Second Gender Training of Trainers Course for the Armed Forces Begins

Courtesy of MoD Repubic of Serbia

Courtesy of MoD Repubic of Serbia

Courtesy of MoD Repubic of Serbia

Courtesy of MoD Repubic of Serbia

Within the scope of SEESAC’s Gender Equality in the Military project, which aims to support integration of women in the armed forces in the Western Balkans, a two-week long regional Gender Training of Trainers Course (GToT) began on 28 January 2015 at the Peacekeeping Operations Center in Belgrade, Serbia.

The GToT is a NATO-accredited course, which prepares instructors and trainers to effectively plan, conduct, and evaluate education and training for troops, units, staff and officers on the gender perspective in military operations.

The Deputy Chief of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Lieutenant General Jovica Draganic addressed the participants at the opening ceremony together with Commander Jan Dunmurray, Commanding officer of the Nordic Center for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM), and Ms. Bojana Balon, SEESAC Programme Officer.

Organized by SEESAC and the Nordic Center for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM), and hosted by the Peacekeeping Operations Centre in Belgrade, the course is specifically tailored to the needs of the Ministries of Defence (MoDs) and Armed Forces (AFs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – and is delivered in close cooperation with these institutions.

Seventeen (17) representatives of the MoDs and AFs in the Western Balkans are participating in the course. They are also joined by two representatives of the British Army, one representative the Swedish Armed Forces, and one representative of NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).

In addition to the NCGM instructors, representatives of the four MoDs from the Western Balkans are also serving as instructors as well as taking on a significant mentoring role during the group work sessions of the course.

The opening of the course was also attended by the Serbian AFs Deputy Commander of the Joint Operations Command, Major General Slavoljub Janicevic, as well as the Gender Advisor to the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, Dr. Jovanka Saranovic.

The course comes as a follow up to the 1st NCGM and SEESAC-organized GToT Course, which was hosted by the Peace Support Operations Training Centre in Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2014. The first course saw 16 representatives of the MoDs and members of AFs complete the training, together forming the Regional Network of Gender Trainers.

Since then, the trainers have been actively working on increasing gender awareness in the military through delivering seminars and trainings on gender equality in their respective institutions. The network of gender trainers has been holding regular regional meetings to review their work and progress. 

 

About THE GENDER EQUALITY IN THE MILITARY PROJECT

SEESAC's Gender Equality in the Military: Strengthening of Regional Cooperation on Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans project aims to create a more conducive environment for the advancement of women in the military in the Western Balkans. With this as its goal, SEESAC is supporting the Ministries of Defense in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in their efforts to ensure better integration, retention and professional development for women in the armed forces as well as stronger participation of women in decision-making and gender sensitive change in their organizational cultures.

 

 
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