Since August 2012, CCCPA has continued its efforts to support the role of women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding in Arab and African countries.CCCPA’s efforts in this regard are carried out in cooperation with national governments, regional organizations and civil society organizations. The Center also has a unique partnership with the Crisis Management Center of Finland (CMC Finland) under a project entitled "Capacity Building on Mainstreaming Gender and UNSCR 1325 in North African Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Architecture”. The project aims to improve capacities on mainstreaming of gender and training of police, military and civilian experts, addressing the four “pillars” of the Resolution - participation, protection, prevention, and relief recovery. To date, CCCPA and CMC Finland have trained 168 participants in total, out of which 55 were women from Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Libya and Mauritania.

In 2013, CCCPA launched the gender module specifically designed for trainees required to address gender sensitivity and UNSCR 1325 in peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The module was used in pre-deployment training of Egyptian peacekeepers in various missions and officials of the North African Regional Capability (NARC) of the African Standby Force (ASF), as well as in-mission training for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).  

Currently CCCPA is working with a Manual Working Group (MWG), composed of distinguished experts and representatives of stakeholders, to oversee the development of a gender training of trainers (ToT) toolkit/manual, consolidating all of the material for CCCPA gender courses.  The MWG is mentoring the writing process of the toolkit to ensure both a comprehensive and inclusive process. The toolkit will upgrade the current curriculum and will be the basis for future trainings on gender and UNSCR 1325 mainstreaming in the region. It will also help support CCCPA's long term goal of becoming the leading training center on gender issues in the region.

Moreover, within its capacity as the organizer of the Arab Consultations of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, which took place on March 5, CCCPA devoted a full session to discuss ways and means to ‘Strengthening the Participation of Women, Youth and Civil Society in Inclusive Peacemaking for Sustainable Peace’.  The panel discussed the creative approaches to bringing women, youth and civil society groups into peacemaking, and the positive examples of inclusive peacemaking in the region which can be learned from. The session was chaired by Rima Salah, High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and featured H.E. Sima Bahous, Assistant Secretary General – Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Arab States, UNDP (via video conference);  and Safia Traboulsi, Gender Advisor, League of Arab States. The discussion results will be used to serve the Center’s efforts in producing a baseline study on the status of implementation of UNSCR 1325 and a series of policy papers on related issues.

Furthermore, CCCPA is currently expanding the span of beneficiaries to support initiatives by civil society organisations in mainstreaming gender. The Center has been actively participating with the Peace Women Across the Globe (PWAG) initiative in partnership with the Women Business Development Center -National Council for Women. The project aims to conduct a draft for the ‘National Strategy for Implementing Gender Equality’ by starting with several dialogues on advancing the political participation of Egyptian women.

Ways forward until December 2015:

1. Two ToT courses on Gender, Peace and Security: Mainstreaming Gender in Peacebuilding (first to be held from 22-26 March 2015 – date yet to be determined for the second course)

2. Two basic courses on Gender, Peace and Security: Mainstreaming Gender in Peacebuilding (first will be held from 19-23 April 2015 – date to be determined for the other course)

3. Situational Exersise on Gender, Peace and Security: Mainstreaming Gender in Peacebuilding  (date to be determined)