South Africa: NCA, PASCA and GL collaborate in gender training of church leaders

The Alliance Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness (PACSA) and University of Pretoria in partnership with Gender Links held a one day meeting from 18 – 19 April 2012 with church leaders to expose them the sub-regional, regional and international legal instruments in place that set international standards for the empowerment of women and set a foundation for gender equality.

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) supported the meeting, which is part of an on-going initiative on gender audits done in the church. The audits helped to establish a baseline of where churches are in terms of gender balance in the decision-making positions as well as the approach of the churches.

The participants at the meeting were exposed to the role of the church in the popularisation of the SADC Gender Protocol and the Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Discrimination (CEDAW), the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women and other similar instruments for promoting gender equality.Facilitators based the training on the participants’ doctrines and biblical foundations.

At the same meeting representatives from the five participating churches submitted reports on developments since 2008 related to gender transformation processes in their churches.

The church leaders also shared how their respective congregations could cooperate with others to take the gender transformation agenda forward within the church sector as well as society as a whole.