Report on Training Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in Ministry of

Higher Education

July 30 – August 2, 2017

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Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3

Objective ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Target Universities ................................................................................................................................. 5

Modality …………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………5

Day 1: Introduction and course start …………………………………………………………………………..5

Day 2: Gender Mainstreaming System in the Ministry of Higher Education…………………7

Day 3: Gender Mainstreaming System in the Ministry of Higher Education…………………8

Day 4: Skill Building , Developing action plans…………………………………………………………….10

challenges and Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 12

Concluding Note .................................................................................................................................. 12

ANNEX 1: Agenda of Training ............................................................................................................... 13

ANNEX 2: Pictures of Training .............................................................................................................. 16

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Introduction

The Ministry of Higher Education has assigned either a Gender Manager or a Gender Focal Point in most

of the public universities to promote and maintain gender mainstreaming at the university level in

Afghanistan.

The Gender Unit of the MoHE has always been in contact with the managers and focal points. This unit

through their contact and monitoring realized that gender focal points have a limited understanding of

their terms of reference, which suggests that they require a comprehensive training to get familiarized

with their terms and references and core responsibilities. Moreover, Gender Officers are not aware of

most of the activities and decisions that are taken in the university; therefor, to introduce the role of

gender officers to the university leadership, MoHE has invited universities’ vice chancellors and HR

Directors to the program.

Thus, the Ministry of Higher Education/ Gender Unit with the support of HEDP organized four days

training workshop on gender mainstreaming in the ministry of higher education from 30 July 2017 to 2

August 2017. The purpose for this training workshop was to share the gender related policy documents

and initiatives with representatives of higher education from 29 provinces.

The main objective of the four days training program for the University Gender Officers and university

leadership was as follows:

- Gender Awareness and Gender Mainstreaming

- TOR (Terms of Reference) of Gender Officers of Universities

- Inclusion of Gender in annual budgeting plan of Universities

- Inclusion of Gender in HR recruitment process

- Making of their action plans based on their TORs and reporting system

- Ministry’s Gender Strategy

- Anti- Harassment policy of the Ministry

- Grievance Redressed Mechanism

This short report provides an over view on the agenda, flow of the four days training workshop as well

as the discussions and outcome of the workshop.

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Objective

The training objective was to update the mentioned representatives of the ongoing work related to

women empowerment in the higher education as well as share updates and information related to

gender mainstreaming within the ministry. The training as also an opportunity for the provincial

representatives to share their progress as well as their shortcoming related to promoting women’s

participation as well as gender mainstreaming.

Moreover, this training mainly aimed to aware Gender Officers of their TORs, roles and main

responsibilities; furthermore, let university leadership to understand the role of Gender Officers and

involve them in making any plan (annual, budget, ask for their contribution with them while implanting

their tasks).

Target Universities

The training was organized between 30 July 2017 to 2 August 2017 for directors of colleagues and

universities, deputy heads, representatives of human resources and gender units of 29 provinces

including Herat, Mazar, Laghman, Nangarhar, Zabul, Kabul, Jawazjan, Sari Pul, Badakhshan, Baghlan,

Nangarhar, Kunar, Ghazni, Bamyan, Daikundi, Farah, Nimroz, Ghor, Faryab, provinces.

The provincial

representatives also

had an opportunity to

share their experiences

and initiatives at the

provincial level with

each other. The

participants were

encouraged to use

these experiences in

their own provinces

where applicable and

learn from each other.

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Modality

Due to the size of the participants of the training workshop, open group discussions, experience sharing

exchange, lecture presentations and interventions by gender unit manager was carried out as

methodology. The participants were also given opportunity to share their personal views and

experiences especially on the issues of women empowerment and participation and gender

mainstreaming at ministry of higher education. They also were asked to provide practical

recommendations that match their province diversity and needs.

