Feminist Edge

Content

Feminist Edge offers professional development for gender trainers that re-captures and re-imagines gender training, as a feminist project, establishing a new approach to training for gender equality. We reposition training for gender equality as a strategy to challenge and engender mainstream development and support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The programme addresses the need to (re)claim autonomous spaces for feminist knowledge production and challenges development policy makers and practitioners to re-think how to address social and gender inequity to ensure that “no one is left behind.” Feminist Edge focusses both on the practice of gender training and on its conceptual underpinnings.

This six-month certificate programme offered by KIT and UN Women Training Centre aims to:

• Sharpen training skills and knowledge of gender and development concepts as a gender equality trainer
• Enable participants to better employ learning and knowledge strategies
• Support participants to re-claim training for gender equality as a political feminist process
• Refresh participants skills and knowledge as gender equality trainers and renew commitment to gender training as a transformative process.

Combining lectures, guest presentations and practical activities and assignments, Feminist Edge strengthens capacities across three interrelated domains:

• Conceptual depth and clarity: gender and development theory and practice in various themes; and global approaches to gender and development.
• Training skills and methods: training design, delivery and evaluation; communication skills; and learner-centred pedagogy.
• Feminist Practices: gender knowledge, knowledge making and power; reflexivity; change and resistance; and, global governance of development and client relations.

Check our brochure to learn more about the programme structure, approach and learning objectives.

Audience

The programme works in a co-creation process with experienced gender trainers from both the global South and North.

Participants need to meet the following criteria to qualify:

• Minimum of three years of training experience on gender issues
• Knowledge of gender and development and/or gender in public policy
• Institutional affiliation/experience: UN agencies, international and national NGOs, national governments, academia, etc.
• Demonstrate commitment to completing the six-month program

Background

Gender training is an important tool for advancing gender equality. Since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, gender training has been embraced as a means to make gender mainstreaming effective. However, when used as a ‘cure-all’ to address all gender mainstreaming challenges and limitations, the critical and transformative potential of gender training is blunted. When gender training is approached as a singular short-term event there is little room for reflection, yet reflection is critical to allow participants to reconsider their own gendered behaviours.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated all forms of inequality – including gender inequality – revealing an urgent need to re-imagine how inequalities are addressed in development. With this in mind, UN Women Training Centre and KIT Institute designed a professional development programme for gender trainers, which brings a feminist edge back into gender training.

Feminist Edge offers professional development for gender trainers that re-captures and re-imagines gender training as a feminist project, establishing a new approach. We reposition training for gender equality as a strategy to challenge and engender development and support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The programme addresses the need to (re)claim autonomous spaces for feminist knowledge production and challenges development policy makers and practitioners to re-think how to address social and gender inequity to ensure that “no one is left behind.” Feminist Edge focusses both on the practice of gender training and on its conceptual underpinnings.

Application procedure

The application package is due 11 November 2024.

Please upload your application online. The following 4 documents should be uploaded:

• A letter of motivation
• Copies of your diplomas
• Copies of academic transcripts
• An up-to-date curriculum vitae

Your motivation letter (maximum two pages) should include:

• Formal and/or informal professional development related to gender training
• Experience as a gender trainer (e.g. number of years, types and duration of gender training, types of participants and organisations) and the context of the gender trainings and your specific roles (e.g. training design, curriculum development, training delivery)
• Professional affiliation as a trainer (staff, consultant, trainer for organizations)
• Motivation to participate in Feminist Edge
• Your expectations from participation in the programme
• Indication of how you will manage your personal and professional schedule and work load
• Planned financing of the programme fee, travel, accommodation and subsistence in Amsterdam
• If seeking a (partial) scholarship, please specify the costs that you can co-fund

Accommodations

There is a severe shortage of student accommodation in Amsterdam. KIT endeavors to assist participants in their search for accommodation. Contact KIT for information.

Visa requirements

Visit the Nuffic website for the latest information on visa requirements.

Applicants requiring a short-stay visa (for up to three months) through the Netherlands embassy (or consulate covering the applicant’s country) will need a letter of admission to the course and proof of sponsorship or sufficient funds to cover the course fee, travel and accommodation. Note that in some countries this procedure can take several months.

Insurance requirements

Course participants are required by Dutch law to have health, accident and third party insurance. If a participant’s current insurance policy does not cover a stay abroad, then they must be insured in the Netherlands by a Dutch insurance company.

Funding and Scholarship Information

A limited number of scholarships are available for selected participants from low and middle income countries (LMICs). Scholarships are awarded on the basis of course applications. If you are seeking a (partial) scholarship, please indicate what aspects you can cover yourself (or
through your employer) and where you still need to mobilize resources in order to participate.
Co-funding is desirable.

Feminist Edge is generously supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Scholarships MENA programme

There are scholarships available for this course from the MENA MSP Programme.
Application deadline of the scholarship is 15 October 2024. Interested applicants should apply first for academic admission, by 7 October 2024 at the latest. Accepted applicants will receive the link to apply for the scholarship.
The scholarship is available for applicants from the following countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia. Applicants from Syria may only apply if they reside and work in one of the other MSP countries listed.
Read more information on the Nuffic MSP MENA website

KIT Gender, UN Women Training Centre and Faculty

Director: Rhiannon Pyburn, Team Lead, KIT Gender

Rhiannon brings 30 years of experience working on gender dynamics in agricultural and environmental research and development, social learning, and cross-cultural and non-formal education. She is a skilled and thoughtful facilitator and is well-published. Rhiannon lead the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research (2017-2019) and recently edited the landmark book (2021): Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research – past, present and future. She leads KIT’s Gender Team.

Coordinator: Camilo Antillon, KIT Senior Gender Advisor

Camilo is highly skilled in quantitative and qualitative research methods, the planning, monitoring, evaluation and management of social projects, and in formal and non-formal education. He brings twenty years of experience of social research, social projects and education, focusing on gender and sexuality, SRHR, violence, and urban cultural studies. Camilo uses constructivist, participatory and popular education approaches to collectively generate learning based on participant interests, knowledges and experiences.

Tutor: Felice Davids, KIT Junior Gender Advisor

Felice is an anthropologist and Gender & Development specialist with a MA in Social Anthropology of Development from SOAS University of London. Felice is an intersectional feminist with a passion for women’s rights and empowerment, global health and SRHR, and LGBTQIA+ equality. She is keenly interested in storytelling, journalism, and the use of theater for social change. Highly aware of the role of power dynamics in development, she is committed to “putting the power back into empowerment”.