During the closing ceremony of the WPP Asia Training of Trainers cycle and the WPP Asia Consultation Meeting on 11 April, WPP and the WPP Asia network were honored by the presence of Ambassador of the Netherlands, his Excellency Tjeerd de Zwaan. His visit was a recognition of the hard and valuable work of the ToT participants and the WPP Asia network members in the field of peace and security. It enabled the network to thank the Dutch government for its support throughout the years. It was also a great opportunity to highlight the impact of a gender-sensitive active nonviolence approach in Asia.

The Closing Ceremony – on the right Ambassador de Zwaan

The Dutch Government has supported the Women Peacemakers Program ever since its establishment in 1997, and its support has been one of the certainties WPP could rely on in its ground-breaking work in the Women, Peace and Security field. It allowed the WPP to invest in capacity building programming for women peace activists and awareness-raising on women’s peace efforts and the importance of integrating a gender perspective in peacebuilding (UNSCR 1325).

Ambassador de Zwaan was welcomed by Isabelle Geuskens, WPP Director, and Carla June Natan, Chair of the Asia Mother Board. In her opening speech, Carla June Natan reflected on the two-day Asia Consultation Meeting. She noted that, although the members of the network work in different contexts, the similarities in challenges and opportunities reinforce the need for a strong gender-sensitive active nonviolent network in the region. The WPP Asia network is of an added value for the region, as it provides a space wher

e the activists can support each other in their passion and determination to achieve change. Carla stated that she has high hopes for the future and looks forward to the network’s activism in the upcoming years.

Isabelle Geuskens commended the pro-active approach of the Government of the Netherlands in the Women, Peace and Security field. According to the WPP Director, the innovative and flexible stance of the Dutch Government contributed greatly to the success of WPP’s work.

“Most importantly, the Dutch Government’s flexible approach as a donor has allowed WPP to remain a learning organization, one which is deeply rooted in the realities of activists’ life and work, and one which can be flexible in terms of responding to ever-changing political and social dynamics. This has enabled us to be innovative and introduce the concept of integrating a masculinities perspective in gender-sensitive peacebuilding, a completely new concept in our field of work since there was no previous track record to build on. Our successful pioneering in this area has contributed to the opening up of the women, peace and security agenda, and a growing awareness on the importance of working with gender-sensitive male allies in creating a more gender-just and peaceful world.”

Isabelle Geuskens invited the Asia network members and ToT participants to share experiences with gender-sensitive active nonviolence and the impact the WPP trainings had on their lives and communities. Examples ranged from being empowered as a young woman by WPP to organize a youth peace camp for girls in India; to introducing gender-sensitive active nonviolence to Indonesian media; to providing resource materials and support for working on positive masculinities in a conservative area in Pakistan.

Receiving the well-earned ToT certificates

Ambassador de Zwaan could relate to many of the participants’ testimonials as he himself has worked in countries such as India, Pakistan and Egypt. In his speech the Ambassador underlined the importance of empowering women in society, specifically in conflict situations. The Dutch Government has a long track record in funding and supporting women’s organisations to work for gender equality, female leadership and the implementation of UNSCR 1325. Looking at the future, stakeholders will need to explore new opportunities for the advancement of the women’s agenda. An example is the use of media, where he mentioned an Afghan radio station managed by women and producing radio programs for women, financially supported by the local Dutch Embassy. According to the Ambassador, working with masculinities is a relatively new area to advance the women’s agenda, and he applauded WPP for its pioneering role in this field. He was proud that the Dutch Government could contribute to the work of WPP, specifically in the Asia region. The Ambassador looked forward to hearing more of the WPP Asia network soon.

Following Ambassador de Zwaan’s speech, the ToT participants received their well-earned certificate for completing the Asia ToT on gender-sensitive active nonviolence. The participants spoke warmly about their colleagues, showing the bonds of friendship that developed during the program and the determination to work together for gender-sensitive peace.

The WPP team and the WPP Asia network would like to thank Ambassador de Zwaan for attending the closing ceremony of the events in Indonesia, and look forward to welcoming him at future events.

