Special Needs of Women and Children in Conflict: Training for MONUC

Summary
In February and March 2003, four two-day training courses and two shorter briefings on the special needs of women and children in conflict and post-conflict situations were organized by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) for the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). Given the huge size of the mission area and the fact that many local mission staff do not speak English, which is the official MONUC language, identical seminars were held in two locations (Kinshasa and Kisangani) and in two languages (English and French).

Despite logistical difficulties and the occasional unwillingness of some MONUC personnel – who seemed to regard the seminars more as a nuisance than a benefit – to acknowledge the importance of gender and child protection issues the substantive quality and usefulness of the training was rated highly by the participants. The seminars generated not only knowledge and awareness, but also important recommendations for policy changes and concrete action that were registered with keen interest by the mission leadership.

All evaluations and recommendations in this report are based on UNITAR’s observations during the seminars and, in particular, on oral and written comments received from the lecturers and the participants, who were encouraged to give feedback to UNITAR throughout the courses and to complete a detailed evaluation questionnaire at the end of each seminar. The full text of this evaluation report (including statistics) can be downloaded here.

Project Framework
The seminars were part of UNITAR’s Training Programme for Civilian Personnel in Peacekeeping Operations on the Special Needs of Women and Children in Conflict, which was developed as a three-year initiative by UNITAR in 2001 and successfully launched with two seminars for UNMIBH in Sarajevo in December 2001. Each year, UNITAR organizes training courses for civilian personnel of two or three peacekeeping operations. UNMEE (Ethiopia/Eritrea) is another mission that has already received training.

The courses are designed to provide civilian personnel of peacekeeping operations with tailor-made training on the special needs of women and children in order to enhance the professional preparedness of civilian peacekeeping staff who deal with societies in and after armed conflict. The training familiarizes the participants with the specific needs, human rights, potentials and situations of women and children during armed conflict, repatriation, resettlement, reintegration, post-conflict reconstruction and peace-building.

This training programme is being funded by the Swiss government through the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and by the United Nations Foundation (UNF), through the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP).

Familiarize civilian peacekeeping staff with the specific needs of women and children during armed conflict, repatriation, resettlement, reintegration as well as post-conflict reconstruction efforts;

Analyze international legal standards that provide protection for women and children in conflict situations;

Refresh the participants' knowledge in selected areas of humanitarian, refugee and international human rights law;

Raise their awareness for the the demographic structure of war torn-societies;

Make them understand the important role that women play as partners in assistance operations, during reconstruction, reconciliation and peace-building;

Expose them to the culture, history and social norms of the host country's society with a focus on gender relations;

Provide training on the social behaviour required to deal with their local female counterparts in daily encounters in the field and in contacts with the local governmental and administrative structures;

Increase their understanding for the difficulties of operating in a cross-cultural environment and, thus, help them to become reliable and responsible members of multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations;

Look at the current reconstruction and development process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a focus on women and children.

Though an independent UNITAR programme, the seminars should be seen in the context of related, ongoing UN training activities in this subject area, e.g. the gender and peacekeeping training for military staff offered by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the child protection material for peacekeepers developed by UNICEF. Independently from UNITAR, MONUC is currently offering pre-deployment training of 15 days’ duration in the DRC for military staff. Only two hours of these are devoted to gender, human rights and child protection, but this module is to be extended into a full day, with a second day earmarked for a role-play exercise that will incorporate these three topics. Induction training for MONUC civilian staff is only offered when a group of 20 or so can be put together.

Participation
In total, 101 participants attended the four courses. 42% of them were women. Most participants had been nominated by their supervisors: three weeks before the start of the first seminar, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General instructed all MONUC Section Chiefs to nominate some of their staff members as participants. The Section Chiefs were given a clear list of MONUC departments and field office locations to ensure equitable distribution of places in the seminars among all MONUC departments and regions of the country. A few participants also applied on their own initiative. UNITAR had hoped (and would have had the logistical means available) to teach up to 140 persons, which makes the low turnout disappointing given that no similar training can probably be offered to MONUC in the immediate future. Both English-speaking seminars were far from full, especially the one in Kisangani, where very few MONUC international staff (the main target group of this training, it must well be remembered) showed up despite having (been) registered. This was particularly unfortunate because UNITAR and MONUC organizers relied on the officially nominated participants showing up and had therefore declined to admit several staff members who were not selected by their supervisors, but would have loved to attend on their own initiative.

