As part of its overarching SGBV Programme in Darfur, UNDP, in close collaboration with the AU/AMIS Training Unit, has conducted an extensive training programme for 52 AU/AMIS Women's Desk Officers on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in El Fasher (North Darfur). Carefully tailored to the specific roles and responsibilities of AU/AMIS Women's Desk Officers in the field, the training provided the participants with the practical skills needed to support SGBV victims, as well as to strengthen possible prevention and protection mechanisms.

Five years into the armed conflict, SGBV continues to affect Darfurian women on an unprecedented scale. A common pattern is still being played out in Darfur, as women and young girls continue to fall victim to rape, sexual slavery, abduction, and assault, and perpetrators, in most cases, remain anonymous or are granted immunity. Although the reporting of rape has slightly increased in recent years, many incidents still go unreported.

Whereas the Government of Sudan simply denies that rape is an integral part of the violence in Darfur (and asserts that it aggressively punishes perpetrators), rape victims face severe difficulties in seeking legal redress due to the sheer lack of access to the justice system, and its failure to function properly. The lack of access to justice is further compounded by the

prevailing gender discrimination and lack of sensitivity and understanding of the nature of SGBV - resulting in extremely low conviction rates.

Women who have been raped face the risk of being charged with unlawful sexual intercourse (zina) if there is insufficient evidence to prove rape. The underlying assumption appears to be that SGBV victims, predominantly women, are untrustworthy. Such stereotypical attitudes and reasoning are an additional burden on the shoulders of rape survivors, as, in addition to falling victim to an abhorrent crime, they face the risk of further victimisation by the justice system itself.

The African Union initially deployed a contingent of (unarmed) military observers (MILOBS) to monitor the N'djamena Ceasefire Agreement signed in April 2004. However, in October 2004, its mandate and structure were significantly changed, transforming it into a major military operation with the aim to actively contribute to the improvement of the overall security situation and enhance the protection of civilians. However, with less than 7,000 under-resourced and ill-equipped troops, AU/AMIS has largely been unable to restore security and provide protection.

The original AU/AMIS monitoring mission, which deployed in June 2004, did not include a police component, but in light of the deteriorating situation in Darfur it was also decided in October 2004 that 815 police officers would be deployed to monitor and assist the Sudanese police. In April 2005, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) decided to expand AU/AMIS CIVPOL to 1,560 officers.

Strengthening SGBV prevention, protection and response mechanisms is one of the core components of the AU/AMIS CIVPOL mandate and in December 2006, it established a special SGBV Unit with a coordination centre at AU/AMIS Headquarters in El Fasher and Women's Desks in all eight sectors.

Currently, AU/AMIS CIVPOL employs approximately sixty Women's Desk Officers and this number is likely to increase in the coming months. The Women's Desk Officers are tasked to:

- Assist SGBV victims who seek medical and/or legal support;

- Monitor and assist the Sudanese police to improve investigation procedures and case management;

- Assist the Sudanese police in establishing Women's Desks in police stations; and,

- Train AU/AMIS military and civilian personnel on SGBV issues, crime prevention and protection work.

The trainings, which were designed jointly by UNDP and the AU/AMIS Training Unit, were primarily aimed at enhancing the understanding of the legal, medical, social, cultural and religious implications of working with SGBV survivors, their communities, UN agencies and NGOs, and at offering the right tools for Women's Desk Officers to fulfil their roles and responsibilities with respect to SGBV issues.

The 6-day course provides the participants with extensive knowledge on SGBV, the practical skills needed to provide support to SGBV victims, and possible ways to strengthen available prevention and protection mechanisms. Sessions cover available medical and legal support services, counselling and investigation techniques, facilitation and organisation, cascading skills and capacity building of the Sudanese police, as well as a guide on culture and religion in Darfur. Below is an account of the second training course, which took place from 30 July to 4 August 2007:

After the introduction and icebreaking activities, the first day of the course began with a review of the AU/AMIS CIVPOL mandate; definitions and examples of SGBV; background on SGBV issues in Darfur; and, the roles and responsibilities of Women's Desk Officers in response to SGBV taught by Jeffrey Lowe from the AU/AMIS Training Unit. The participants also had the opportunity to review their job description and discuss their main tasks as Women's Desk Officers. During the session on response to SGBV, the participants assessed their specific responsibilities which fall into three key tasks: 1) receive victims at their AU/AMIS CIVPOL station; 2) refer victims to medical, legal or psychosocial service providers; and, 3) monitor Sudanese police investigations on SGBV cases.

