Cairo, Egypt - CCCPA Director Ashraf Swelam, Ambassador Mervat El Tallawy and Ambassador Heba El Marassy inaugurated the opening session for the training course on Gender, Peace and Security on Sunday 13 December 2015.

The course is being provided in collaboration with Arab Women Organization (AWO), the Institute of Diplomatic Studies, the Crisis Management Center Finland (CMC Finland) and UN WOMEN. It is the first in a series of training courses on gender, peace and security and is part of an ongoing commitment to enhance mainstreaming gender in peacekeeping and peacebuilding in Arab countries.

The aim of the training course is to improve capacities of Arab women working in the peacebuilding field to help them understand the needs of women, men, boys and girls in both peacebuilding and conflict settings, and enhance their skills in implementing practices and programmes to address these needs on local, national and international levels.

The five-day training is a classroom-based course designed specifically for women actors from Arab countries in the peacebuilding process. The participants are divided into small groups to facilitate group work and team building. The material is being facilitated by experts from CCCPA to cover topics such as Arab challenges in peace and security, conflict analysis and tools for mainstreaming gender, legal framework of peacekeeping operations, code of conduct as well as sexual exploitation and abuse. 

CCCPA is hosting participants from Jordan, Tunisia, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Yemen and Egypt.

The training is being held at The Institute of Diplomatic Studies in Cairo, Egypt.