Djibouti, 03-09-2015: The Gender Desk of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today closed a three-day workshop in Djibouti under the leadership of Mr.  Elsadig Abdalla, Director of Economic Cooperation & Social Development Division, in his capacity as Acting Executive Secretary of IGAD.

This workshop titled “Conducting Participatory Gender Audits for IGAD Specialized Offices” gathered more than 40 participants from IGAD Specialised Offices and Secretariat with the overall objective of enhancing the capacity of IGAD Specialized Offices and Secretariat staff to effectively mainstream gender in strategies, programmes, and activities.

In effect, all IGAD programmes and projects should address gender equality and women’s empowerment through design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation alongside specifically targeted interventions to address critical gender issues in the region within the framework of IGAD’s mandate and service delivery mechanisms.

During a brief closing ceremony, Director El Sadeg praised the efforts by the Gender Desk to uphold the gender agenda within the IGAD organization and for “this successful workshop”.

“There is so much you have gained during these three days that you need to take away with you back to your respective duty stations. The most sustainable part of every training is the knowledge gained, the skills acquired, and the use of those in your routine work. This was also an opportunity for team-building”, he said in substance.

Mr. Moneim Elhoweris, IGAD Agriculture and Environment Division, spoke on behalf of the participants to say how much useful they found the training workshop. “We are going back to our duty stations with a better understanding of the Participatory Gender Audits”, he said.

Mubarak Mabuya thanked all the participants and IGAD Senior leadership for attending and contributing to the training workshop before calling on the Acting Executive Secretary to officially close the training.

Participatory Gender Audits is quality or social audit tool and process based on a participatory methodology to promote organizational learning at the individual, work unit, and organizational levels on how to practically and effectively mainstream gender.

Within the framework of IGAD’s Gender Policy and Strategy, various activities have been implemented since 2010 aimed at building the capacity of IGAD staff to mainstream gender in programmes and activities. Over 100 staff from the Secretariat and Specialized Offices attended gender training workshops. Numerous tools and guidelines on gender mainstreaming in IGAD’s programmes were also developed.

Promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is underscored as a critical imperative for fostering resilience, regional integration, and peace for sustainable development in the region.###