The first session on the second day covered the SGBV prevention and protection mechanisms in relation to the Women's Desk Officers' primary tasks. This included three components: 1) promoting general law and order in IDP camps and host communities; 2) providing security to IDP women (particularly with firewood patrols); and, 3) bringing perpetrators to justice

The second session was on the operational tasks of Women's Desk Officers' led by Sherifah Umar, the Head of the AU/AMIS CIVPOL SGBV Unit. She explained the reporting requirements of Women's Desk Officers to report not only SGBV cases, but also the achievements and activity plans of each duty station. She emphasised that proper reporting enhanced information sharing and coordination among Women's Desk Officers. This session also provided the Women's Desk Officers with the opportunity to discuss the issues and difficulties faced at their respective duty stations, such as a lack of female language assistants to communicate with IDP women and a lack of office space to receive SGBV victims.

The entire afternoon was then devoted to the session on the cultural and religious aspects of SGBV taught by Fahima Abdel Hafiz Hashim, the Director of Salmaah Women's Resource Centre, a women's NGO based in Khartoum. She lectured on women's rights in Sudan, the history and current situation of women's movements in Sudan, religious and cultural interpretations of SGBV, and current SGBV issues in Darfur. She shared her own experiences and struggles as a Sudanese woman and activist, which sparked a candid and lively discussion with participants who also shared their own gender-related issues and experiences.

The third day of the course was started with the session by Dr. Eze Emmanuel from the AU/AMIS Clinic. He explained how SGBV negatively impacts on women's health, including their reproductive organs. The participants found this session very informative and useful not only to understand the medical needs of SGBV victims, but also to understand their own well-being as women. In the following session, Dr. Ashraf from UNFPA provided important information on administering Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) kits and the risk of HIV/AIDS infections among SGBV victims. For many of the participants, it was their first time to see the actual PEP kits and learn how to use them. Halima Yagoub from UNFPA introduced Form 8 to the participants and explained the difficulties and challenges associated with the form. Participants discussed the issues with Form 8, such as a lack of doctors (particularly in remote areas) to fill out the form and unavailability of the form in clinics and police stations.

The first afternoon session was on legal aspects of SGBV lectured by Nabila Abdulkarim, a female prosecutor in El Fasher. The participants asked many questions related to the gaps in the current legal system and legislation to deal with SGBV cases. She shared her own struggles as a prosecutor and clarified the issues associated with accusations of rape, adultery and witness requirements. The following session on communication was taught by Jeffery Lowe from the AU/AMIS Training Unit. Participants learned how to communicate with people in a culturally sensitive and effective manner. The role play by participants demonstrated how important it was for Women's Desk Officers to use non-verbal communications skills more effectively when they are unable to communicate with SGBV victims in Arabic. After participants learned about general communication skills, the course moved to the session on psychosocial support to SGBV victims led by Suliama Sherief from SUDO, a national NGO based in El Fasher. She explained the psychosocial impacts of SGBV and different types of psychosocial support that Women's Desk Officers could offer to survivors.

The fourth day of the training started with the second psychosocial session with Suliama from SUDO to demonstrate counselling techniques. She emphasised the importance of active listening and putting oneself in the victim's position to understand their suffering and trauma. Many Women's Desk Officers found this session very useful, especially those based in remote areas where Women's Desk Officers receive more SGBV victims.

After the psychosocial session, Gry Tangstad from UNOCHA led the session on overall humanitarian coordination. Participants learned about humanitarian principles, key UN and INGO actors in the humanitarian community, and the eight different sectors in humanitarian assistance. This session helped the participants to understand how their work is interrelated to the humanitarian community and how to coordinate with other agencies and organisations.

Then, participants had a session on SGBV coordination taught by Halima Yagoub from UNFPA, the lead UN agency on SGBV. Halima explained the roles and main tasks of the GBV Working Group and emphasised the importance for Women's Desk Officers to coordinate with other GBV actors, including INGOs, UN agencies and the SGBV state committee.

