Gender and participation - Towards gender-equitable and inclusive urban development. .

The gender & participation sub-project aims at mainstreaming a gender and community perspective in ARU's training, research and outreach activities to ensure a higher level of gender & community sensitivity in academic outputs and impact. We apply a threefold strategy and focus on numbers, content and organizational issues. First, in terms of numbers, gender balance will be envisaged in all academic activities. The sub-project is expected to enrol 4 PhDs and 4 advanced masters, 500 participants in short course/outreach activities, reach 500 bachelor/master students, of 50% are expected to be female. Second, in terms of content, a gender and community perspective will be mainstreamed through increasing staff capacity in gender sensitive and community approaches. The sub-project will offer trainings and advice to project staff which is expected to have a trickle down effect on the overall project's gender and community sensitivity. The sub-project will develop new courses and/or contribute to the revision of existing curriculum contents. Short courses and outreach activities targeted at communities, civil society, government, etc. will be introduced to increase societal knowledge and skills on gender mainstreaming and community participation. At the project research site(s), an action research project on gender-sensitive community based monitoring/citizen science will be set up in which students, staff, communities and duty bearers engage in joint research with an immediate societal and sustainable impact. Research findings will be disseminated using different channels, including peer reviewed publications, conference contributions, policy briefs, policy seminars, posters and videos. Third, at the organizational level, the sub-project will review the existing ARU gender policy and sensitize the leadership to mainstream gender more robustly. In order to support (female) PhD and master students a mentorship system will be set up. A yearly career network event with stakeholders from government, donors, alumni, civil society will be organized to increase networking and employability. Throughout the sub-project synergies and complementarities will be explored and valorized with other sub-projects, previous vlir-uos projects and alumni, new initiatives of other (national and international) actors and stakeholders on similar topics.

Keywords:GENDER MAINSTREAMING, CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT, COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION, GENDER STUDIES

Disciplines:Humanities and social sciences curriculum and pedagogics, Voluntary associations, participation and civil society, Gender specific studies

Project type:Collaboration project