Alumni Network on Gender Learning and Practice An Introduction

MoWD Gender Learning and Practice Alumni Network

Alumni Network on Gender Learning and Practice
An Introduction

To promote gender-inclusive institutional changes, the Ministry of Women Development, with the technical assistance of Capacity Building Project of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), formed the ‘Alumni Network on Gender Learning and Practice’. The Network includes Government officers from various line ministries, Ministry of Women Development and Women Development Departments (WDD) trained in the last four years to contribute to the process of gender mainstreaming and equality perspective at the policy levels.

The Network demonstrates aspiration of key actors in institutionalizing gender learning from the training process into wider organizational knowledge management system and change processes. It has created a niche for the Ministry of Women Development to continue interface with officers from other ministries and provincial Women Development Departments as Alumni Members. Other than motivating officers to promote gender inclusive change in their public and private spheres of influences, the Network aims to maximize the level of expertise in gender analysis and expand learning exposure to new dimensions of knowledge in the context of their work. The Network is helping the Ministry of Women Development to understand and capture the impact of training on individuals and will also provide an opportunity to different departments and organizations to learn from the experiences of other similar organizations.

Alumni Initiatives

In order to sustain the momentum of learning interaction, analyze practice and seek inspiration for collective change, different initiatives are planned under the following Alumni Network features:

Gender Dialogue Forums

The gender dialogue forums are interactive and include dialogues, and panel discussions to deepen the understanding and application of gender analysis. The first Gender Dialogue Forum was held on May 22nd-23rd on “Gender Training Practice and Institutional Change for Gender Equality”. The purpose was to transfer knowledge on how to make gender trainings result oriented and how to promote institutional change for gender equality. The second Gender Dialogue Forum “Gender, Globalization and Poverty” was held on 24th July, 2009, highlighting the impact of globalization policies on women and how they affect the effort in promoting just and equal relationships between women and men in social and economic spheres. Deliberations create a space to consider elements for change in gender relations at the levels of institutional norms & rules, people, activities, resources and power dynamics.

Mentoring Support

The sessions in mentoring are facilitating practicing professionals to give them insight and clarity into complex and challenging issues concerning gender. Mentoring support through gender practitioners is being organized for Alumni members. The purpose is to improve gender consciousness and analysis competency to steer visible gender action and practice at individual, organizational and institutional levels.

Focus Note

A Focus Note on "Gender in Practice" is published quarterly to link alumni learning and practice. The Alumni members are encouraged to contribute in form of interviews and illustrative practices. Write ups and articles by gender practitioners are incorporatedalong with exclusive interview as the Leadership Note and contribution of MoWD in Institutional Change for Gender Equality. Up till now four Focus Notes have been published namely:

Institutional Change for Gender Equality - May 2009
Gender Globalization and Poverty - July 2009
Gender Justice: Claming Rights and Binding Institutions - November 2009
Gender and Leadership: Negotiating Change in Power Relations - February 2010

Web Portal

An Alumni Web Portal has been developed and linked to the MoWD website with salient features such as mentoring support, forum discussions, focus note, gender knowledge resource pool providing access to current gender discussions, new knowledge, key policy frameworks, gender policy and project analysis tools applicable to gender mainstreaming program and training practices, important web links, and announcements of alumni events.

E-Forum Discussion

Through E-Forum Discussion, participants are interacting online, a moderator announces, guides and structures discussions through generating questions on gender issues. The purpose is to share best practices on gender related work and generate new knowledge.