Barun Gurung, WOCAN Lead Trainer and Abidah Setyowati, WOCAN Trainer and Core Associate, facilitated the Gender Integrated Planning training for the IUCN’s Mangrove for the Future (MFF) Program from 20-24 April 2015 in Trat Province of Thailand. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce and equip workshop participants with a gender framework for gender responsive planning and identify key entry points for gender integration in resilience assessment and program design and implementation in Phase 3 of MFF. One of the training outputs was the development of work plans by each country program to integrate gender into MFF program implementation in their country contexts.
The training was attended by 24 participants comprised of members of the IUCN regional office and country offices and partners from the Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Seychelles.
The training methodology was based on principles of Adult Learning Theory and used a variety of participatory methods of enquiry, learning by doing, group discussions, role plays and brief presentations.
The training content consisted of 4 modules:
• Module 1: Situation analysis using key gender concepts;
• Module 2: Developing objectives (Impacts and Outcomes) using key gender concepts;
• Module 3: Developing activities and inputs using key gender concepts;
• Module 4: Monitoring and evaluation (indicators, risks and theory of change) using key gender concepts
The five day (s) training program also included a field day in which participants visited nearby coastal fishing communities to gather data. Beyond providing a real context for conducting the situational analysis, the field visit was an especially useful learning experience due to the insights generated both from the community members and the experiences of the non- governmental organizations initiatives.
Based on the learnings generated from the field visit and subsequent discussions between participants and members of the Sustainable Development Foundation, the participants were relatively well situated to begin the planning exercises.
Upon completion of the 4 modules for gender-integrated planning, participants developed individual country action plans that outlined the steps and timeline of how they would proceed with integrating gender into MFF program implementation in their country contexts.