27 June 2008 -- Among UNAMID’s activities is building the skills of women in Darfur as a way of equipping them to be active players in the socio-economic life of Darfur. One such recent activity, concluded on 26 June, was a two-day skills training workshop on organizational management and proposal writing for women groups in North Darfur, which included poetry recitals on peace and a short drama by the participants illustrating that they had gained knowledge to save money.

The training helped the women to free themselves from the necessity to pay someone to develop project proposals for them to submit to appropriate agencies.

At the conclusion of the training, the women requested UNAMID’s support to register their organizations with the North Darfur Humanitarian Commission and Ministry of Social Welfare.

Addressing the women at the closing ceremony, the Head of Office North Darfur Miguel Martin reaffirmed UNAMID’s commitment to support capacity building for national women’s groups to enable them to contribute more effectively in the political, economic and social life of Darfur. The Wali’s Adviser on Women and Children’s Issues encouraged the participants to embrace the new opportunities offered by UNAMID and requested that such opportunities be extended to rural areas.

One of the major observations of the organizers, UNAMID’s Gender Advisory Unit, was that the IDP participants were interacting well with other groups. The training will proceed to Nyala and El Geniena in the coming weeks.

Such activities are taking place within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 which was adopted on 19 June this year, building on the achievements of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security adopted on 31 October 2000.

Resolution 1820 reaffirmed the important role of women in the prevention of and the resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace building, and peace keeping and in post conflict reconstruction. UNAMID has been steadfast in reaching out to civil society and involving women’s groups and leaders at all levels in reconciliation and mediation efforts.

Notably, an integral part of the Mission’s mandate is the task of harnessing the capacity of women to participate in the peace process through political representation, economic empowerment and protection from gender based violence.

The ongoing training activities are thus building blocks towards the goals enshrined in the Resolution.