FWRM Holds Regional Workshop To Build Capacity Of Partner Organisations Across The Region

The Fiji Women’s Rights Movement convened a two-day regional workshop that concluded today in Suva on “How to Be Gender Responsive and Transformative”. A total of 15 participants from a diverse range of organisations in eight countries, attended the workshop – representatives from government agencies and civil society groups working in the areas of human, women and youth rights. 

“The training is important in FWRM’s capacity as local gender experts, sharing knowledge gained over the years working in the gender space. Knowing how to do gender analysis and analysing important national documents such as annual country budgets is integral to applying a gender lens on government programs and policies. This training will equip participants to carry out gender analysis in their day-to-day work and thereby contribute to gender equitable outcomes of programs and policies.” said FWRM Executive Director Nalini Singh. 

FWRM has over thirty years of experience in gender training and led the two-day workshop with toolkits and training material developed in-house, drawing from experiences working on technical gender analysis projects.

Through the support of the Australian government under the We Rise Coalition, FWRM hopes that the training has equipped participants to develop an understanding of what gender analysis is, how it is done, and how to analyse national budgets through a gender lens. 

Cook Islands participant, Jean Nootai said," The workshop not only equipped me with crucial tools but also fostered an environment where participants from diverse Pacific contexts shared their experiences, enriching our learning journey. It's imperative to continue such initiatives in our region, and I commend the facilitators for their dedication and expertise in providing us the tools to drive positive changes in our communities."

Pacific Disability Forum representative Sainimili Tawake shared that the training has broadened her perspective and will use the concept of gender budgeting for disability analysis on national budgets. 

The Australian High Commission Program Manager Gender (Bilateral) Sheron Narayan in opening the workshop said, “in our work around Gender Equality we are seeing more and more need for gender investment....partners like the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement are supported to implement trainings to further ensure gender responsiveness and how to be gender transformative.”

“Gender discrimination will continue to happen if we do not think about how gender impacts our lived realities and daily experiences. Programs, policies, legislations and services designed without gender analysis will cause more harm than intended. How do we ensure that ALL people's needs are met? We teach our people how to apply gender lensing to policy making so there is a better understanding of what people need and the appropriate response is facilitated. This is why we facilitate such training. It is our hope that these participants from the Pacific region can go back and share ways in which we all can be gender responsive and carry out gender analysis, being transformative in addressing the needs of our people," Ms Singh added. 
 

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