An energetic sit-in during the role play

The 9^th of April was the last day of the WPP Training of Trainers Cycle. A one-year cycle had come to an end, but not before participants shared many laughs during their nonviolent action exercise, and looked at the Asia regional training manual on this last day.  

During the first session of the day, participants focused on the planning of nonviolent actions. The participants were divided into two groups. Each group had to think of a social or political problem in their country, and come up with a nonviolent action to address the injustice. After their brainstorming, the groups were asked to demonstrate their nonviolent action in a role-play. Both groups were very creative and made effective use of the training tools they had received over the course of this and last year’s training to plan a nonviolent action. Even the trainers and WPP staff ended up participating in the role plays, demonstrating the mass mobilization and energizing effects that come from active nonviolence. It was a great closure of the GSANV sessions of the Training of Trainers.

After a lot of laughs generated by the role-playing, the participants went into the final ToT session, which focused on the production of a training manual from the ToT Cycle. Trainees brainstormed about the specific elements that should be incorporated in the manual in order for it to be useful in their specific contexts.

One of the trainers, Netsai Mushonga from Zimbabwe, shared with us her ideas and thoughts about the 2013 Asia training and the Asia ToT cycle in general:

The trainers, Netsai and Raziq, preparing the final session

“I have just completed facilitating the follow-up Asia ToT training on Gender-Sensitive Active Nonviolence with participants from the Asian region. I am very hopeful after this follow-up training. The first training was held in the Philippines last year, where participants were introduced to active nonviolence. The first response from some of them was that it could not be done in Asia. However, after a year, participants were able to give cases of successful active nonviolence from their regions. Some had even participated in the activities. The whole mood of the training was positive, there was an undercurrent of excitement and determination with implementing gender-sensitive active nonviolence to challenge injustice and violence at all levels in their communities. As I leave for the airport, I am hopeful that WPP has planted seeds of peace in Asia. The seeds of active nonviolence are after all in India where Ghandi led the nonviolence struggle to get rid of the colonial government. I will continue to watch the space…”

From the systematization of the final evaluation questionnaire, we learned that the participants valued the ToT very much. They gave the training an average score of 8,5 out of 10! Here are some examples of the positive feedback we received:

“I do thank WPP for the great opportunity given to me, and would love to give back my knowledge or skills; looking forward to our countries’ collaboration.”

“Thank you for the commitment. It was a lifetime experience exploring myself, especially the masculinities side of my existence and being.”

“The whole cycle was remarkable, to understand masculinity, and nonviolent peacebuilding among such diverse people.”

WPP looks back to a very interesting week full of learning, sharing and deepening everyone’s knowledge and skills on gender-sensitive active nonviolence, and is happy to welcome the ToT activists into the WPP Asia network. As we move forward together, we look forward to hear more about their stories about the local implementation of the training!

By Thivia Radhakrishnan (CARE International, Sri Lanka)

The sun rose as usual, and how time goes fast! It was already the 6^th day of our training. We all were at the training room at 9.00 AM, because of the excitement of receiving training of a young and energetic woman, Mirma, who would give us more tips on peace advocacy and lobby.

The morning session was presented and facilitated by Ms. Mirma Mae C. Tica from Center for Peace Education, Miriam College, Philippines. We reviewed several concepts of peace and different pathways to achieve a culture of peace. It was a lively session as she explained, in a very exciting way, the different approaches, strategies, and tools for peace advocacy and shared success stories about the participation of minorities in the implementation of UNSCR 1325. It gave us good ideas on improving our own advocacy for peace, especially to make it gender-sensitive. From these small exercises, I realized that if we do not have peace within our self, it will be challenging changing our family or community contexts.

Working together on an advocacy campaign

Then we looked at the concept of “advocacy”. We heard a lot about it, but what does it actually mean? Is it a process? Is it awareness? Is it changing policy or mobilizing the community for change? Through the brainstorm, group work and exercises on advocacy we came to a better understanding of the meaning of advocacy and related it to our own context. Within advocacy, it is important to not only to touch the minds but also the hearts of our target audience, and then convince them rationally to undertake action. For effective action, people have to be encouraged to go outside of their comfort zone.Mirma elaborated on the Philippine campaigns on the Arms Trade Treaty, were banana trade regulations were compared with arms trade regulations to get the message across. The message was that there are trade regulations on something as harmless as a banana, but not on something as destructive as arms. Through this simple but brilliant campaign message, I could see lot of creativity in their nonviolent work. We, as participants, can adopt similar activities and strategies within our own context.