In line with the guidelines governing the training programme, many participants (but still fewer than expected) were junior or mid-level civilian MONUC staff members. As was actually intended, only some dealt exclusively with women’s or children’s issues as a part of their professional duties. Internationals and locals were equally represented, with the number of Congolese participants particularly high in the two French-speaking seminars. Thanks to an efficient network of UN flights in the Congo, several staff from distant field offices attended the training, though not as many as wished. A limited number of representatives of local women’s, human rights or humanitarian NGOs were also admitted, as were some Congolese government officials.

Although they are not covered by UNITAR’s training mandate, several Military Observers and Civilian Police Officers are normally invited to follow these peacekeeping training courses, and the MONUC seminars were no exception. They agreed with their civilian colleagues that their presence added crucial new perspectives to the training, helped both sides to better understand each other’s concerns and working methods, and that military, police and civilian staff simply must put more emphasis on training (and working!) together if a mission’s capacity to handle gender and child protection issues is to be improved.

Finally, in both Kinshasa and Kisangani a three-hour "wrap-up briefing" was organized, at the specific request of the mission leadership, for senior MONUC staff members who would not have been able to attend two full days of training. The audience was first informed of the purpose, target group and methodology of the UNITAR seminars as well as of their place in peacekeeping training. Afterwards, all trainers gave brief summaries of their presentations, emphasized their main messages and commented on the feedback drawn from the discussions with the participants. Lastly, two participants (one each from the English- and French-speaking seminar) explained why they had attended the training and which benefits they had drawn from it. In terms of attendance and acceptance, these briefings were the mirrored image of the four regular seminars. However, the vast majority of participants, including the Special Representative of the Secretary-General himself, eagerly participated in the briefing and listened to the results achieved during the previous seminars with genuine interes.

Methodology and Training Material
The four UNITAR seminars were almost identical in content at both locations and in both languages. Although similar seminars for other peacekeeping operations have always lasted three days UNITAR limited the length of the seminars to two days because MONUC felt that for many staff members in a hectic field mission environment this would be the maximum amount of time they could be released from their normal duties. (The participants themselves had a rather different opinion: 42% found the seminar “too short.”)

At the beginning of a course, each participant was given a binder of background reading material for further self-study, which contained academic essays, official UN documents, fact sheets, reports, case studies, public information material, printed versions of visual presentations used during the seminars, etc. This binder had been produced by UNITAR in close cooperation with the lecturers and their organizations. Additional material was distributed by most trainers during their own presentations.

MONUC was the first peacekeeping operation to which "wrap-up briefings" were offered, at the suggestion of the mission leadership. This concept attempted to rectify a frequent deficiency of earlier courses, namely the frustration of junior-level participants who appreciate their newly acquired knowledge, but are powerless to effect changes in their work environment and find it difficult to access the decision-makers or convince their supervisors of the importance of the topic since the leadership has not gone through the same type of training. Two vital conditions for the success of these briefings were met: firstly, the genuine support of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General; secondly, the readiness of a high-level mission member (MONUC’s Senior Gender Advisor Ms. Amy Smythe) to act as a moderator because the mission leadership would possibly resist listening to recommendations given by “outsiders” (UNITAR staff or lecturers). As a result, all comments were perceived as coming from within the peacekeeping operation itself and as having been approved by mission "insiders", all of which made the recommendations more acceptable. MONUC’s Office of Gender Affairs and Child Protection Section seemed particularly satisfied that some of their concerns were finally mirrored by other MONUC personnel, who were regarded as "independent" and "authentic" rather than the "biased" experts who tend to be seen as only playing their logical (and therefore less credible) role of promoting their "own" agenda.

