Disarmament community remembers Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala

Between 2019 and 2022, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs implemented a global project in support of gender mainstreamed policies, programmes and actions in the fight against small arms trafficking and misuse, in line with the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

One of the main deliverables under the project was the development of an online self-paced course on “Gender-mainstreaming Small Arms Control”. The course is now available on the UNODA Disarmament Education Dashboard and is open to the public.

The main objectives of the course are to enhance participants’ understanding of the need to include gender perspectives in small arms control measures, demonstrate ways to prevent arms-related gender-based violence, give overview of the relevant international policy frameworks and converging agendas and introduce entry points for gender-responsive small arms policies.

The course is specifically tailored for professionals working in small arms and light weapons (SALW) control and experts on gender and women, peace and security issues. These groups often do not interact with each other even as their work increasingly overlaps. This course demonstrates how SALW and gender communities can work together enhancing each other’s work on various issues, such as data collection, data analysis, and policy approaches for the prevention of arms-related gender-based violence, among others.

Developed in collaboration with UNITAR, the course curriculum is also suitable for those who are new to SALW and gender related issues, presenting basic terminology and concepts on the subject. The course can be used as a stand-alone learning opportunity or a prerequisite to a more in-depth training.

The course is currently only offered in English, but will also become available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The entire course takes approximately three hours to complete with quizzes after each module and pre-/post-knowledge tests to check learning progression. Participants will be issues e-certificates upon successful completion of the course and passing the final evaluation test.

Content of this interactive course is largely based on the Training Manual on Gender-Mainstreaming Small Arms Control, which was developed and published in 2022 as part of the same project but tailored for trainers and serving as a guidance document for stakeholders involved in the implementation of actions related to small arms control. The Manual’s Annex contains over 40 practical activities and supporting up-to-date material, which were used for the practical exercises contained in the online course.

The development of the online training course was funded by the European Union through the Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/2011.