The lesson we learned was that if we use violent mechanisms to control violent acts, we might have a chance of winning, but the cycle of violence will continue. A nonviolent action plan breaks the cycle of violence. This will come with great challenges, but this does not have to be a bad thing, as challenges also create new opportunities. At the end of her session, Mirma sang a beautiful song for us, “For all the world”, which was originally sang by Sandi Patty.

For the second half of the day, a learning exchange was scheduled, which turned out to be an inspiring surprise. Two talented women activists from Indonesia and a super trainer from India were invited as guest speakers to give us more information on the role of women and religion in peacebuilding and the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Indonesia, as well as a contextualization of working on masculinities in peacebuilding. After the three speeches, there was time for participants’ questions. The discussions gave interesting insights on how women in this part of Asia are working on women’s rights. I really appreciated the speech of Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia’s, on women’s efforts to redefine religion for the advancement of the women’s agenda. As a female Ulama, she could speak from her own experience. At one point she mentioned that it is difficult for women to play their vital role in peacebuilding in a patriarchal society, as it is men that are making the important decisions at all levels. It is a challenge to change this, as women’s activism often becomes labeled as anti-Islam.

Anand Pawar, Ruby Kholifa, Musdah Mulia and Carla Natan during the learning exchange

The second speaker, Ms. Ruby Kholifa, director of AMAN Indonesia, gave us a great presentation on UNSCR 1325 and the Indonesian efforts to create a National Action Plan (NAP), which has been a long journey with many hopes and challenges. The presentation gave a good overview of how we can take their strategies to our home countries. The last speaker was Mr. Anand Pawar, director of SAMYAK and member of regional network SANAM, who talked about the work on engaging men and masculinities in the Asia region, including within the context of peacebuilding and active nonviolence. He elaborated on the fact that “engaging men is something different than working on masculinities”. Engaging men does not automatically mean transforming dominant notions of masculinity. Challenging existing notions of masculinities from a women’s perspective, he concluded, is crucial to achieve sustainable gender equality.

When the day ended, no one was tired, no one complained about anything, because it was a day that gave us a lot of insights and inspiration. For me, it is an inspiration to know that, even though we all come from different backgrounds, there are women who are strong, brave, creative, hardworking and committed. Most of the women I met in this training gave me the belief that, if there is a will, there is always a way to achieve change.

My heartiest thank to the superb three young women in WPP for giving us such a wonderful opportunity.

By Mirma Mae C. Tica

What are the steps in an advocacy campaign?

It has truly been such an honour and privilege to have this chance to share the Peace and Advocacy skills rooted in Active Nonviolence and experiences from the Philippines to other trainers from all over the Asian region. Being in a room filled with passionate women and men from different countries with diverse concerns, context and perspectives has been very enriching as a facilitator. The experience has been encouraging to know and see other people committed to peace and women’s rights and the importance of women’s participation in all levels of peacebuilding which is the true spirit of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. As a facilitator, I believe the best workshops are those where each participant share their own ideas, experiences, challenges and learning towards stronger advocacy plans and strategies. To WPP, thank you for all the work you do towards a world of peace and full participation of women. Keep up the great work! I look forward to working with you in the future.

During the advocacy and lobby training, the participants practices with writing a letter, stating the issue, their needs and requests. In just 15 minutes, three great letters were drafted. Hereunder you find the winner of the three letters. Please note that all facts are fictional.

——————

XYZ International

ASIAN Action Network to Control Violence Against Women

April 9^th 2013

Hon. Prime Minister,

Sub: Women’s protection from domestic violence

In January 2013, XYZ International carried out a national study on the effect and root causes of domestic violence. The results of the study showed that 70% of the women in our country experienced various forms of domestic violence in their life.

Unfortunately, despite the domestic violence act in of 2010, the government still fails to implement the act on a nationwide level. Under your leadership we are certain that the country will start initiatives that will promote women’s protection, both on domestic level as on national level.