After the participants learned "who is doing what" in the areas of SGBV related work, they had the session on the SGBV referral pathway led by Seynabou Dia from UNMIS/HR. Participants learned how they could work together with other SGBV actors to ensure victims receive all available support and services. The group exercise demonstrated all the complexities and issues associated with referring cases when proper coordination is not in

place. By using the referral pathway diagram from Abu Shouk IDP camp, the participants learned how they could develop a referral pathway that meets the existing capacities of each IDP camp.

The day was concluded by the session on organisation and facilitation skills taught by Jeffery Lowe from the AU/AMIS Training Unit. Upon their return to their duty stations, Women's Desk Officers are expected to organise SGBV trainings for other AU/AMIS colleagues, including AMIS CIVPOL and Women's Desk Officers who have not received SGBV training, and to organise meetings with other actors. This session was very useful for the participants to learn how to organise and facilitate those activities.

The fifth day of training began with three sessions on investigations taught by Jack Gallop from the AU/AMIS Training Unit. Although the Women's Desk Officers do not conduct investigations, they have to be knowledgeable enough to provide technical assistance to the Sudanese police and monitor actual investigations on SGBV cases. The investigation session started with basic investigation concepts and techniques and was followed by case studies on rape investigation and group exercises.

Upon return to their duty station, the Women's Desk Officers are expected to share the knowledge and skills they acquired from this training with their colleagues, as well as the Sudanese police. Jeffery Lowe from the AU/AMIS Training Unit taught a session on how to become good trainers and teach others about SGBV issues. Since the majority of the participants did not have previous teaching experience, they found this session challenging at the beginning, but they enjoyed analysing the SGBV training from the perspective of trainers.

The morning session of the last day of the course was a joint session with Sudanese police officers. This session is critical when trying to develop a good working relationship between the Women's Desk Officers and the Sudanese police. After the Women's Desk Officers had a short preparatory session among themselves, the participants had a two-hour joint session with five Sudanese police officers accompanied by Police Brigadier Ahmed Ata Elmanan.

After Brigadier Elmanan answered a number of questions from the Women's Desk Officers about the plans to increase the number of Women's Desk Officers within the Sudanese police, the participants were divided into four small groups and each group discussed how AU/AMIS CIVPOL and the Sudanese police could strengthen their collaboration. Joint training, regular joint meetings for information sharing, visits to each other's office/station, joint cultural learning sessions were among the suggestions from the participants. This joint session was completed successfully with a lunch held at the AMIS cafeteria.

The afternoon session of the last day of the course was concluded with an action planning session. The Women's Desk Officers were divided into four groups based on their duty stations, and each group identified their key follow-up actions for the next six months, which, included SGBV training for AMIS CIVPOL and the Sudanese police, coordination meetings with camp coordinators and NGOs, coordination with AMIS Protection Forces to strengthen firewood patrols, regular visits and meetings with the Sudanese police, and data collection of SGBV cases with weekly and monthly reports.

As the evaluation of the SGBV trainings illustrated that over 90 percent of the participants now felt more confident to fulfil their tasks as Women's Desk Officers, the primary objectives of creating a better understanding of the legal, medical, social, cultural and religious implications of working with survivors, their communities, UN agencies and NGOs, and offering the right tools to fulfil their roles and responsibilities, were fully achieved.

The next steps to be taken in order to sustain the work of the Women's Desk Officers are: 1) to continue this type of SGBV training for new Women's Desk Officers upon their arrivals; 2) to follow-up and monitor the work of Women's Desk Officers in each sector; 3) to enhance SGBV coordination among AU/AMIS CIVPOL, Sudanese Police and other actors, including INGOs and UN agencies; and, 4) to build the capacity of Women's Desk Officers of the Sudanese police.

The UNDP SGBV Programme in Darfur aims to fight the current climate of impunity by strengthening legal capacities and trying to ensure that perpetrators are actually held to account. As such, the main activities include building the capacity of legal professionals and health practitioners; providing legal aid services to SGBV survivors and their families; and, raising awareness of and changing attitudes towards SGBV amongst local communities and the general public. With three Sub-Offices and over 40 Rule of Law staff, UNDP is in an excellent position not only to continue to support the Women's Desk Officers from AU/AMIS CIVPOL, but to positively contribute to strengthening the overall law enforcement throughout Darfur.