36 representatives of civil society organizations working for gender equality in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Greece and Belgium have been reunited in Barcelona for a capacity-building workshop. The training gathered 24 associations willing to develop advocacy actions (beneficiaries) and 12 associations who had been selected for implementing successful practices on advocacy and policy dialogue in order to foster the transfer of lessons learnt as well as networking in this field.

The 6-days training was organized within the framework of the CSO WINS project funded by the EU with the aim to strengthen the capacity of southern Mediterranean organizations to hold the authorities accountable and mobilize opinion leaders on gender equality and women's rights at a local and national level.

Through collective brainstorming, practical exercises and entertaining simulations, the 36 associations’ representatives acquired expertise on how to encourage the change in their environment. Indeed, by using specific tools, they learnt to create an online petition to mobilize the general public and the media and to elaborate a press release to give their cause a higher visibility.

The discussion with experts on gender policies and policy makers such as Delphine Borione, Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs at the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, represented a good opportunity for the 36 associations to deepen their knowledge on the role of civil society in the implementation and monitoring of gender equality policies.

The 24 beneficiary associations prepared a draft of their strategic advocacy action plan as an exercise to apply the new skills acquired. Furthermore, within the next few weeks following the workshop, they will be asked to enrich their drafts and 8 of them will be selected to develop an advocacy campaign with the support of the CSO WINS project.

This workshop represented the perfect chance to put in contact the two sides of the Mediterranean, promoting teamwork and alliances to help women gaining their rights at the social, economic and political level. Moreover, the debates about reaching a higher female representation in the Parliament, involving men in the struggle against gender based violence or preventing child’s marriages constituted an added value that enriched the capacity-building training.

Here you can find some moments of the workshop. Stay tuned as further information on the workshop will be available soon!