Day 1 Morning: Introduction Session

The first day of the training workshop started with participation of senior officials from ministry of

higher education, ministry of

education, Kabul University

lecturers and ministry of

women’s affairs. After the

recitation of Holy Quran and

National Anthem, the acting

Minister of Higher Education

welcomed the participants to

the training workshop as well

as shared his commitment in

support women’s

participation in the higher education and gender equality. Following the Minister, the Deputy Minister

for Higher Education also spoke about the importance of implementation of the gender strategy as well

as other related policies at the higher education institutions by the key actors who were invited to

attend the training workshop. Moreover, HEDP Director Mr. Noor Ahmad Darwish presented the main

activities of HEDP for female and including gender issues in all components of HEDP. The deputy

minister of women’s affairs as well as the director for gender unit of Ministry of Higher Education also

shared their views on importance of gender equality and women’s participation and their decision

making role in higher education. They also emphasized on harassment free environment for female

students.

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The second panel in the morning included university lecturers as well as focal points from number

provinces. The speakers spoke about the gender equality challenges in higher education, importance of

improving systems and procedures as well as the important role of gender focal points.

Day 1 Afternoon: Course Start

The afternoon session of the training workshop started with a brief overview on the purpose of the

workshop, the outline for content of the remaining days as well as the expectations of the participants.

Through an open discussion the participants were given the opportunity to share their expectations.

While some shared their expectations from the workshop, majority also shared their challenges in their

respective provinces.

The first agenda of the

training workshop was

regarding gender and

roles. In this agenda

item, the participants

were encouraged to

share their thoughts

on gender roles,

norms, cultural and

traditional practices as

well as presentation

was made to share the

differences between sex and gender as well as how the gender norms are affecting men and women

differently.

The discussion on gender and roles also evolved around the strategic needs of gender mainstreaming

and why it is important. The practical and strategic needs to work for change were discussed with the

participants. As well as the implementation of these needs were presented.

Following the discussion on the gender and roles, the gender mainstreaming efforts in Afghanistan since

the last 17 years were discussed. Information on Afghan Constitution, National Action Plan on Women

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of Afghanistan, National Action Plan on Implementation of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security,

EVAW law as well as CEDAW, MDGs, Beijing Plan of Action were briefly introduced to the participants.

Day 2: Gender Mainstreaming System in the Ministry of Higher Education

On the second day of the training workshop, the gender strategy of ministry of higher education was

re-introduced and discussed with the participants. At the beginning of the session the gender director

as ministry was invited to provide an update on the process of development of the strategy as well as

the level of implementation of the strategy since the launch.

In order to find out the level of implementation of the strategy since 2016, an open discussion was

carried out where participants were encouraged to share their experiences as well as challenges in

terms of implementation of the strategy.

The participants from various provinces shared their experiences and initiatives in relation to

implementation of gender strategy. For example in Sar-i- pul, Badakhshan and Herat provinces, there

have been efforts by head of universities as well as gender focal points to establish gender committees.

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Moreover they have also taken initiative of reaching out to high school female students about to

graduate from 12 grades to attend the university entry exam and join the university. It was also

discussed that in some provinces like Mazar and Faryab there have been awareness raising sessions for

the employees and lecturers on the universities on importance of female recruitment.

In some provinces, the gender strategy of ministry is not being implemented at all. One of the reasons

shared by participants from Kunar and Nangarhar provinces has been the absence of gender focal points

and their appointments. Others also shared limitations on lack of budget and access to resources to

implement the gender strategy.

Beside the content of the gender strategy, the recruitment mechanism and meaningful inclusion of

women through human resources departments were also discussed. The representatives from human

resources departments shared their initiatives in some provinces on providing positive discrimination

strategy towards appointments of female employ and lecturers. Some provincial participants also raised

their concerns on lack of interest, limited resources available to female employees to join ministry of

higher education.

The terms of reference of the gender officers was also shared with the participants of the training

workshop. The purpose of this was to bring all key actors within higher education institutions to be

aware of the roles and responsibilities of the focal points as well the support and coordination they

need to carry on their responsibilities successfully

The policy of harassment at workplace was also presented to the participants. The gender unit once

against provided an overview of the development process of the policy as well as some provincial

participants shared their initiatives for implementation of this policy. The implementations of the policy

at various levels need attention and according to the provincial participants it is not yet fully

implemented. Although there have been some awareness raising about this policy within the higher

education institutions there is yet to be proper implementation mechanism established.

