Gender & Sexual Gender Based Violence Course at Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia-Peace Support Training Centre
22 Jul 2016
From the 07th – 09th of July 2016, ISS/TfP together with the ISS African Centre for Peace and Security Training (ACPST), collaboratively conducted a preparation workshop for the 10 day Gender and Sexual and Gender-Base Violence (SGBV) course with the facilitation team that included, Riana Paneras (ISS), Meressa Kashu (ISS), Liezelle Kumalo (ISS), Tsion Abebe (ISS), Irene Limo (ACCORD), Hans-Petter Keilland (Norwegian Police), Tilahun Gebremedhin (PSTC) and Dr. Elias Abirha (PSTC).
Following the preparatory, from the 11th – 22nd of July 2016, ISS/TfP and the ACPST delivered a ten-day training in support of the Ethiopian Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC) on gender mainstreaming and on the prevention and response to SGBV in peace operations and peacebuilding missions. The objective of this course was to enhance peace operations personnel’s knowledge and attitude on gender equality and strengthen their skills in advancing gender equality and in preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence in peace mission. The course had civilian, police and military participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Somalia.
The course helped strengthen the understanding of personnel in peace operations and peacebuilding on gender equality and the prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence. It did so by providing participants with foundational knowledge, skills and personal qualities to more effectively support the women, peace and security mandate of AU and UN peace operations as part of their daily duties and responsibilities in peace support operations.
The course is divided into 8 modules over ten days. The first week was dedicated to understanding gender equality and the women, peace and security framework, applying a gender analysis and mainstreaming gender as part of mandate implementation and organisational change.
Women and children are affected differently by conflict, therefore participants had to gain a better understanding of this in order to fulfil their mandate. The participants were made aware that women are increasingly a targeted victim in conflict, and that their protection is important in any peace process. Understanding the various roles and responsibility of each group within a society is important, especially when the peace operations personnel will be confronted with different cultural believes. The course therefore sensitised the participants to the differences and how to help government and society in conflict and post-conflict environment.
The second week was focused on the prevention and response to SGBV – one of the key responsibilities of AU and UN personnel in peace operations. This week was more about the practical application of knowledge and skills to prevent and do response to incident of SGBV in conflict and post-conflict societies. Participants acquired key understanding and knowledge on SGBV as well as important skills with regards to understanding their community and partners, compiling a SGBV prevention and response plan and using training and mentoring to support host nation police capacity building to address gender inequality and SGBV.