Training of Trainers Course on UNSCR 1325 – Phase 2 (Paris)

During the development process of the Common Agenda for Combating VAWG in Syria by the Gender Advocacy Group, participants agreed that VAWG is the main barrier to women´s participation in decision-making and peacebuilding in Syria at all levels: international, national, and local. The Common Agenda is a tool to demand structurally improved access for women to decision-making to enable their participation on local, national, and international levels. It is also a tool to advocate for the inclusion of women´s rights in all decision-making places. Moreover, it is a tool to raise broader awareness about VAWG, its devastating effect on women and how it is used to prevent women from public and political participations. As a next step, the common agenda was utilized as a learning tool in four 2-day workshops on the United Nation’s Security Council’s Resolution 1325 which were organized at local community levels to highlight the link between VAW and CRSV in armed conflict. The target group was a total of 94 people in 6 areas (inside and outside Syria), gathering mostly community leaders and opinion makers as well as active women from the selected communities. EFI supported the organization and implementation of the workshops. They were be designed by the SGBV and PVE experts and delivered by local trainers where the common agenda was be presented. Subsequently, EFI and the experts identified the participants most interested in the project and those most qualified were selected to participate in three training of trainers courses which were delivered by expert trainers. The trainings of trainers focused on the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325. Further, fifteen of the most capable trainees were identified by the experts and trainers to move on to the next phase of the activity where the trainees were afforded a budget to plan and implement trainings on UNSCR1325. They were required to plan trainings for a physical audience of their own choosing from their own regions: Lebanon, Gaziantep, As-Suwayda, Azar, in the areas of self-administration, as well as in Berlin, Paris and Sweden. The trainings are be in-person and combined with online when needed.