Integration of Gender Standards in the Work of Local Authorities
The Institute of Law (IoL) – Birzeit University in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Government launched a specialized training course in Gaza Strip on September 24, 2011 on “Integrating the Concepts of Gender in the work of Local Authorities”. The course is part of the “Curricula Development and Training of Judges, Public Prosecutors, Lawyers, and Local Government Staff” project and is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This activity comes as part of the Millennium Development Goals of enhancing gender-based equality and empowerment of women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with six UN organizations – UNDP, UN WOMEN, ILO, UNESCO, UNFP, and UNRWA - working on the implementation of a joint program for gender-based equality and women empowerment that extends between 2009 and 2012. The project seeks to accomplish three essential outcomes, the first of which is reducing gender-based violence and all forms of violence against women and girls, especially women survivors of gender-based violence. The second outcome involves enhancing the capabilities of judges, prosecutors and lawyers in providing assistance to the victims of violence and gender-based violence. The third outcome involves improving the awareness of the staff in local government authorities in regards to gender equality and building their capacities in integrating gender into regional planning and development and the provision of services.
Dr. Ghassan Faramand, the Director of IoL, began the course and stressed the importance of training the staff of local authorities on gender-related issues, as well as the importance of focusing on the role of the municipalities in providing basic services such as water, electricity and planning. He said that these issues are controversial not in Palestine only but all over the world. He pointed out that the development of the role of the municipalities through various stages, and that this training was basically built on a strategy that aims at empowering and training the local government sector.
In her address, Ms. Hanan Imsieh, the Head of the Gender Unit at the Ministry of Local Government, pointed to the importance of this course especially that local authorities are now expected to fulfill the growing and changing community needs. She said that they need to have a broad and deep awareness of the reality, segments, sources and approaches of the community, and that would not happen except through the live interaction and direct contact with all the different community segments. Ms. Imsieh thanked the BZU IoL for its contribution towards community issues in general and for its several activities towards the development of the local government sector.
In his address, Mr. Moeen Al-Barghouti (lawyer), the Project Manager at IoL, praised the existing cooperation between the IoL and the Ministry of Local Government in several areas that aims at enhancing the capabilities of local authority staff in dealing with new issues through training and focused research. He presented the project’s idea, objectives, phases, target groups, and partners from official institutions and civil society organizations. He pointed out that today’s course focuses on issues that concern the staff of local authorities in their work, as there will be focus on important issues such as budgets, planning, policy making and development from a gender perspective. Also, there will be an addressing of the issue of the legislation framework that regulates the work of local authorities and an analysis of it from a gender perspective, especially the law of local authorities, the regulations of its workers, the elections law and planning laws.
This course is one of 10 courses that target the local government sector in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in which a select group of specialized trainers are taking part and who will give training in a number of training subjects according to the course program. The course lasted for five days during the period of September 24-28, 2011.
