Dushanbe, August 2, 2023 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the “Spotlight Initiative” project, supported by the European Union, conducted a two-day capacity-building trainings on gender-responsive programming for government officials in Tajikistan from July 26- August 01 in Dushanbe. 

The training sessions brought together 50 representatives from different government institutions involved in public finance management, national policy and programs development and implementation.

During the trainings, the participants learned about the key concepts and definitions of gender equality and equity, gender-responsive and beneficiary-oriented programming, gender analysis and mainstreaming gender aspects in national, sectoral and institutional policies and programs, and in budgeting.

The main objective of the trainings was to enhance the capacity of the decision makers on deploying gender sensitive programming techniques to integrate the knowledge of gender issues into the public policies, programs and budgeting practices to ensure that institutional response is gender responsive and beneficiary oriented.

“The Spotlight Initiative is committed to supporting the Government of Tajikistan in its efforts to end all forms of violence against women and girls,” said Lenni Montiel, UNDP Resident Representative in Tajikistan. “This training is an important step in that direction, as it will help to build the capacity of government officials to develop and implement gender-responsive policies and programs that will benefit all, especially women and girls across the country”.

The Spotlight Initiative is a global and multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to end all forms of violence against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative program in Tajikistan provides an opportunity to further sensitize individual governmental officials and strengthen the institutions in gender equality and addressing sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, deepening their knowledge on their roles to improve institutional and sub-national plans, strategies and programmes, while ensuring a multi-sectoral approach is introduced.