Interagency Cooperation
The successful implementation of these courses was mainly due to a well-functioning cooperation between UNITAR, the Civilian Training Section of DPKO in New York, and MONUC. MONUC’s help proved to be vital for the administrative and logistical preparation of the seminars since there was a limit to the number of tasks that could be handled by UNITAR in Geneva, thousands of miles away from the training venues. Upon arrival in the Congo, UNITAR faced numerous logistical and practical problems: technical equipment that had been promised turned out to be unavailable, non-existent or faulty. While some training facilities were inadequate to the point of being unusable, others had been double- and triple-booked for simultaneous use by different departments. In Kisangani in particular the organizers were under the impression that the UNITAR training was simply not taken seriously and that many key players (including participants who had been nominated to attend) were not even aware of the seminars. Due to last-minute improvisations and the untiring efforts of some very supportive, capable and hardworking individuals in MONUC the seminars did eventually take place without the didactic quality or participants’ satisfaction suffering visibly.

In an intended departure from previous practice, the training seminars for this peacekeeping operation relied almost exclusively on in-mission or in-country lecturers. Solely the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) opted for bringing a trainer from abroad for its topic. In designing, developing and implementing the other training modules UNITAR worked closely with MONUC’s Office of Gender Affairs and Child Protection Section, whose staff in turn secured the involvement of yet other actors (UNICEF and MONUC’s Human Rights Section) to establish teaching teams. While the familiarity of in-country trainers with the local situation obviously makes the training content more relevant and concrete, there is also the danger that the availability of in-country personnel is affected by unexpected urgent tasks. This is precisely what happened with trainers from OCHA and UNHCR, who were initially eager and willing to contribute to the seminars in a very substantial way, only to find out that operational emergencies eventually forced them to scale back their involvement at very short notice.

Although the seminars were financed with funds from UNITAR’s programme budget, substantial in-kind contributions (staff working time, ground and air transport in the mission area, equipment and supplies) were made by MONUC,

TRAINING MODULES

WOMEN AND WAR - THE SITUATION, RIGHTS AND NEEDS OF WOMEN IN ARMED CONFLICT
Pia Koller, Women and War Project, International Committee of the Red Cross
Ms. Koller initially described the ICRC’s history, aims, principles and main areas of activity. She then presented the ICRC’s Women and War project, which analyzes the impact of armed conflict on women in order to heighten the awareness of the plight of women and of the protection to which they are entitled. Through a series of emotionally strong, at times shocking video clips produced by the ICRC the participants were made acutely aware of the multi-faceted roles of women in conflict situations, who experience war in a multitude of ways, be it as refugees or victims of mines or rape as well as guerilla fighters, courageous humanitarian activists or girls forced to manage a complete household. The participants discussed whether women are in fact more vulnerable in conflicts than men, eventually discovering that women in conflict situations often accept new roles that can be a source of strength for them, but also require others to support these women in their efforts. Lastly, the participants were briefed on the most important elements of international humanitarian law, such as its main norms, its legal characteristics, the behaviour prohibited by international humanitarian law and the difference between international humanitarian law and human rights.

GENDER AND PEACEKEEPING
Nadine Puechguirbal, MONUC Office of Gender Affairs
Pointing out the difference between “sex” and “gender,” Ms. Puechguirbal discussed stereotypes of “male” and “female” behaviour, culturally imposed gender roles and attitudes, all to raise the participants’ awareness that men and women do experience conflict and post-conflict situations in a completely different manner. Although women continue to be victims of gender-specific violence in conflicts, it was emphasized that women are not victims only but also actors. Participants also learned that one frequent impact of conflict is a marked change in gender roles, with women taking on new and unfamiliar responsibilities (often in addition to their “traditional” roles in the family and household), participating in the political life, learning new skills, and contributing to the war effort or to the peace process. Ms. Puechguirbal cautioned that although women have been very active in promoting peace at the grassroots level, they have remained invisible in the public arena and very often absent at the official peace negotiations. Lastly, Ms. Puechguirbal explained the concept of gender mainstreaming in the UN, which is a global strategy to assess the impact on men and women of any planned action. MONUC’s DDRRR programme was cited as an example of an activity that should be gender-mainstreamed to accommodate, for example, the needs of female ex-combatants and their dependents. Possible causes for the disappointingly low number of female staff in peacekeeping operations were analyzed, and solutions discussed that would ensure more women in high-ranking positions. Likewise, the participants’ attention was drawn to the careful balancing act that peacekeeping personnel must perform between promoting the UN’s “human rights culture” (including a progressive look at gender aspects) and respecting the host country’s local culture, on which their mere presence may have a decisive impact. It was strongly stressed that culture should never be used as a justification for violence against women.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND CULTURE
Biriyai Theophilus, MONUC Human Rights Officer
Ms. Theophilus briefly spoke about the definition, characteristic elements and the UN concept of human rights before reminding the participants of the main human rights instruments, especially those protecting women’s rights. She then emphasized the importance of viewing culture as a changeable and evolving phenomenon that is shaped by a multitude of factors, not as an “untouchable” set of eternal rules enslaving people. The participants were invited to have a critical look at culture and to understand that culture is often abused by power-holders to exploit vulnerable groups. Underlining the firm commitment of the UN to the primacy of human rights rather than the primacy of culture, a call was made for culture to serve people, not vice versa. The presentation was concluded with a discussion of traditional practices harmful to women and girls, which the participants discovered are often promoted by women themselves. This example also served to demonstrate that education is the key to a better protection of human rights, with people becoming increasingly aware of their legal entitlements and of the negative impact of certain cultural practices

