Free eCourse: Gender-sensitive Governance: what does it look like and how can we work towards it?

This free web-based course provides participants with a general grounding in the current concepts of governance from a gender perspective and offers some examples and resources for applying these within key governance institutions, with a focus on governments.

Note - this is the second in-take for this course. The first was in September 2014. A third may be offered in February 2015, subject to demand.

Overview:

Why does gender matter for governance? How can we expose gender-blind institutions and processes? What strategies have enhanced the opportunities and outcomes for women and girls in government processes? What can we learn from this and how can we integrate this into our own work?

This pilot course aims to support development practitioners who are working to strengthen gender equality in relation to governance processes in their workplace. To support them this course seeks to equip participants with an introductory knowledge that can help them to take forward strategies for positive change.

Who the course is for:

The course has been designed for a broad range of people, including: gender focal points within ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), gender leads in Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and those working in new and traditional media roles.

However anyone interested in understanding the challenges relating to gender and governance, such as non-gender specialist policy advisors, academics and students would also benefit. Although the course is intented to be most useful for people in Nigeria, it could be valuable for people from any region.

What the course contains:

The course contains four main modules. Each module presents key messages, learning activities, and includes an interesting collection of resources.

Assessment:

Learners are assessed on the knowledge acquired throughout the course via web-based quizzes. There are no assignments or final exams and no trick questions. This course aims to build knowledge and reward participation.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

 1. Appreciate the differing understandings of governance and how the concept has evolved over time

 2. Understand why governance needs to be gender-sensitive despite the barriers and challenges to this goal

 3. Be able to analyse governance institutions, particularly government institutions, from a gender perspective to expose gender-blind policy and discriminatory practices

 4. Appreciate the context of gender and governance in Nigeria

 5. Understand how change can happen in government institutions themselves so they respond better to the needs of women, challenge gender inequality and promote women’s rights

 6.Be aware of the mechanisms that need to be in place to ensure government institutions are held to account for their record on promoting gender equality by civil society and citizen

 7. Understand what gender-sensitive governance could and should look like, and understand the  practical actions to progress towards this goals

 8. Know about the real-world challenges to change that are commonly faced, be inspired by other stories of practical action, and be aware of useful guides and toolkits

 Certificate of Completion

 On successful completion of the course learners will receive a ‘certificate of completion’ that will be issued jointly by BRIDGE, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, and Gender Hub.

 When the course takes place

 The course starts on Monday 3rd November and runs until Friday 28th November. During this time facilitators from the Gender Hub team will actively support participants in problem solving and answer questions related to the course.

 What you’ll need to take part

 In order to take the course learners will need:

•  access to a computer or device with Internet connection
• a modern web-browser installed. We recommend Google Chrome*, for best performance.
• access to an active email address
• understand English as a working language

 What you’ll be expected to do

We expect learners to invest a minimum of 4 hours study time for this course (1 hour per module). However, to get the maximum from this course we recommend that participants read at least an additional 4 hours’ worth of the many additional readings provided.

 We expect individuals to be self-lead and manage their own time within the 4 week period, so that they progress to completion of the course during this time. The course enables learning to be undertaken flexibly and the amount of study hours given by participants may vary depending on how much they want to engage with the additional materials.

Course authors

This course is made available by Gender Hub - a new free-at-point-of-use online service providing information and knowledge resources on Gender for Nigeria. For more information, see the 'Organiser description'.

 Register

 Complete the registration form at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gender-sensitive-governance-what-does-it-l...