OSCE Centre helps devise and implement gender policies in Tajikistan

KHUJAND, Tajikistan, 5 June 2007 - Raising awareness of gender equality issues among civil servants and providing them with gender analysis tools for their everyday work are the aims of a five-day OSCE-supported training course which started in Khujand today.

"This project will help Tajik authorities promote gender equality and train civil servants at all levels of State administration to take into account gender aspects in their policy making, planning and daily work," said Graziella Piga, Gender Issues Officer in the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe.

"The project, which now enters its third year, has been particularly successful thanks to productive co-operation with the Tajik Government Civil Service Training Institute. Together with the Institute, we trained more than 200 civil servants last year and are planning to train at least 100 this year. We also plan to train 25 secondary school directors on how to mainstream gender into the work of schools."

Munira Inoyatova, the Rector of the Civil Service Training Institute, added: "In order to implement the State programme that guarantees gender equality, we need managers capable of running gender policy regulations in various fields. Training civil servants in gender equality issues has been a success over the last two years due to close partnership with the OSCE."

Similar courses are planned to take place this year.