The Armed Forces supported the first “Advanced Gender Focal Point Course”, which was held by the Jordanian army in Amman, together with the Dutch and Canadian armed forces and “UN Women”.
Arab armed forces
The course was primarily aimed at members of the Arab armed forces, whose task as a “gender focal point” is to support the integration of women in military units at all levels as well as the commanders in gender-specific issues of daily operations – in particular training and deployment.
Multi-year defence policy program
This project was part of the Ministry of Defence’s multi-year defence policy program for the Middle East and North Africa region. The aim of this program was to develop responsible and trustworthy armed forces that are better able to cope with the many challenges facing the region. The specific course also serves to realize Austria’s ambition to implement the “Women, Peace and Security Agenda” of the United Nations. https://militaeraktuell.at/bundeswehr-brigade-litauen-nimmt-gestalt-an/ Multinational participants
The participants from five different countries (Austria, Canada, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia) underwent the one-week training and also had to solve a series of problems in mixed groups (divided by gender, nation and military/civilian). The course was bilingual (English and Arabic), which was particularly challenging for both course participants and instructors. The Austrian Armed Forces were represented by two instructors and one course participant, for whom this is part of a general preparation for future tasks as “gender advisers” in foreign missions and creates a basic understanding of region-specific challenges.
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