About 30 senior staff and managers of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) are taking part in a two-day workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in the NBI Projects Planning and Implementation, which opened 2nd November 2009, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Under the theme “Regional Gender Mainstreaming in the Nile Basin Initiative Projects Planning and Implementation”, the workshop is aimed at enhancing the skills of the NBI Project Senior Staff and Regional Managers on gender in project planning and implementation.  The meeting is being facilitated by Dr. May Sengendo Christine, Head of Gender Studies at Makerere University in Uganda, and by Ms. Dolphine Margaret Achieng Okech, Executive Director for Kenya Female Advisory Organisation.

The workshop comprised an opening session by Mr. Gordon Mumbo, Regional Programme Manager of the NBI Confidence Building and Stakeholder Involvement (CBSI) Project and followed by the welcome remarks by Ms. Henriette Ndombe, NBI Executive Director, who highlighted strategic points for integrating a gender perspective into the Nile Basin projects planning and implementation.

The Nile Basin Initiative recognizes the need to integrate gender into all of its activities and programs as part of the broader efforts to transform the unequal gender relations within the region of its activities.  However, the translation of gender and mainstreaming concepts and conceptual framework into action on the ground is still limited.