PALU, Central Sulawesi, 25-28 March, 2019: To ensure gender-responsive development, Central Sulawesi provincial administration, with UNFPA’s support, held a hands-on workshop to integrate gender into the works of local development planning Agency (BAPEDA) and stakeholders from all development sectors.

The initiatives from the workshop will be further discussed and consolidated in the upcoming provincial development planning meeting (Musrenbang) for adoption into the provincial Mid Term Development Planning (RPJMD) 2020-2024.

“The aim is to integrate gender in all development sectors and with close involvement of all elements of the society. We want to develop the capacity of officials from all provincial and district level offices, so they can highlight gender principles through their respective mandates,” said Ihsan Bashir Head of Provincial Office for Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (DP3A).   

Yulius Hendra from Pattiro an NGO on good governance explained that mainstreaming gender into development requires strong commitment, favorable polices and programmes, a working group consisting focal points from all sectors, adequate resources including staffing and budget, availability of disaggregated data and networks. “These elements are necessary to ensure concrete, continued gender mainstreaming efforts. While we cannot change the current government work plans but we do have rooms to enhance them (the workplans) for gender mainstreaming so women’s role is central as planners, decision makers and also as beneficiaires,” he added,

UNFPA Prevention of Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE) Coordinator Ita Fatia Nadia said that this workshop, along with other gender and GBV prevention trainings and workshops will enhance local capacity for gender programming for improved development planning and key initiatives from such meetings will be compiled to feed into the RPJMD 2020-2024 planning by Bapeda.