PROTECTING CHILDREN IN AND AFTER CONFLICT
Maryse Fontus, MONUC Child Protection Section
Sarah Norton-Staal, Regional Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Nairobi
Trish Hiddleston, UNICEF Kinshasa
Nathalie Man, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Goma
Ms. ThIn the presentations on child protection issues, the participants were made aware of the different perceptions of childhood, ranging from the various threshold ages in international and domestic law to the social and cultural definitions of a child, all of which are likely to be thrown in disarray by armed conflict. The participants also learned why children need physical, legal and social protection, especially in times or war. All lecturers emphasized that despite their lack of fully developed cognitive skills children should be consulted on decisions that affect them and that all such decisions (including peace agreements negotiated by political leaders) should always be targeted to achieve their premier aim, namely the respect for the best interest of the child. Distinct parts of the training module were devoted to discussing the sexual exploitation of children in times of conflict and to the phenomenon of child soldiers. The participants learned how the definition of a child soldier had evolved (now covering any child contributing to the war effort, including cooks, porters, messengers and “wives”), what role child soldiers play in the conflict in the DRC, and how MONUC adapts (or ought to adapt) its DDRRR activities to cater to the needs of child soldiers. Acknowledging that no solutions would be found overnight, it was discussed which minimum protection measures both armed groups and MONUC should implement to at least prevent a further increase in the use of child soldiers. The training module was concluded with an overview of structural post-conflict reforms that would benefit children, e.g. changes in the juvenile justice system and specialized training for law-enforcement personnel.

MONUC'S ROLE WITHIN THE HUMANITARIAN COMMUNITY IN THE DRC
Laurent Guepin, MONUC Humanitarian Affairs Section in Kisangani
Mr. Guepin initially presented statistics on the dire humanitarian, social and refugee situation in the DRC and explained how the war and the collapse of the Congolese state and its infrastructure had both caused and aggravated this crisis. He then outlined the mandate, actions and partners of MONUC’s Humanitarian Affairs Section, which sees itself as a “facilitator” between MONUC and humanitarian actors. As concrete examples of the section’s work Mr. Guepin mentioned the transport of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel by MONUC aircraft, the identification of targets for humanitarian action by MONUC staff in the field, the organization of assessment missions in cooperation with OCHA, and the maintenance of a constant dialogue among all humanitarian actors in the Congo – all this with a constant focus on supporting vulnerable groups. In a role-play exercise the participants were tasked to plan an evaluation mission to a town affected by fighting and a humanitarian crisis, addressing aspects such as team composition, activities to be undertaken, and the identification of problems that would require a humanitarian response.

