Gender debate guides the Annual Meeting of HEKS Brazil Partners
04 de May de 2016Published on: 5th April, 2016
The Annual Meeting of HEKS Brazil Partners was held in Salvador (Bahia) between 29th and 31st March. The meeting had the following aims: updating communication on the institution’s policy; improving understanding of the Country’s Management Cycle Programme (all of the projects supported in Brazil) and partner organizations’ initiatives; identifying challenges and defining action agreements circulated between partners on the Country Programme’s central topics at national and regional levels (Latin American).
A further target of the event was to discuss and define a gender strategy for the group of partners in the cerrado region. With this need in mind, the meeting was organized with CESE, which facilitated training in the area. “Holding this workshop provided an understanding of what a gender approach within projects means and has also given various elements for an institutional gender policy at each organization”, evaluates Vicente José Puhl, Country Programme director. Vicente also highlights that the meeting was relevant, so that field recommendations are defined, considering that the programme will include guidance for the group of partners. “We made a good start at this”, he evaluates.
“It was an important opportunity for further investigation and we left more convinced that the issue of gender should be included in all of our institutional actions, whether they are in a network or in the foundations. From what each partner has presented, these few days have shown that we can improve and enhance what we are already doing” comments Marilene Alves de Souza, Administrative Agriculture Centre in the North of Minas (CAA-NM) coordinator.
Zaira Moutinho, Commission in Defence of Extractivist Communities’ Rights (CODECEX) coordinator, ends the training with the feeling and understanding that there is a collective effort on the issue of gender. “It became very clear in this debate that we need to be more cautious with specifics – for those who are working with indigenous people and traditional communities, whether they are flower pickers, quilombo residents or those living by riversides. We need to understand that it is not only a training process but also preparation with these specific contexts. You cannot arrive with something that is ready-made to discuss gender”, considers the CODECEX coordinator.
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