We also attached the fact sheet of the study. We will glad to speak to you and elaborate on our study findings. We feel that the government should take immediate and all necessary action to implement the act.

Please let us know when we can possibly have that privilege of meeting you. I may be contacted at asia@gmail.com or on 4327658

We hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

……………………….

WPP and participants with Indonesian Activists

Indonesia faces high levels of sexual violence and abuse against women. The National Commission for Women mentions in its 2011 annual fact sheet notes that there have been 4,335 cases of rape terror in that year, of which 2,937 cases occurred in the public domain. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as many women do not report cases of sexual violence. The social consequences for those who have been raped further aggravate their situation. Unfortunately, the people who rape women do not always get to bear the consequences; judicial or social punishment is often lacking.

It’s a fact that the majority of perpetrators of sexual abuse and harassment are male. But, if you flip the coin, men can also be a potential source to eliminate sexual violence. And I believe it is the responsibility of men as well as to take part in rejecting and preventing sexual violence.

Sharing the the message

A peaceful protest of “Men Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment”, held by the members of the New Men Alliance (Alliansi Laki-Laki Baku) and One Billion Rising Indonesia on April 7^th at Hotel Indonesia Circle, is one of the ways men are showing their solidarity and support to eliminate sexual violence. This nonviolent action tried to encourage people, especially men, to take part in the protest of men against sexual abuse and harassment. Participants of the WPP gender-sensitive active nonviolence ToT were lucky enough to be able to participate in the protest and exchange ideas with the local organizers.

Some of the men activists used a mini skirt as a protest symbol against the perspective of the government and several communities that the way women dress is provoking rape. The New Men Alliance and One Billion Rising Indonesia ask from the government to: 

• Take serious steps and firm actions against the growing number of sexual abuse and harassment of women, and install proper punishment mechanisms for perpetrators;
• Provide a protection and recovery mechanism for the victims;
• Encourage all men who are against violence against women to speak out against sexual abuse and harassment;
• Engage parents to educate their children not commit to violence, especially sexual violence.

Group photo at 7.00 AM!

Today I learned a lot from our visit to the protest and the training sessions afterwards. Active nonviolence requires a constant effort in order to achieve the goals we want to accomplish. Creative strategizing is needed to ensure that any reactions to our nonviolent activism can be anticipated. I also realized that in every movement, a strong and visionary leader figure is needed in order to make all components in the movement stay disciplined and stick to the nonviolence strategy that has been planned before. One of the key questions we got today was to reflect on the role of women in nonviolent organizing.  We all realized that in the past, the role of women – one of the most crucial factors for success – has been marginalized too often.

By Jude Martin Jover and Uthin

The sixth day of the WPP Asia ToT was very interactive and re-energized the participants. Of course, the prospects of half a day off to discover Jakarta caused great excitement. The training day consisted of a further deepening of our knowledge on masculinities and violence, and the linkages between them. The additional information about these topics, as well as the discussions with our peers, lead to interesting new insights and increased our understanding on how masculinities operates within our society and communities.

Talking about violence in a regional context – South East Asia

One of the discussions focused on the culture and acceptance of violence, and the different ways this can manifest itself in society. The different experiences and contexts that the participants shared enabled a deeper understanding of the different and many faces of violence in our societies, although the talking about violence made the participants also quite sad. There was also an important reflection on religious violence. Despite the fact that religion is often used to fuel conflict, we – Uthin and Jude – believe that all the religious teachings share a foundation of love and peace.

Talking about violence in a regional context – South Asia

It is a big challenge for us to bring these new concepts to our communities, given the diverse cultures we are dealing with. The role and stereotyping of men is very strong in these settings, and, specifically addressing these elements within the context of peacebuilding is a very sensitive issue. Many women have already been involved in this field, while men have been absent from the gender-sensitive peacebuilding discourse. In the community of Jude, in the Philippines, women try speaking to men about this, but men have difficulties to be open to their insights. To really get the message across to other men, it is crucial that it will also be brought and presented by another gender-sensitive man. If one of their peers brings the message of positive masculinities and nonviolence, it will be stronger, which will increase effectiveness in terms of getting more men to commit to gender-sensitive peacebuilding.

