Johannesburg – Public Service and Administration Minister, Senzo Mchunu, has welcomed the growing number of public servants registering for the five-day virtual Gender Mainstreaming training programme run by the National School of Government (NSG).
The NSG began offering the course in August during Women’s Month, in partnership with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
The course covers the Mainstreaming of Gender, Gender-Based Violence and Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting.
It is aimed at developing capacity for gender-based policy making in the public service, including building capacity to identify and respond to gender-based violence and femicide.
The course supports the campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children by empowering public servants to identify opportunities to advance inclusion and proactively address gender-based violence.
The course has been well-received by both men and women, with over 200 participants attending and completing. Participants have included both senior and middle managers from national and provincial government departments.
The course covers critical areas like gender mainstreaming mandates, gender mainstreaming in the workplace, gender mainstreaming in the project cycle and service delivery programmes, gender responsive planning and budgeting.
“The NSG will run more sessions during the 16 Days of Activism campaign as a contribution to the fight against the scourge of the abuse of women.
“By empowering public servants with knowledge, we hope to strengthen government’s efforts in this fight. We therefore encourage public servants to enrol for this life changing programme in greater numbers,” Mchunu said.
He said the course should also assist in improving the manner in which services are delivered to women.
“We have to work harder to raise consciousness within the public service so that even in practical situations in the coalface of service delivery, such as police stations, hospitals or municipal offices, women will be treated with respect, dignity and with an understanding that women’s rights are human rights and that equality is a constitutional right f for all,” the Minister said.
The Minister has encouraged public servants to use the course to empower themselves with the knowledge and skills to fight gender-based violence through policy making, implementation and day to day work of providing government services, during the 16 Days of Activism period and beyond.
The programme is run over five days online between Monday to Friday (09:00 –12:00).
It is aimed at middle and senior managers in the public sector in National, Provincial and Local Government Departments, the policy makers, project managers, programme planners and implementers, human resource practitioners, budget planners as well as procurement and education and training officials.
More information on the programme is available from Dr Bunny Subedar, or on tel: 012 441 6201 or Ms Petunia Matsapola, on 012 441 635.
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