NTLI at the University of Juba in partnership with the National Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare with funding from UN Women, successfully conducted a 10-days’ training for Gender Focal Points from public institutions in Juba. The training was held at Dembesh hotel in Juba from the 11th to 21st January 2023, under the theme “Enhancing Skills for Gender Focal Points on Effective Gender Mainstreaming.” The training brought together 30 participants (22 female: 8 male) representing different ministries and commissions.
The key emerging issues included the need to establish gender desks in all ministries and commissions with the level of a Director General for purposes of gender responsive budgeting.
For effective gender mainstreaming, both men and women ought to collaborate to address the issue. The trainees recommended considering key groups of men and boys to engage with to promote gender equality including: chiefs, team leaders, business people, ministers, church leaders in gender mainstreaming programming.
There were also emerging issues from the discussion on the permanent constitution making process such as: representation of the focal points, popularizing the Women’s Charter, women’s general participation in the peace implementation mechanisms and the strengthening of the Women General Association to represent their interests.
Participants recommended extending the same training to other gender focal points to enlighten them about their roles. As a follow up of this training, participants requested for a joint deliberation session between Undersecretaries, Director Generals, Directors and Gender focal points to come up with key resolutions for taking their ministries forward in regards to mainstreaming gender into all policies and programmes.