ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center Regional Workshop 2018

Session 9. Gender Mainstreaming in Mine Action

General Information

Background

Gender mainstreaming in mine action is the process of integrating the impacts on and perspectives of men, women, boys and girls into the design, implementation, clearance operations, monitoring and evaluation of mine/ERW programmes and policies. The rationale of this mainstreaming process stems from the fact that individuals of both sexes can be affected differently by mines/ERW and thus need to be assisted in different ways. For example, gender influences how likely someone is to be a victim of mines/ERW, victim’s accesses to physical and psychological assistance and their success in reintegrating back into their communities. Inequalities are also apparent in the responsibilities assigned, decision making opportunities and access to resources.

It is for this reason, that the UN and other stakeholders have developed an extensive range of guidelines and international standards to assist implementing partners incorporate gender into all mine action operations. These guidelines and standards include lessons learned and best practices from around the world and illustrate how gender mainstreaming can be brought from concept into practice. Some countries in ASEAN have incorporated gender considerations into their national policy, strategy and mine action plans. Gender mainstreaming in mine action is thus critical in ensuring mine/ERW programmes are more coherent, holistic, inclusive and responsive to different sexes and needs.

To showcase the efforts and progress made and challenges faced in gender mainstreaming, this session will explore the different strategies and approaches that have been adopted by mine action stakeholders. It hopes to highlight gender mainstreaming activities in the areas of victim assistance, mine risk education, mine clearance, and advocacy. Panellists are encouraged to provide tangible examples of how they or their partners have implemented the mainstreaming such as prioritizing hiring female staff, establishing data collection disaggregated by sex, ensuring MRE and victim assistance meet specific gender needs, and other examples. By sharing these experiences, the session will expose attendees to the tangible benefits that gender mainstreaming can bring and will provide an opportunity for mine actors to discuss the gender implications of their work.

Objectives

This session aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Increase understanding about differentiated impact of Mine Action on the sexes and gender relations
2. Share good lessons learnt from gender mainstreaming in mine action
3. Discuss challenges faced in implementing gender mainstreaming in mine action
4. Explore what can be collectively and individually done to overcome these challenges

Format of the Session

The Chair is assigned to lead the discussion of the panel, and each speaker is given seven to ten minutes of presentation time. Each panellist can talk about the context of one country (respective country of panellist from AMS) or many countries in ASEAN. The presentation may be done in PowerPoint, pdf, or any other relevant format.