Events and Activities

Bern Training Workshop

TSD - Culture Gender and Human Rights Branch in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development Corporation (SDC) organised the first training workshop on "Mediating Change through Culturally Sensitive Approaches." This one-day workshop was organized in Bern, Switzerland on August 19, 2005.

There were 17 participants at the training including staff from SDC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss International NGOs and the media. They were a very serious group, committed to their best in the training.

The workshop focused on the following objectives:

• Analysis of the importance of socio-cultural factors in development work;
  
• Identification and analysis the tensions between human rights and gender standards and  cultural norms and practices;
  
• Introduction and the application of the knowledge and skills needed to use the Culture Lens;
  
• Evaluation of the curricula, content and learning tools provided by the Culture Training Manual produced by UNFPA.

During the training workshop, participants reviewed the importance of socio-cultural analysis in development work especially in the sensitive areas of gender and human rights. Participants were also introduced to the "Culture Lens" as a tool for development programming. The role of development practitioners as facilitators of social change in different cultural settings explored and discussed. Finally, culturally sensitive approaches were reviewed and participants discuss how they could apply these approaches in their daily work life and integrate them into their organizational work.

The training curricula were highly evaluated by the participants and there were excellent recommendations on how to strengthen certain components of the manual.

The outcome of the Bern training workshop created better understanding within SDC of UNFPA work in the areas of gender, human rights and cultural sensitivity.