Under a commission from the Kyushu International Center of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW) holds an annual seminar for central and local government officials in developing countries who are in charge of gender mainstreaming policies.
The purpose of the seminar is to foster government officials who can promote gender mainstreaming policies comprehensively and effectively in developing countries, toward a gender-equal society.
This year, the seminar was held from Monday, June 6 to Monday, July 4, 2016 with nine participants from eight countries: Bhutan, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, and East Timor.
The participants first presented their country reports to describe the situation and problems that their home countries face when addressing gender mainstreaming, thereby sharing the problems with other participants.
Designed to help the participants comprehensively understand the concepts, methods, and theories involved in gender mainstreaming, the seminar provides a well-balanced mix of lectures, workshops, site visits and presentations. In particular, the workshops and presentations are organized to serve as opportunities for interactive learning for both instructors and participants.
This year’s session on gender mainstreaming in rural areas included a wide variety of curriculums, taking advantage of the features of Kitakyushu City, the venue of the seminar. Specifically, on top of attending a lecture on the city’s efforts to increase incomes of workers in agriculture, forestry and fishery industries, the participants visited a female farmers’ group engaged in processing, development and sales of local specialties in the city, as well as the shop where such items were sold. When visiting the female farmers’ group, the participants sampled miso and dressings as examples of processed products. They thus learned about the cooperative activities that exists between the city and female farmers through the lecture and the visit site.
During the approximately one-month seminar period, the participants climbed Mt. Sarakura and visited Kokura Castle on their days off and cultivated friendships with each other. They lived and spent some time together on their days off, enabling them to understand each other’s home country and discuss gender equality at leisure. Accordingly, at the action plan presentation on the final day of the seminar, they exchanged opinions in a lively atmosphere, making the event even more significant.
