Cairo, Egypt - CCCPA Deputy Director Counselor Hatem Elatawy, Ambassador Mervat El Tallawy, Director-General, Arab Women Organization and Jari Mustonen Head of Development, Crisis Management Centre (CMC) Finland, inaugurated the opening session of the third ToT course on Gender, Peace and Security on Sunday, 24 April 2016. The course was held in collaboration with CMC Finland as part of an ongoing commitment to enhance mainstreaming gender in peacekeeping and peacebuilding in Arab countries.

The aim of the ‘Gender in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Programme’ is to improve capacities of mid-rank professionals working in the peacekeeping and peacebuilding field to help them understand the needs of women, men, boys and girls in both peacebuilding and conflict settings, and enhance their skills in implementing practices and programmes to address these needs on local, national and international levels.

The five-day, classroom-based ToT course is dedicated to participants who’ve been trained in either a basic gender course, or gender module, and have shown an exceptional understanding of the key concepts and possess the ability and attitude to deliver the training later on in their institutions and home countries (assessment is done by trainers and organizers from CCCPA and CMC Finland). In addition, the course will help build a pool of qualified and knowledgeable trainers for CCCPA to use in future courses and provides sustainability for the course concepts. 

The participants are divided into small groups in order to work on the pedagogical foundations of course curricula, facilitate the learning process of adult learners and develop exercises to enhance learning in the context of mainstreaming gender in peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The material is facilitated by experts from CCCPA and CMC Finland.

The 23 participants from the Arab Women Organization represent Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Egypt.