Every country should have a strong trainer like Raziq. That would be ideal. This ToT is a start, and we are looking forward to our peers and ourselves training more men and women in order to spread nonviolence theory. We are very determined to involve more men in our gender-sensitive active nonviolence (GSANV) training in the future. One of the ideas is to create and provide a space or a venue for men to talk about gender issues. In any case, this will be a long-term process, but one which promises to deliver good results.

In the afternoon the group went out for shopping in one of the famous markets for textiles in Jakarta. We have new energy for the last three training days!

Today we were treated with a beautiful song, sang by Mirma.

Here you will find the lyrics, but it does not beat the experience of hearing her sing it live!

FOR ALL THE WORLD

Composed by: Greg Nelson; Bob Farrell

Originally sung by: Sandi Patti

Modified and interpreted by: Mirma Mae C. Tica

Never was the world in such a need of peace
And never has contentment been so hard to find
So many people reaching out their hands
Our brothers and sisters in so many lands
If ever kindness was needed
Then it’s crying out to us “the time is now!”

Chorus:
I want the peace
I want the love
For all the world
People of joy with children of hope
For all the world
Father of light
I’ll be a light the You shine through
You are the peace
You are the hope
For all the world

What’s it gonna take before we show some charity?
Compassion and mercy, the way it’s meant to be
Who’ll take the time for the ones who truly need
And pray for a nation
That’s out on the street
What man is greater than his brother
When in the creator’s eyes we’re all the same?

Repeat Chorus

Learn a song of freedom
And teach it to our children
Let the pipes of peace ring out
And pray the grace of God will lead the way

Repeat Chorus

You are the peace
And You are the joy
You are the love
And You are the hope
For all the world

 By Abdullah Al Mohiuddin and M C Rasmin

Where do you stand on the gender line?

Abdullah Al Mohiuddin, working with a Bangladesh national organization called ANTAR, coordinates a thematic program called “Community Based Child and Women Protection”. The idea is to create an environment with opportunities for the poor and marginalized children and women living in rural and mountainous areas. ANTAR works as a network with more than 30 local youth groups, most of them are focusing on poor children and children with a disability.  Rasmin works for Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF), which is a national organization promoting the role of media in democratization, transformation and reconciliation. SDJF operates a dedicated program unit for the promotion of gender equality and justice through the use of media. Masculinity and men’s engagement has become an integral part of the organization.

‘Experiencing’ inequalities through role play

On the third day of the ToT, we discussed various elements of masculinities in relation to power and violence. We also explored how to use nonviolence communication in the context of conflict and violence. The sessions on masculinities conducted by trainer Raziq helped us significantly in resolving our struggles in relating the theoretical understandings around masculinities and femininities to our own personal and emotional journey. We also discussed how, influenced by socialization processes and cultural interactions, men tend to feel entitled to power, which manifests itself in specific masculine characteristics. When men start acting on this, it can lead to conflict and violence.

Masculinity and femininity is present in both men and women, which is the very nature of gender, and there is no standard way of relating ourselves to it. The plurality of men’s gendered behavioural patterns can be located in all cultures and through all historical periods. Different cultures and different periods of history have constructed masculinity differently. What is important is to maintain a balance and use masculinity positively in the process of making the world more peaceful and just. The discussions on active nonviolence and masculinities have increased our understanding on how to put these concepts into practice and realize change them in our practical life.

Particularly the session on active nonviolence and nonviolent communication, conducted by trainer Netsai, increased our courage to deeply reflect on these concepts and how to live them. We both felt inspired by the topic of nonviolent communication, which opened a space for us to learn more in terms of how to communicate our feelings with the use of proper language. The sessions explored how people often jump to conclusions, while using specific language in their remarks. However, proper expression and coming to a conclusion after taking time to observe what is going on, are amongst the best practices in nonviolent communication.

