Gender mainstreaming

The specific starting point of substantive work dedicated to gender issues within our organisation was the annual International Steering Group meeting in November 2008. During the meeting, it was agreed that there was a need for developing flexible and context-sensitive tools for supporting gender mainstreaming of UNOY Peacebuilders’ network in the next couple of years. These tools have been published in November 2011 in a brochure entitled Gender Toolkit.

This need for a comprehensive tool was identified through input from members, either directly or through surveys. The International Steering Group, having realized the significance of incorporating gender issues in all its work, agreed to initiate this project to help youth organisations at structural and organisational levels to be well versed with basic gender theories/concepts and skills so they could start implementing these in their projects.

The organization started integrated gender perspectives in their project, for instance, a day was dedicated to gender duringa training seminar in Kenya in 2008. Afterwards, one member organisation even integrated gender in their work by introducing a program for female ex-combatants in Congo. The gender projects were successful, but nevertheless the International Secretariat felt a need to include member organisations more in their gender program and its activities. There was no sense of ownership and the international secretariat felt that this was because of lack of inspiration, importance and knowledge. To overcome this, a Gender Working Group was established; an e-group where members organisations with real interest in gender issues could exchangeexperiences, knowledge and ideas and where they could actively contribute to the developmentof UNOY Peacebuilders’ gender program.

Despite young people being aware of gender issues, and there is willingness to become more gender sensitive, studies and surveys show that youth organisations identified challenges in how to plan and implement gender sensitive projects. The challenge lies in how to include a “gender lens” in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of different projects while integrating gender issues at the structural and organisational levels. These challenges can be addressed first by acknowledging their existence and making corrective entries to the organisations’ apparatus of power, and secondly by transforming the challenges into something positive and productive.