainable development, and peace.
The Girl Ambassadors for Peace is one of the offshoots of the Women's Peace
Dialogue that GNWP and its Congolese members organized in 2013.
* The Global Network of
Women Peacebuilders is an autonomous program of the International Civil
society Action Network (ICAN)
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