Youth-led CSOs Empowered to Implement Gender Transformative Approaches.

Group Photograph

As part of the Gender Transformative Approaches (GTA) Advocacy Agenda of UNOY, Local Youth Corner Cameroon organized and facilitated a 2-day capacity development workshop in Yaounde, Cameroon, supported by the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY).

The purpose of this youth-led initiative is to strengthen the knowledge and capacities of Youth-led peacebuilding CSOs in Gender Transformative Approaches. The initiative builds on UNOY’s GTA toolkit and other evidence-based approaches, as a guide to enable youth-led peacebuilding CSOs to create, adapt and sustain their own organization-specific Gender priorities and envision a path towards achieving them. It responds to root causes of gender inequalities that go unnoticed or surface and resurface within organizations despite gender responsiveness within Civil Society Organizations in Cameroon. 

Session

This Capacity Development Workshop brought together six (06) youth-led organizations in Yaounde including Cameroon Youth for Peace and Development(CYPD), Kachem Outreach for Hope (KOFH), Women in Alternative Action (WAA) Cameroon, United Council for Youth Empowerment (UCYE), Common Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (CYPAN), RAPEES, Local Youth Corner Cameroon (LOYOC) and some University Students. Participants engaged on strong points such as; Integrating Gender into Programming, Gender Storytelling, Identifying and Defying Stereotypes, The Power Walk, and Learning about the Gender Transformative Approaches (tools such as Intersectionality, Gender equity Continuum, etc). According to research, Several Youth-led peacebuilding CSOs lack knowledge and capacity in GTA which ensures more sustainable gender inclusion. This capacity-building workshop will thus, provide a platform for the exchange of experiences and best practices.

The Power Walk Exercise

According to the Project and Communications Officer for Local Youth Corner who facilitated the workshop, “Gender Transformative Approaches are a wakeup call for us all to create strategies that fit our context and work spaces to address gender inequalities from the root causes.”

These Gender Transformative Approaches are essential in;

  • To understand and address the ways in which youth are impacted by the gender norms present within their contexts.
  • To ensure inclusivity so that youth from all backgrounds are able to access, support, and be a part of your programs 
  • To dismantle the barriers young men and women and gender-diverse youth face and work to support and enhance their access to and control over resources.
  • To create sustainable outcomes by creating an environment where all external and internal stakeholders work together to support youth on their journey towards gender equity and liberation.

At the end of the workshop, participants left with the enthusiasm to create and implement context-specific GTA in their various organizations and departments. They were encouraged to censor their organization’s gender equity tools and approaches, using tools like the Gender Equity Continuum, Intersectionality, and Appreciation to determine how transformative they are.

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