A gender sensitive analysis methodology is provided to support action-research in order to put in place practices that take into account the needs of both women and men. Capacity development also addresses ways to communicate about gender, how to integrate gender into development actions, and how to promote women’s leadership. The whole process is complimented by capacity development for knowledge management in order to document experiences, highlight the value of results, and enable the adoption of good practices by others.

Several methodologies are used to share knowledge. Among these are:

These methodologies are available on the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit website www.kstoolkit.org and were used during the Knowledge Fair, familiarizing the 250 participants with the methods.

Knowledge Fair
The Knowledge Fair that was held in June 2010 in Niamey, Niger was an important activity to make the Programme known through its components, its participatory methodologies and the activities with its partners, and also to initiate dynamic exchanges and networking around themes that are common to the partners. The 250 participants appreciated the level of the exchanges and the participatory methodology used for knowledge sharing, such as the World Café, "talk shows", and mapping exercises.

During the Fair, a collaborative platform called "Foire aux savoirs" (Knowledge Share Fair) was made ​​available to participants to familiarize themselves with new information communication technology, as well as social media. Many audio and video reports were made ​​during the Fair and each session has been documented in photos.

The "Foire aux savoirs" in Niamey was one of the knowledge Share Fairs organized by the Rome-based UN agencies. Learn more at  www.sharefair.net/share-fair-niamey/a-propos-de-la-foire/en/.
For more information, see also this Dimitra newsletter: Dimitra Newsletter 19, November 2010 (1.6 MB).

Among the gender sensitive methodologies developed there is "Communicating gender for development".

The organisation of three pilot workshops in MBour (Senegal), Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Niamey (Niger) in June and September 2009 was a key stage in the development of Dimitra’s innovative "Communicating gender for development" training module. Almost 90 participants from ministries, media, grassroots and international organisations gathered with two purposes: increasing their gender and communication capacities, and testing the training module. The workshops were organized to review how to integrate gender in communication for development in rural areas to ensure a better consideration of men and women’s interests in development projects and programmes. This integration can play an innovative and crucial role by facilitating rural people’s ownership of their own development, in particular for the most disadvantaged.

The new FAO-Dimitra publication entitled "Communicating gender for rural development. Integrating Gender in Communication for Development" (2011) is the output of this process conducted by the Dimitra Project, through the series of participatory workshops in Senegal, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The publication is intended for development practitioners, not only for people mainly responsible for communication/ information issues in institutions and development initiatives. The approach outlined is strongly linked to FAO’s mandate, i.e. to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity and improve the lives of rural populations, as well as to its strategic objective of gender equality.