Participants from government departments and non-government organisations completed a Gender in Humanitarian Action Train the Trainer workshop in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
“This training is the first of its kind in Vanuatu and by the end of the week we will have the tools to integrate gender equality into humanitarian response,”said Director General of Ministry of Justice and Community Services, Dorosday Kenneth Watson at the opening ceremony last week.
Watson added that “we are working on gender equality and climate change issues within the Paris Agreement and Conference of the Parties and this training organized by the Gender and Protection Cluster is important to help us to achieve our joint commitments within humanitarian programming”.
A key theme of the week was partnership and participants shared their knowledge, experiences and recommendations for how to mainstream gender equality and protection into preparedness, response and recovery across all sectors.
The cyclone season has now commenced and participants said they felt more equipped with resources to ensure that the needs of different groups were included in the response.
A key learning from the workshop was how factors such as age, disability, income level, access to decision making and education status can impact men, women, girls and boys differently during and after disasters.
The training was facilitated through a partnership approach by Department of Women’s Affairs, UN Women and CARE and topics included why gender equality is essential in humanitarian action, gender integrated humanitarian response, gender needs assessments and analysis, strategic planning, resource mobilization, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The week ended with action planning and the participants are excited to roll this training out to the provincial level and across other sectors.
Participants came from organisations including Department of Women’s Affairs, Ministry of Justice Child and Disability Desks, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Act for Peace, Action Aid, ADRA, CARE, Oxfam, Tongoa Disability Committee, Vanuatu Disability Promotion and Advocacy, V Pride, Vanuatu Christian Council, Vanuatu Society for People with Disabilities, Vanuatu Red Cross Society, Vanuatu Women’s Centre, World Vision.
Photo supplied Caption: Participants of the workshop