Page 24 - Coespu Magazine 2017-2

prerequisite for becoming a Gender Advisor, but it should also be mandatory for all deployed
personnel, at every level. Men and women alike. Starting from the Commander, to privates and
drivers included. Leadership is key, if we want to have an impact on our operations and Gender
Advisors cannot act independently from the rest of the unit.
During my experience as Gender Advisor and especially as trainer on gender issues, I have learned
that gender training is more than providing information and developing skills. It is not limited at
acquiring knowledge – thought information and data are essential. It rather represents a process
aiming to change attitudes and behaviours. It is a question of changing mind-sets.
What I have learned is that my responsibility is about helping women and men to understand the
role gender plays within our societies and the impact that this has on our lives. It is about supporting
people acquiring the knowledge and developing the skills necessary for gaining the right attitude
that will lead to advancing gender equality in their daily lives and work.
I learned that my role is to train individuals in order to bring about collective transformation.
Training is the tool I have to have an impact on people coming from every corner of the world. It is
like a window opened for me only for few hours, and I know that I cannot miss this unique
opportunity to make a difference. If I can get my students to fully grasp the importance of gender, I
know that they will bring back home important messages, and that this will have a real impact on
their peacekeeping activities
and on everybody’s lives.
CoESPU offers a diverse
programme of training, not
only focusing on “Gender
protection” and “Protection
of civilians”, and what I
appreciate the most is the
ability and the attention in
including a gender
perspective in a cross cutting
manner into different training
modules.
Every time I go there, I spend
hours in preparing my
classes, reading the most recent articles, studying new UN Resolutions, updating the PowerPoint
presentations. Training after training, I have realised that students are certainly interested in
PowerPoint presentations (they really love them!), but what they need most is to create a connection
with the trainer. They need to understand what I am talking about, what “gender” means, - not only
on a white board - but in their everyday lives. They need to understand that promoting gender
equality and supporting a full and meaningful participation of women in peace building, peace
keeping and conflict prevention is not a question of discriminating men, on the contrary . Having
more competent women working on the entire conflict cycle is essential, if we want to achieve
peace and the entire society – not only women - will benefit from this. If we are to ensure that we
have the right people in place, we need to tap into the female human resource base as much as into
the male one. It is not a matter of ‘soft power’ - it is a matter of ‘brain power’.

18