Day 3: Gender Mainstreaming System in the Ministry of Higher Education

After recap of day two of the training workshop, the participants were provided with presentation on

ministry’s GRM policy. The focal point from HEDP was requested to provide information on what GRM

policy is, how it was development and established, how it is linked to the gender mainstreaming work

as well as how it should be used.

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The focal point for HEDP provided general information on how the GRM policy was development, what

is the purpose as well as accessing it online and registering or filing a complaint mechanism. While the

GRM is a general complaint mechanism, it can be specifically used for the gender discrimination cases

and harassment incidents where assigned staff within HEDP will gather the case, share it with relevant

structure for follow up, verification and resolving the issue.

On day three the training workshop participants were divided into three categories according to their

designation and were asked to work on approaches and mechanisms to improve situation of working

women and university students in higher education institutions. The three working groups consisted of:

Head and deputy head of provincial universities

Provincial Human Resources/ Admin Managers/ officers

Provincial Gender Focal points

After two hours of discussion numbers of suggestions were made to improve the gender mainstreaming

work in higher education institutions. Some of the recommendations are as follows:

1. Planning and allocation of specific budget for the activities according to documents related to

gender mainstreaming in the higher education institutions

2. Improve coordination between head of higher education institutions and gender unit at

ministry of higher education for follow up and better implementation of gender strategy

3. Design and implement awareness raising campaigns for families and high school girls for

enrolment of girls in higher education institutions

4. Organize and conduct capacity building programs for research, report writing, gender

mainstreaming, etc for both lecturers at higher education institutions as well as the gender focal

points

5. Gender focal points should be supported to sit in various academic committees where decisions

on enrollment, appointment, promotion of female staff and students are taking place

The participants were trained on budget process in Afghan government, the gender budgeting, how to

develop budget taking into consideration women and men employees needs as well as the budget cycle

that included planning, approval, implementation and audit.

The training participants especially those with finance and admin roles, also shared their experiences in

terms of budget planning cycle within government as well as how it to integrate different needs in

accordance with higher education institutions various roles and responsibilities.

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The training participants were also provided brief information on gender budgeting steps and processes.

This included the needs, situation analysis, assessing budget allocation, policies and documents in

relation to gender, monitoring of service delivery in accordance to gender lens and evaluation of results

Day 4: Skills Building

Developing Action Plans

On the last day of the training two skills building information was shared. The

training participants were provided with information on how an action plan is

developed, what steps are needed to develop an effective plan and how to

assess the implementation of their plans.

The training participants also shared their planning development procedure which is in accordance

with the civil service commission format. The participants shared their experiences of ensuring the

plans are implemented and it is monitored from time to time.

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The training participants also received information on report writing, types of reports, and

components of a report, effective writing skills and how to write specifically and meaningfully.

The training participants shared their experience on using specific formats provided to them by civil

service commission. The representative of gender unit at ministry also shared their experience of

challenges in terms of getting specific reports from gender focal points. It was suggested that the

participants adopt the some of the ideas from the training for their internal reporting mechanism

especially within the gender team.

And, the program ended with a closing ceremony and awarding the certificates by the Deputy Ministers

and directors of MoHE.

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The Challenges and Recommendations

Every event small or large ends up with few challenges. These set of challenges identified and

recommendations provided are only for the purpose of organization future events related to gender,

women empowerment for senior officials at ministry of higher education.

Concluding Note

The training was satisfactory for all the participants, and well-managed by the MoHE Gender Unit with

contribution of HEDP. Most of the attendees were expecting for continuation of such programs, as they

mentioned it was really helpful for them to be familiarized with Gender Officers’ main responsibilities.

Moreover, the leadership team promised for involving gender officers in most of the decision making

programs and will suggest a specific amount of annual budget to this department based on their plans.

The number of training participants above 30 was unrealistic and it made it impossible to make the training workshop more participatory due to time limitation.

It is strongly recommended that such training workshops are organized for not more than 25 participants. This will enable the facilitator and trainees to take a lot of time for exchange as well as use different methodologies of learning

The training venue was not appropriate for the training workshop. The cinema style setting was really tiring to keep the participants sit in same setting for four complete days without movement or group work or energizers etc

It is recommended that such trainings are held outside the ministry’s venue to give more space and look to the training as well.

