Capacity Building and Training
Saraco reaches out to engage in joint learning journeys that go beyond the binary perception of humanity.
One of the core services Saraco provides is meant to empower individuals and to support organisations to become more inclusive. Founder of Saraco started as a capacity builder and trainer in Guinea, 30 years ago at a level where it most matters: childhood and adolescence!
Knowledge builds confidence and expands children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ capacities to make their own choices and to understand the consequences.
Exploring the “unknown” enriches not only the lives of those who are taught but also the lives of the facilitators.
We focus on:
Awareness-raising allowing women, men and all persons identifying themselves beyond the binary, to know their rights, to acquire the skills to claim their rights and to enjoy their rights.
Building capacities and offering training leads to adventurous journeys.
Respecting participants’ locus means that we want to understand the environment the participants are working and living in. Knowing the context allows Saraco to develop interactions that meet participants’ expectations.
Creating a safe environment allows rights-holders to strengthen their capacities at their own pace. According to the context and training requests, Saraco works with different modalities, from individual mentoring and coaching, through self-paced online training, to collective training as for example during the training in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when more than 55 Gender Focal Points at ministerial level became gender experts.
Empowering individuals and organisations is the essential focus of Saraco! Send us your capacity building or training request, we will ensure that it is tailor-made for your purposes.
Good practices
Building capacities on the Human Rights-Based Approach and Gender Mainstreaming (since 2018):
Antoine and Saskia are both working for NIRAS in an EU project on the Human Rights-Based Approach and Gender Mainstreaming. Saskia leads the Support Desk, and Antoine is one of the Key Experts for the Component on knowledge management. Together with their team, they developed and delivered multiple trainings for Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nepal, Tanzania and Lebanon, to name a few EU Delegations that benefitted from the capacity building.
These face-to-face pieces of training on the HRBA and GM turned into intensive online workshops due to the COVID-19 measures. These new circumstances allowed the team to develop many more online training sessions, also on the new Gender Action Plan III (2021-2025) and the new HRBA Toolbox, which was proudly launched in September 2021. The HRBA Toolbox is a user-friendly source of information and inspiration for practitioners who want to find their way when integrating the human rights-based approach into their daily work. The HRBA Toolbox is accessible via INTPA Academy.
Teaching two courses at the Paris School of International Affairs (since 2017):
Invited by the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA, Sciences Po), Saskia Ravesloot teaches courses to Bachelor and Masters students on Gender, Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities in International Cooperation.
The first course is titled: “Gender and Development from a human rights-based approach - Achieving gender equality in international cooperation”. Students from various cultural and academic backgrounds appreciate this course for its mix of theory and practice. Examples from Saskia’s professional experiences are shared and students are always welcome for additional support. PSIA considers this course as a “vital addition to the curriculum of the Spring Semester”.
The second course “Gender and development in the 21st century” extends student’s understanding of gender as a non-binary concept in international cooperation. Students embark on a joint journey exploring and transgressing the boundaries of commonly used concepts as gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.
