The aim of the course is to teach how to use a gender perspective in military operations to the students and prepare them to be deployed as GFAs. The learning objectives include advising on gender perspectives in military operations and peace support operations and how to apply a gender perspective to planning, execution and evaluation in military operations.
The lectures discussed topics such as international humanitarian law, conflict-related sexual violence, culture, gender analysis and writing gender annexes and orders. Through case studies that the students solved in syndicates they trained on advising on implementing a gender perspective in the military planning process and other military operations activities..
"This course was signified by the valuable and interesting participation of the students" says Course Director Lt Col Grethe Stensland. "We had very experienced and knowledgeable students. Their interventions and comments elevated discussions in the classroom"
"We always seek to invite the most prominent experts within their field to lecture in our courses" says Cdr Jan Dunmurray, theCO of NCGM. "For this particular course we had the honor of having Lt Col Kathie Knell from UK and Ms Cynthia Petrigh from France that both have worked a lot in Africa with those topics, joining us in a panel on gender perspectives in missions in an African context"
Other than the formal training, the students can network during the course. "This creates informal networks that will be very valuable in their future tasks as GFAs" says Cdr Jan Dunmurray.
The next GFA course will be held at NCGM from 23 February to 6 Mars 2015. Information and application forms can be found at Swedint WEB pages.