01 June 1998

Bonn, Germany: In Santo Domingo, at INSTRAW, the Institute for Training of Women, a workshop was held in May for the new UNV Gender Specialists and their UNDP Gender Focal Point counterparts. Based in 18 UNDP Country Offices worldwide, the UNVs are part of an exciting pilot initiative developed jointly by UNV, UNDP and UNIFEM to support the whole UN country team in strengthening the follow-up to Beijing, and gender main-streaming.

The workshop combined consultation and brought together participants from Armenia, Botswana, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Panama, Turkmenistan, Vietnam and the Republic of Yemen. The Workshop was officially closed at UNDP in New York with a meeting chaired by the UNDP Associate Administrator, Mr. Rafee Ahmed. The speakers were the Heads of UNIFEM, UNV and INSTRAW, as well as the UN Special Advisor on Gender issues and the Advancement of Women. UNVs Else Leona McClimans and Suzette Mitchell, based in Mozambique and Vietnam, exchanged their impressions on email:

Suzette: Before the briefing, I was not sure how this project was to be coordinated between UNV, UNDP and UNIFEM, but that was illustrated clearly through the joint leadership of the workshop.

Else Leona: I fully agree - I remember one of my main concerns before the workshop was that we’d spent too much time on logistics and bureaucratic detail of the different agencies, but we really focused on the critical issues and capacity building, and had enough time to share our experiences.

Suzette: From listening to the experience of others, I became a lot more aware of the variety of strategies to address gender mainstreaming. The UNVs had a lot of experience to share in gender analysis, and it was great to see the collaboration and synergy with the Gender Focal Points from the UNDP offices. I was also really inspired by the panel given by the male Gender Focal Points. I think the area of male involvement in gender advocacy is an area that we as Gender Specialists really need to develop on a national level, and there has not been a great deal of work to guide us.

Else Leona: What I found really interesting was that the men’s starting point for working with gender issues was a desire to contribute to social justice - or they were fathers of girl-children, and saw how girls are systematically discriminated against. Our starting point for involving more men could therefore be to focus on men’s role as fathers, or - like they have done in Botswana - to involve men much more strongly in the work on family planning and reproductive health.

Suzette: Involving men in the process is critical, and having full support from management. Actually, two years in the field to integrate gender is not very long. We have to ensure that gender mainstreaming incorporates very good management so that the Gender Focal Points and the other office staff can continue the momentum.

Else Leona: It is quite a challenge we have ahead of us, but I feel really uplifted after this workshop, thinking how we can contribute to providing experiences from the field to headquarters, creating a dialogue on gender issues internationally.