National Women’s Education Center of Japan

　On September 30, the National Women’s Education Center (NWEC) joined a webinar hosted by Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI). NWEC and KWDI signed an exchange and cooperation agreement in 2006.

　Under the theme of “Gender Training as a Tool for Achieving Global Gender Equality: Sharing Knowledge and Suggestions for the Future,” the webinar featured speakers from KWDI, Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education (KIGEPE), Sookmyung Women’s University, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) who were invited to share information and exchange opinions in an online format due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. In line with the priority theme of the 67th (2023) session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) of “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls,” participants also discussed the nature of training in the digital age.

　The webinar began with a presentation from Dr. Jiso Yoon, Director of Center for International Development and Cooperation from KWDI on the overview of the organization and the international training programs it conducts in conjunction with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). KWDI has been conducting gender training for local government officials in Nepal since 2020. The challenges faced during the online training were shared, such as how participants could best be motivated and the importance of being attentive to each individual’s situation.

　The second presentation by Miho Watanabe, Director of the NWEC Office of Research and International Affairs was an overview of NWEC and a report on “Promotion of Networking among ASEAN Countries on Anti-Trafficking in Persons,” a Knowledge Co-Creation Program commissioned by JICA. A comparison was made between the 2019 training in Japan and the 2020 and 2021 training sessions that were conducted online.

　In the ensuing discussion, Dr. Haelim Cho, Director of KIGEPE International Cooperation Center, and Dr. Min Joung Park, Adjunct Professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, took the floor to share the challenges of online training in their respective organizations. KIGEPE has been conducting training for gender trainers in Asian civil society, and also shifted their training programs online during the pandemic. Dr. Cho noted the need to improve training efficiency and communication in the post-CODID-19 era. Sookmyung Women’s University, which offers online training in cooperation with KOICA, also stressed the importance of integrating men into gender training. As an example of one of the strengths of gender training in South Korea, the participants noted the response to gender-based violence, which is an area that is also being addressed in that country.

　Visiting Researcher from NWEC, Masami Ochi, compared the online domestic training conducted by NWEC during the COVID-19 restrictions with the in-person training conducted in years prior and reported that more men and managers participated in the 2021 online training as a result of the increased convenience of the training format.

　Lastly, Mr. Yuki Saito of the Office for Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction in the JICA Governance and Peacebuilding Department reported on JICA’s anti-human trafficking project in the Mekong region and the Mekong Regional Workshop “Preparation for and Response to the ‘New Normal’ after COVID-19 Pandemic” that was held in Thailand in August. While online games and chat rooms are widely exploited as entry points for trafficking in persons, he emphasized that IT can also be used in combatting such trafficking.

　During the discussion in the latter half of the program, there was a lively exchange of views on the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of selecting training participants, as well as the duration and method of implementation of training. The discussion also included questions regarding NWEC’s research and other activities, and provided an opportunity for the participants to learn from each other’s activities.

　With respect to training in the post-COVID-19 era, the importance of leveraging the strengths of online training, based on the findings gained during the COVID-19 period of restrictions, was recognized. The webinar concluded with an affirmation of future cooperation among the participants.