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ANNEX 1: Gender Training Agenda Training Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in Ministry of Higher Education

30 July 2017 – 2 August 2017

Ministry of Higher Education, Kabul – Afghanistan

Sunday, 30 July 2017

09: 00 a.m. – 04:00 p.m.

Time Session Facilitator

9:00- 12:00 Introductory Session:

- Recitation of Holy Quran - National Anthem - Welcome Note - Key note speech by H.E. Minister of Higher Education

- Key note speech by H.E. Deputy Minister for finance and

Administration of MoHE

- Key note speech by HEDP Director

- Key note speech by H.E. Deputy Minister/ Ministry of

Woman Affairs

Break

- Ms. Omid Afghan

- Shahla Farid

12:00-1:30 Lunch and Prayer Break

1:30-2:00 - Purpose of the training workshop - Outline of the training workshop - Expectations - Methodology

Samira

Hamidi

2:00-3:00 Session 1: Gender and Gender Roles

- Sex, gender, and gender roles - Gender and Islam - Practical and strategic gender needs

Samira

Hamidi

3:00- 3:15

Break

3:15- 4:00 Session 2: Gender mainstreaming for ensuring women’s rights - Gender mainstreaming - Women’s Rights and Human Rights

Samira

Hamidi

4.00 Wrap up – Day 1

Samira

Hamidi

Monday, 31 July 2017

09: 00 a.m. – 04:00 p.m.

9:00 Recap of Day 1

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9:30 Session 3: What is a budget? - Definition of a budget - Core and External Budgets

Samira

Hamidi

10.00 Session 4: Afghanistan’s Budget Process - Budget Cycle - Budget Guidelines

Samira

Hamidi

11.00 Break

11.15 Session 5: What is Gender Responsive Budgeting?

Samira

Hamidi

12:00 Lunch

1:30 Session 6: The Five Step Approach to GRB - Step 1: Analyzing the Situations of Women, Men, Girls and

Boys - Step 2: Assessing the gender-responsiveness of sector

policies Error! Bookmark not defined. - Step 3: Assessing budget allocations - Step 4: Monitoring spending and service delivery - Step 5: Assessing outcomes

Samira

Hamidi

3:00 Break

3.15pm Session 7: Tools for GRB - Tool 1: Gender Disaggregated Beneficiary Assessment - Tool 2: Gender Disaggregated Public Expenditure Benefit

Samira

Hamidi

4.00pm Wrap up – Day 2

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

09: 00 a.m. – 04:00 p.m.

9:00 Recap of Day 2

9am Session 8: Tools of Gender Responsive Budgeting

- Tool 3: Gender-aware public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS)

- Tool 4: Gender-disaggregated public revenue incidence analysis

- Tool 5: Gender-aware policy appraisal - Tool 6: Gender-aware budget statement - Tool 7: Gender-disaggregated analysis of the budget on time

use - Tool 8: Gender-aware medium-term economic policy

framework

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11.00am Break

11.15am Session 9: Understanding Gender Approach of Ministry of Higher Education

- Ministry’s Gender Strategy, Aim and Workscope

12:00pm Lunch

1:30 Session 10: Gender Responsibilities at Ministry of Higher Education

- Gender Officers’ TOR

2:00 Session 11: Fighting against Discrimination and Harassment

- Anti- Harassment Policy and Action Plan for implementation - -

2.15 Break

3.15 Session 12: GRM and the procedure

4:00 Wrap up – Day 3

Wednesday 2 August 2017

09: 00 a.m. – 04:00 p.m.

9:00 Recap of Day 3

9.00 Session 13: Action Planning - What is an action plan? - Components of an action plan - How to implement action Plan

11.00 Break

11.15 Session 14: Report Writing - What a report? - What are components of a good report? - Types of reports

12:00 Lunch

1.30pm Session 14: Report Writing (continuation) - What a report? - Basics of writing a report - Basics of writing (writing in general) - Reporting based on work

3:00 Closing Session

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ANNEX 2: Gender Training Pictures

First day of the program- Opening ceremony

Last day of the program- awarding certificates

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Last day of the program- awarding certificates

Last day of the program- Closing ceremony

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Second day of the Program

Group Work – during training session

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Group Work – during training session

Group Work – during training session