15.12.2016.
9-day-long Gender Training of Trainers Course completed
State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Nenad Neric has officialy closed tonight in the Peacekeeping Operations Centre the Gender Training of Trainers Course, which began on 7th December in the barracks “Banjica 2” in Belgrade for 15 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.
The participants were presented with the certificates, after the team of instructors including the representatives of the Regional Network of Gender Trainers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and the Peacekeeping Operations Centre of the Serbian Armed Forces had assessed that the officers from Sub-Saharan African countries were ready to put into practice all theoretical postulates related to the introduction of gender mainstreaming in all tasks, activities and plans.
Congratulating them, State Secretary Neric emphasized that he perceives the presence of a great number of guests from various parts of the world as an indisputable sign of the support to the efforts, which the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with the partners, invests in the improvement of gender equality.
“We owe our gratitude for the organization of this event primarily to our friends from UNDP Office, who continue the project dedicated to the improvement of gender equality, this time through strengthening collaboration of the Western Balkan countries with the Sub-Saharan African countries, which represents a contribution to global security.”
Neric stressed that the common goal is to integrate gender equality principles into security system reform of all countries, wherever they are, in order to make a contribution to better effectiveness of security sector.
“There are a lot of challenges on that way, but our experience shows that it is much easier to overcome them if there is a clearly stated political will and conscience about the importance of equal participation of women and men in all spheres of social life”, Neric said and added that he hopes that the course will enable the participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda to integrate gender mainstreaming into their national training including the one for multinational operations.
The organization of the course accredited by NATO Allied Command Transformation was supported by the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM) and the UNDP’s SEESAC initiative whereas the Guard and 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade rendered logistic support.
The Commander of the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations Lieutenant Colonel Lars Berglund assessed the activity as very successful and said that the cooperation with the UNDP and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia is excellent and will continue on the basis of brilliant experience from the previous three years.
The Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre Colonel Milivoje Pajovic stressed that today a significant international task which gathered the participants around important and demanding theoretical and practical issues has been completed.
“After this course we have acquired a new value in the common understanding of Scandinavia via the Balkans to Sub-Saharan Africa, so we share it today because we know what we should keep from the past, what to use from the present and what to do for our common future”, Colonel Pajovic stressed.
The course participants and the guests were addressed by Rastislav Vrbenski, the regional manager of the UNDP for Europe, who thanked the Ministry of Defence for hospitality and the other ministries, the total of nine of them from the various parts of the world and the partners on the contribution. He talked about the goals of sustainable development related to gender equality and added that he is very pleased because more than 4700 employees have completed seminars in this field, so he is looking forward to hear the impressions from the current participants after the implementation of the acquired knowledge in their countries.
On behalf of the participants the present ones were greeted by Colonel Flavia Biekvaso from Uganda, who has particularly stressed a cordial reception in Serbia and the great effort to successfully overcome all suppositions invested by the team of instructors, owing to whom they acquired useful knowledge that will be applied in everyday work.
Shortly before the presentation of the certificates, the participants were congratulated by the Serbian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Jovica Draganic, who sent a kind of a message for the end of the course – that “gender equality should be lived”, that it represents “the value which the people of this time, especially the representatives of the army, should reach”.
The course “Gender in UN peacekeeping operations” in the Peacekeeping Operations Centre has been organized annually since 2012, and gender is the central topic of many other courses and seminars organized by this institution.
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