SAILD staff were sensitized and trained on gender issues. It took place from March 11 to 12, 2025 at Mvolyé in the city of Yaoundé.
It was in a friendly atmosphere that some twenty men and women, staff from the General Secretariat and the Maroua and Bertoua branches of the Support Service for Local Development Initiatives (SAILD), took part in the gender training workshop. The aim was to enable them to understand the fundamental concepts linked to gender, so as to take better account of gender within the institution, in the design, implementation and monitoring of projects, and in relations with project beneficiaries and technical and financial partners.
The two-day event, led by “Pluriels Croisés”, a firm specializing in gender, public policy and women’s empowerment, was marked by interactive presentations, practical exercises and group discussions. During the training, several key concepts of the gender approach were meticulously unfolded.
“In the context of providing support to beneficiaries, the specific constraints consist in taking into account the specific needs of each individual in a group, based on age, status and gender and individual circumstances. It is then necessary to give to each person according to his or her needs, for the sake of fairness, so that everyone can achieve the goals set.” explained Pluriels Croisés.
Furthermore, according to the firm, “for SAILD, social protection means ensuring that the working environment is protective and safe for staff, beneficiaries and partners”. To this end, the organization will have to develop a mechanism for the protection and management of gender-based complaints against social risks: VGB, sexism, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse, stereotypes.
A long-awaited gender strategy
At the end of the training, the stakeholders are aware of the issues of inequality between men and women in various fields (professional, family, health, economics and education). “I thought gender only concerned women. But this training has enabled me to understand that, depending on the situation, men can be vulnerable. So they need special attention”, confided Aristide Tchounkeu.
For Pauline Voufo, too, the training was an added bonus. “I’ve come to understand the notion of transformative gender, which consists in remedying everything that puts women at a disadvantage and discriminatory practices that generally favor men. This approach will be of great help to me in implementing the KCOA project (Knowledge Center for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Central Africa”), which takes gender into account”, she acknowledged.
The Secretary General also expressed his desire to refine the way in which gender is taken into account within SAILD. “This gender training workshop is very important for SAILD, which needs to develop its internal capacities and skills. Our interactions with third parties, including the beneficiaries of the projects we implement, as well as the players with whom we interact (members of the administration, government officials, technical and financial partners), will henceforth be imbued with this gender dynamic”, declared Hozier Nana. In order to implement the results of this training, the strategic axes of SAILD’s gender strategy have been defined in a participative manner, and a document defining a gender strategy for the NGO is expected.
This training course for the institutional strengthening of SAILD is part of the “Participatory restoration of the Deng Deng National Park forest landscape” project funded by the IKI Small Grants program.
- Sharon Maché
