The Centre concludes a training course entitled "Preparing the women's leadership team"

The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution today concluded a training course in the Gaza Strip on the subject of "Preparing the women's leadership team". Taking part in the course, which continued for five days over 30 training hours, were 30 women from among the community's leaders. It came within the Centre's concern with working for national reconciliation through participation in decision-making positions, and within the project "Women for civil peace", with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy. During the course the participants learned about the concept of civil peace, advocacy and the methods of influencing others, and also learned the art of persuasion and negotiation, how to build coalitions and how to manage them. The trainers also addressed the importance of the media and the extent of the Palestinian media's influence on decision-makers, in addition to explaining the concept of advocacy and pressure, linking available resources to the plan, and the concepts of planning, its importance and its elements. The participants then divided into working groups to practise building plans for advocacy and mobilisation campaigns. The participants expressed their interest in this subject, with the aim of building bridges of communication between themselves and the Palestinian public in the various parties in order to strengthen a culture of civil peace and tolerance. The trainers relied on a method of discussion built on teaching aids, participation, working groups and brainstorming to clarify the ideas for the participants. The project aims at enabling women to take part in senior decision-making positions in order to strengthen a culture of civil peace and tolerance, leading to national reconciliation, which is a popular demand. The project works at four levels: women leaders, the student blocs at the universities, local community leaders represented by notables and mukhtars, and the supporters' team, where everyone will work together to strengthen a culture of tolerance between the two parties to the conflict.