On 16-21 Sept, WOCAN conducted atrainingon Gender Integrated Planning in Hatfield, Tshwane, South Africa. The training was attended by 14 participants (4 men, 10 women), including several of WOCAN’s Core Associate Trainers in Africafrom Lesotho, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa and facilitated by Dr. Barun Gurung, WOCAN Lead Trainer.
The course began with a detailed introduction of WOCAN to the new members. The course then covered the gender awareness conceptual framework to ensure that all participants were on the same level of understanding. The training then moved on to the introduction to the Gender Planning Framework and included a field tripto collect data as part of the process for the application of the planning tools.
Participants then went on a day’s field trip where they interacted with 26 farmers, made up of an almost equal number of males and females. The farmers fully participated in the focus group discussions which were set up in such a way that the participants fully interacted with female and male farmers separately to ensure freedom of expression particularly for female farmers.
The rest of the training involved analysis of field data, and how to use data in the development of gender integrated plans using new tools and techniques on training others in Gender integrated planning.
The training fulfilled its primary objectives of:
• teaching gender integrated planning skills
• familiarizing Associates with women’s empowerment indicators
• refreshing skills for communication
• ‘reviving ‘ the Associates team in Africa