A practical observation in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is that the significance of understanding masculinities is an important tool for achieving gender justice in the society. There are lots of elements – including norms and values – that drive society and direct how society ensures justice, particularly gender justice. Continuous reflection on the use of gender norms and values in the society is needed to ensure real gender justice. For example, when we are going to work with women on gender-related issues, we should definitely ensure the presence of male participants from the community. This is needed in order to prove to the community that we are working with their women on social issues, which will help them not only in the family but also society in general.

We are very much delighted to be a part of the WPP network.

By Suci Haryati and Shakeel Abbas

Thinking about a new women’s development approach

On the second day of the training, we looked closer at different ways of nonviolent communication. We learned that if we want to break the violence cycle, we also need to incorporate those principles into our daily life and work. According to our understanding, nonviolence is a strategy for resisting injustice and oppression without creating new injustice. We realized that acts like judging others infringes on being a human being and takes away their human dignity. For example, rather than to claim that your boss is insensitive or even racist, you’d better focus on what you are observing before giving a judgement, and tell the boss how you his/her action makes you feel.

Netsai, the trainer on nonviolence communication, explained that there is a difference between conflict and violence. Conflict is and always will be a part of society. Conflict may even be healthy as it can generate new ways of thinking and acting. The key is to manage conflict in such a way that it does not lead to violence. In this sense, a nonviolence activist must know how to approach, talk, negotiate and demand things in a nonviolent way.

Sharing personal change at the ‘bus stop’

At the end of the day, we also discussed the concept masculinities. Raziq, the trainer on masculinities, shared the different approaches to women’s development throughout the last 50 years. One of the participants shared an interesting opinion, namely that men are not so much a victim of patriarchy, but of the different expressions of patriarchy – such as for example war. This as patriarchy also gives men privileges and benefits.

In the group discussion we talked about a new women’s development approach and identified different issues, solutions, and a list of strategies, which can help us to develop new insights and approaches for the upcoming era.

By Sumshot Khular and Rakesh Karna

In February 2012, the WPP invited 15 trainers and practitioners from Asian countries, including Nepal, India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Timor Leste, for a Training of Trainers platform to share and learn from the rich exchange of insights and experiences on the issues of gender-sensitive active nonviolence (GSANV), masculinities, femininities and a variety of issues relevant to peacebuilding in the Asia region. Inspired by this Training of Trainers (ToT), we organized follow-up events in the forms of workshops, trainings and interactions in our own countries to translate and share the learnings from the ToT in our daily work and with the communities we work with.

Activist Sumshot Khular from Community Action and Research for Development Manipur, India, brought together about 20 youth leaders from various sectors to discuss different approaches and strategies on engaging youth in promoting gender sensitivity in the peace and nonviolence work in the most affected areas of the northeast India. Held in October 2012 in Imphal, the participants were not only introduced to the theoretical aspects of the GSANV, but were also inspired to look inside themselves and into social norms that are the basis of the discrimination and differences. Some of them replicated the learning in their constituencies by designing and implementing similar events, and several indicated they had changed the ways they dealt with their family members, particularly with mother and sisters, and even at the workplace with women colleagues.

Another example of a country-based follow-up training is a Nepal-based workshop on promoting the role of the media in local implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 & 1820 and the National Action Plan (NAP). Activist Rakesh Karna from (SUPPORT

Nepal) organized a two-day workshop in November 2012 with 23 journalists from various print and electronic media to identify and promote the role of media in localizing the NAP. Nepal is the second country after the Philippines to have a National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 in Asia, which was launched in February 2011. There was, however, no such effort to engage media as a stakeholder in the designing and implementation of the NAP. This was probably the first time in the country that the media was exploring avenues to engage in realizing the NAP at the local level. Most of the participating journalists shared that the NAP was a new subject for them. Very few had heard about UNSCR 1325 but did not know that a NAP was endorsed in Nepal and that UNSCR 1820 was also included. They also realized that; i) there was need of media engagement, ii) regular follow-up with NAP officials, and iii) need of partnership between civil society organizations and the media to effectively implement the pillars under the NAP. After the workshop, twelve types of media outlets covered the topic, mostly via interviews with the participants on radio and in print media. Nine out of the twenty-three participants used the information to produce radio programs and feature articles. Seven participants approached NAP district chapters and four set up working relationships to continue sharing information on the implementation of the NAP in the areas.