|
|
Newsletter Home
Editorial
SURF In Action
In Practice
- Energy and Environment
- Gender
- HIV/AIDS
- ICTD
- Knowledge Management
- CAP 2015
Funding Opportunities
Readings
Events
SURF-WA Staff Corner
SURF West Africa
P.O. Box 154
Dakar, Senegal
Phone: +221-849-17-95
Fax: +221-849-17-94
Mail: surf-wa@undp.org
http://www.undp.org/surf-wa
|
|
Gender-WA:
A catalyst and forum for discussion
Gender-WA is a sub-regional network open to gender focal points, economists and other interested UNDP staff. Created as an outcome of UNDP's regional Gender Mainstreaming Workshop in Dakar, June of 2002. The network was initially conceived as a follow-up mechanism for workshop recommendations and commitments. Since then, Gender-wa has become a valuable tool for sharing experiences and resources in West Africa. The network is used to share documents, events, successes and occasional lessons learned from not so successful endeavors. Above all, the network serves as a medium for discussion of strategies for engendering local programming.
As Gender-WA has matured, a number of needs have emerged including:
- Moderation and increased network participation
- More clearly defined relationships with the global gender network (GenderNet)
- Knowledge sharing as a priority for CO management
- Strategies for CO Knowledge Management (KM) that contextualize and validate network engagement by gender focal points and other CO staff
- More opportunities for staff to become sensitised to KM approaches
- Increased sense of belonging to a Community of Practice
- Strategies for overcoming language barriers (the majority of resources from HQ are in English, while most of the countries in West Africa are francophone)
Global GenderNet Workshop
Dakar, Senegal 16-18 September 2003
 |
|
The genderNet workshop participants
|
GenderNet has been successfully bringing people together as part of a virtual community for over two years. A workshop, organized by GenderNet with the support of SURF-WA and the RBEC Regional Resource Center, provided a group of active participants in GenderNet with an opportunity to build on this success by comparing experiences, and discussing the future of Knowledge Services in support of Gender and development at UNDP. Workshop discussions and working sessions focused on strategies to:
- Enhance UNDPs internal capacity to mainstream gender in operations and programmes through the provision of cutting-edge knowledge and information on gender issues and development of tools, learning resources, and corporate policies.
- Contribute to gender mainstreaming in UNDP Practice Areas through improved gender knowledge services and gender community of practice initiatives.
In addition to UNDPs Global Knowledge Network on Gender, a number of regional Gender networks have been launched and have proven effective in addressing issues confronted by UNDP Country Offices. These networks are highly focused and conducted in languages (i.e. French, Russian) that facilitate dialogue among participants. The workshop looked closely at how each of these networks functions and explored ways to reinforce relationships between the regional and global networks.
Workshop recommendations emphasized:
- A strong Gender Community of Practice as a key mechanism for pursuing UNDPs commitment to Gender Equality and the Advancement of Women.
- Reinforced and rationalized linkages between global and regional gender
communities
- Strategies for the integration of GenderNet with other UNDP networks.
- The importance of improved web-based tools in support of gender
mainstreaming (i.e. a Gender Workspace).
- Proactive engagement by GenderNet in cross-practice development at
UNDP.
For more information visit GenderNet
http://intra.undp.org/bdp/networks/gender.htm
or contact the SURF-WA Gender Specialist, Coumba Mar Gadio:
coumba.mar.gadio@undp.org
top
|
|
|