OCHA: COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS AND ASSISTANCE TO MOST VULNERABLE GROUPS
Jean-Bosco Mofiling, OCHA Humanitarian Affairs Assistant
In his presentation, Mr. Mofiling gave examples of humanitarian activities carried out by OCHA in cooperation with MONUC, such as information-gathering, planning, supporting the implementation of projects, and resource mobilization through OCHA’s annual “Consolidated Appeal Process”, which lists the country’s humanitarian needs and is presented to donors to advocate for funding of projects. Mr. Mofiling emphasized that in trying to provide a timely, effective and adapted response to humanitarian crises many projects are implemented in favour of internally displaced persons in the DRC, with women and children targeted as a priority.

Selected Comments from Participants
The participants completed a detailed evaluation questionnaire at the end of the seminars. Although most questions came with a pre-defined set of answers that participants could tick off, many participants made use of the "Any comments?" sections on the questionnaire and added more specific comments, some of which are summarized or reproduced below:

General:

"A very exhaustive and informative training course."

"Very well planned. Sharing experiences is the best way to learn!."

"The programme was dense and interesting."

"It is very important that more men take part in these sessions!"

"It is desirable to offer this training to diverse categories of personnel, especially to those who are in contact with the local population, be it military, the police or NGOs in the field!"

"Perfectly done, but too short."

"You should film the training and send the video tape to MONUC offices all over the country!" (This recommendation was actually executed with the support of the MONUC Public Information Section, which video-taped the French-speaking seminar in Kinshasa.)

"Now the talk is over, let's implement!"

Training modules and lecturers:

"The presentations were excellent and it was great that the participants werde made to continually take part in the discussions and debates."

"Well thought-out in terms of simplicity for a non-specialist to understand."

"An interesting methodology that enabled everyone to participate, to find solutions together and to apply them to the proposed exercises."

"The trainers were open to ideas and feedback from the audience."

"The case studies were interesting, thought-provoking and stimulated discussions."

"Very good working materials."

Course objectives:

"A good opportunity to share views and experiences."

"The knowledge gained will allow me to correct certain things in my work."

"Senior management needs to be sensitized first! If they don't 'get the concepts' or are not made aware of these issues, then it's not likely that the support staff will be interested or care."

"This kind of training should be repeated on a periodical basis."

"Training should be mandatory for mission personnel!"

Topics or items that could be included in the future:

HIV/AIDS;

Awareness-raising training on what sort of behaviour by UN peacekepers themselves may contribute to the exploitation of women;

Practical training on cross-cultural and gender-sensitive behaviour for peacekeeping staff.

Recommendations
Based on UNITAR's own observations and on the participants' feedback, it is recommended that UNITAR:

Continues offering these courses to all relevant peacekeeping operations, including those that are "traditional" missions with a strong military component;

Advocates that this training is offered to all types of personnel in a peacekeeping operation, by UNITAR or whichever part of the UN system is competent to deal with the targeted type of staff;

Encourages peacekeeping operations to follow MONUC's example in accepting UNITAR’s offer to organize an intensive, concise "wrap-up briefing" for senior-level staff members in addition to the normal seminar(s);

Discourages peacekeeping missions from opting for a curriculum of less than three days' duration;

Studies the possibility of offering a similar seminar to DPKO staff at UN Headquarters in New York.

Although UNITAR has no authority to make recommendations to MONUC or other peacekeeping operations, it is worth recording the most frequent suggestions made by participants. They called upon MONUC to:

Realize that issues like gender and child protection concern all MONUC departments and activities, not only those who have "children" or "gender" in their name;

Re-write the standard operating procedures of the peacekeeping operation to make them gender-sensitive;

Implement appropriate projects (some of them quite possibly with UNITAR's assistance) to ensure that the knowledge and awareness generated in the seminars reaches more MONUC staff (including military personnel and staff in isolated field locations) as well as the local population (e.g. through MONUC Quick Impact Projects);

Utilize the mission's logistical and organizational capabilities, in particular the Public Information Section and "Radio Okapi", to raise awareness for gender issues and child protection concerns;

Ensure that all working groups and teams in MONUC, whichever task they may carry out, comprise men and women;

Positively record a staff member's participation in a seminar like this in that person's Performance Appraisal Report;

Establish informal, but regular follow-up meetings of seminar participants and other interested MONUC staff members (possibly combined with an e-mail discussion list) in order to keep gender and child protection issues on MONUC's agenda.