The African Development Bank has launched the Gender in Practice Community of Practice (GiP COP), an online resource that seeks to promote information and knowledge sharing on gender equality. The event took place on September 28, 2016 at the Bank's headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
The GiP CoP will operate as a "community of commitments", as it formed around shared commitments to advance gender equality within the Bank and across Africa. It will serve as a virtual learning platform, a convener and an integrator of knowledge among Gender Focal Points and gender experts. In addition, it will provide space for members to meet and exchange ideas on how to effectively integrate gender mainstreaming in their work, and promote gender equality in their professional and personal lives.
Unveiling the platform, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, AfDB's Special Envoy on Gender emphasised the importance of information and knowledge sharing, noting that "the road to knowledge is via people, conversations, connections and relationships." She added: "It is critical to innovate and become knowledge seeking especially at this time when the Bank is rolling out its High Five strategies and new ways of doing business." Fraser-Moleketi called on members of the community to enliven it through active participation.
The GiP CoP aims to become a One-Stop-Shop that enables all its members to access information that will make them more effective in delivering on their functions, whilst at the same time facilitating linkages and networking, virtual information sharing, and face to face events specifically tailored for members. The experiences and lessons gathered from the forum will be codified and published into short knowledge pieces for dissemination.
The Community is hosted on http://genderinpractice.afdb.org/ and has various features including e-discussions, webinars, a bulletin board, and a query system. The Platform also features community news, announcements and resources on gender for ease of reference by members. Through the query system for instance, members can post questions or request ideas on projects/documents that they are working on, and receive inputs from other members. The online discussions enable members to contribute ideas on specific challenges which are of relevance to the Bank and the continent.
The first online discussion will be launched in October 2016, and will address the issue of gender and energy.
