Refresher Training Programme on “Integrating Gender into District Planning” For Master Trainers

Five months after the master training of trainers programme held in June 2015, a refresher training was undertaken on 27 and 28 November 2015 in Raipur. PRIA, supported by UNDP, had implemented a participatory training of master trainers in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha in May and June 2015. The master training helped build capacities of specific state level officials to promote and integrate gender in district planning and programme implementation processes. These master trainers learned knowledge and skills on gender responsive budgeting and engendered planning and were sensitized to issues of gender, gender equality, socialization and patriarchy. The pool of master facilitators prepared were expected to capacitate members of Technical Support Groups (TSGs) and others associated with the planning process at district and below levels.

Ten facilitators (1 female and 9 male) from the two districts of Janjgir Champa and Kanker participated in the two day refresher training. Due to administrative exigencies that arose at the district level, participation was only half the number of participants who attended the master facilitators’ training in June.

The refresher training began with a recapitulation of the sessions held five months ago. This was followed by a presentation of the design for the training, but it was soon shared by the participants that they had been unable to fulfill any of the commitments made by them during the last round of training. The reasons were varied, but significant were those related to work allocation, imbalance of work load, lack of clarity of their roles and lack of direction. The participants proceeded to provide suggestions for rectifying the situation.

The learners decided to continue with the training beginning with a refresher on understanding gender. A learning exercise was used to demonstrate the difference between gender and sex.

In a short small group exercise, participants identified the issues that Technical Support Group (TSG) members will require to have knowledge of before they are able to carry out gender based planning processes satisfactorily. This was to enable the master trainers conduct a session on gender based planning for TSG members.

The second day began with a basic introduction to gender responsive budgeting and prioritisation. Two groups – all female and all male – were given an exercise to prioritise household expenses with a limited budget. Comparisons were drawn between the prioritisation lists prepared by the all male group and all female group. Attention was gradually drawn towards the process followed for prioritisation of issues during village planning. Participants also undertook a small group discussion to prepare a list of possible expense heads that are a priority in their present context but does not have any budget assigned to it.

Discussions on two case studies on innovative gender budgeting initiatives—one facilitated by PRIA in Rajasthan and another initiative in Bihar—followed. The programme ended with representatives from the state planning commission highlighting the importance of village level planning and the role of a planner, which is to listen to the voices of the voiceless and to the ones who remain silent. Such voices must also be reflected in the plans.

The participants are now expected to percolate their learnings to other officials at the district and sub district levels.