JANUARY – SEPTEMBER 2018: LIFE SKILLS SUPPORT PROJECT FOR GENDER EQUITY AND PEACEBUILDING

The project has been implemented in partnership with African Network of Young Leaders for Peace and Sustainable Development. It aimed to bring Life skills/values and social/moral support to affected girls and children in conflictual/returnee and host communities. It has contributed to help children and their community understand and describe the key concepts and basic issues underpinning all forms of gender-based violence. The project contributed to create spaces of dialogues in several communities where children (and more specifically girls), traditional and religious leaders and local authorities have been trained and accompanied to describe the relationship between issues of gender and power, and gender-based violence; and define gender-based violence; to identify types of Gender Based Violence (GBV) occurring in their communities, causes and perpetuating factors and to identify strengths, gaps, and needs in their community for prevention and response to GBV.Life skills have been provided to men, girls, women, traditional and religious leaders to improve their attitudes towards women. These include cognitive, emotional, interpersonal and social skills to foster:

• self-management: anger and stress management, time management, coping skills, controlling
• Social awareness: empathy, active listening, recognizing and appreciating individual and group
• Relationships: negotiation, conflict management, resisting peer pressure, networking, motivation,
• Responsible decision-making: Information gathering, critical thinking, evaluating consequences of
• Social development programs, which seek to provide children with social and emotional skills to solve problems, empathize and deal with conflict;
• Self-awareness: self-esteem and confidence building, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, goal setting, etc