Main Events / Project External Events

The Aquastress Project, with the collaboration of the GEWAMED Project, organised a Training of Trainers (ToT) course on Gender Aspects of Water Resources Management. The Aquastress partners involved were: HYDRODATA, INAT, CIHEAM-MAIB and IRD while those from GEWAMED were CAWTAR and CIHEAM-MAIB. The course was held at the Regional Center for Agriculture Development (CRDA) of Kairouan (Tunisia).

The ToT course came from the request of the local stakeholders and from the results of the survey of the actual situation regarding the gender issues, as analysed in the study on “Methods for fostering the integration of women in agricultural water management”, carried out by INAT in Merguellil Valley.

The course was foreseen as a “raising awareness and exchange of experiences” event and was attended by some 25 participants who were mostly local stakeholders and managers, experts and professionals in the water sector. They participated very actively and were keen to set up strategies for the promotion and strengthening of the integration of gender aspects in water management (both woman and man) and who, in turn, will be able to transfer the knowledge into local society.

The course was structured as mix of presentations and exercises that allowed very active and vivid discussions. The main topics covered during the course were:

• EU Project AquaStress, and the present practice of gender  mainstreaming
• Water Resources in  Merguellil Valley
• The Gender concept
• Gender analysis
• Gender and Water  Resources Management: need and issues involved
• Gender indicators
• The importance of information and communication: The CIHEAM-IAMB EU GEWAMED project,
• How to mainstream gender in IWRM: Case Study from Tunisia
• Familiarization with some of the existing training  tools and  materials :
• Gender Mainstreaming in the Project Cycle
• PRA: Techniques and Tools
• Lessons learnt in Integrating the Gender Dimensions in  Agriculture Water Management

Most of the mentioned topics were presented by local and foreign experts that included: Zohra Lili Chabaane (INAT), Khadouja Mellouli (CATWAR), Juan Antonio Sagardoy (CIHEAM-MAIB), Stephanie Guidon (IRD), Mohamed Slimani (INAT), Rakia Laatiri (GR/MARH), Tarhouni Jamila (INAT), Hamdi Bargaoui (INAT). The ToT course was opened with statements of Mr..Moncef Omrani,,General Director of the CRDA  of Kairouan and Mrs. Zohra Lili Chabaane (INAT) while the closure was made by Mladen Todorovic (CIHEAM-MAIB) and the main facilitators of the event. Mrs. Cecilia Mosca (Hydrodata, S.pA) also actively participated in the event.

The evaluation made by the participants showed a high score for the contain, lecturers  and future usefulness of the course. In particular the intensive use of the working groups was highly appreciated.