Mainstreaming gender in border security focus of OSCE-hosted training course in Vienna

An interactive three-day Training-of-Trainers (ToT) course on mainstreaming gender in border security, organized by the OSCE’s Border Security and Management Unit of the Transnational Threats Department, concluded on 28 August 2019 in Vienna.

Twenty gender focal points from border security-related agencies of OSCE participating States learned about the principles of adult education, public speaking techniques and communication skills. They were trained on how to successfully convey the concept of mainstreaming gender to their leadership as well as to colleagues in their agencies and how to overcome resistance to this concept.

The participants, members of the OSCE Gender Equality Network, engaged in practical exercises on identification of cases of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, within their institutions but also in communities. They discussed possible ways forward to increase the participation and to achieve the successful recruitment of female border and police officers. The gender focal points also shared good practices and success stories on how to integrate a gender perspective in their work.

This ToT course is one of the main results of an extra-budgetary programme made possible by the financial contributions of Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Norway. In addition to this and several other training courses and activities, an online training course on mainstreaming gender in the security sector was developed in 2018.

Border security focal points from Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended the course.