Lao Government and development partners learn new approaches to end violence against women
Date:
From 17 to 20 March, members of the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), the Lao National Commission for the Advancement of Women (LaoNCAW) the Lao Women’s Union (LWU), CARE Laos, the Lao Positive Health Association and teachers from the Vientiane Secondary School gathered at the UN Office in Vientiane to learn innovative community-focused approaches to end violence against women and girls.
The training, organized by UN Women, focused on advocacy strategies that highlight how positive power can be applied to contribute to end violence against women at the grassroots level. The participants learned how to identify community champions that can spread positive messages on ending violence against women as well as how to conceptualize notions such as power, existing power relations between men and women and how these can be related to violence. This approach was inspired by the SASA! Methodology developed by the UN Women Trust Fund Grantee “Raising Voices” a non-profit organization based in Kampala, Uganda.
Lao PDR is in the process of implementing a National Action Plan on Ending Violence against Women and Children. In this regard, the training was useful for the participants to get a better understanding of the issues. “This training is very useful to help preventing and ending violence against women and children, as well as in promoting gender equality. It has a practical approach that focuses directly on the community” said Ms Bouachan Syhanath, Director-General at the Cabinet of the Lao Women’s Union.
Non-governmental partner CARE Laos also took part in the training and will play a key role in testing a grassroots approach on positive social norm change. “We look forward to be able to develop and apply this new knowledge gained during the training into our work” said Kongchay Vixathep from CARE Laos.
The session also addressed opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda. In this regard, Lao PDR has demonstrated its commitment to end violence against women and girls and is partnering with UN Women under a Regional Programme funded by the Australian Government.
For more information please contact:
Andrea Nyberg
Email: andrea.nyberg@unwomen.org