Cairo, Egypt - CCCPA Director Ashraf Swelam hosted the closing session for the training course on Mainstreaming Gender in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding on 26 May 2016 with Ambassador Inas Mekkawy, Director of Women, Family and Childhood Department in the League of Arab States (LAS) and Counselor Majid El Moteery, Training Department Director. The course was provided in collaboration with LAS and UN Women, and is the first in a series of training courses on gender, peace and security. It comes as part of the on-going commitment to enhance mainstreaming gender in peacekeeping and peacebuilding in Arab Countries and the implementation plan of the ‘protection of Arab women policy’.The purpose of the training is to improve capacities of those working in the field of peacebuilding by enabling them to understand the needs of women, men, boys and girls in conflict and post conflict settings, as well as state building; it also enhances trainee skills in implementing practices and programmes to address these needs both at local, national and international levels.

The training brought together 21 participants from the member states of LAS representing, governments, LAS officers and various experts who engaged in lively discussions and exchanged views, experience and expertise in the mainstreaming gender in peacebuilding process in the Arab countries.  Countries represented included Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt. 

The course is a 5 day classroom-based course, specifically designed for participants from Arab countries. The participants are divided into small groups to facilitate group work and team building. The material is facilitated by experts from CCCPA to cover material on Arab challenges in peace and security, conflict analysis and tools for mainstreaming gender, legal framework of peacekeeping operations, code of conduct in addition to sexual exploitation and abuse.