That four letter word again....

.....beginning with W and ending in K. After knocking the shingles on the head, I found that both work and time accelerated during the last two months of my mission. My colleagues and I co-facilitated a national level protection training workshop for high-level policy makers and senior managers from the Government of the Republic of Namibia, UN and Intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations which took place in Windhoek at the Roof of Africa Hotel. The course was written and prepared by the Global Protection Cluster Working Group's Task Force on Natural Disasters and we had the privilege of piloting the module as a country specific training alongside a fellow colleague, Mr Leonard Zulu, from the Global Protection Cluster who had kindly come out to assist us with facilitation. The two day training workshop was a huge success, participants really engaged with the material and each other through sharing 'burning issues' and experiences. The module covered the basic concepts of protection, the legal framework for protection and how to prepare for and respond to protection concerns in natural disasters. We included sessions on mapping protection actors (both active and not yet active in country) and priority actions for protection preparedness, protection coordination and commitments that individual participants were willing to take forward in their workplaces.

Happy participants at our national protection training workshop

The next day a few of the participants and I travelled up to Otjiwarongo to the Out of Africa Town Lodge to attend a 3 day national consultative conference on developing the National Disaster Risk Management Plan and Emergency Management Operational Procedures, organised by the Office of the Prime Minister's Directorate of Disaster Risk Management. Over 60 participants attended from all over the country, mostly Government staff. The workshop was quite intense with plenty of lively debate, whilst building consensus for the final content of the NDRMP and EMOP including lead and co-lead ministries for taking forward particular sectors. Designated lead and co-lead ministries for the protection sector were still pending but passionate interjections by both the Ministry of Gender, Equality and Child Welfare and the Ministry of Safety and Security, who both wanted to lead the protection sector were encouraging signs that protection had risen higher on the Government's agenda and our workshop participants were able to apply their knowledge and learning in this consultative conference!

Core group for the NDRMP, enjoying some of Hertha's birthday cake
from left: Elham, Millan, Hertha, Martin, Macdonald and Alex

I had the opportunity of participating in the core group for the NDRMP and we met in the evenings to sum up the day's progress and plan any further inputs for the subsequent days. Here we are in the picture above, celebrating our colleague Hertha's birthday the day after the conference closed. Summarising outputs and further actions always goes smoother with cake... I find.

Straight after this it was time for me to pack up my little suitcase, help Alex, one of our trusty UNFPA drivers, load up the car and head up north to Ongwediva where I joined my colleagues Cat and Teopolinah. I stayed at Hotel Destiny a charming, new and well run business hotel that clearly lives up to its strapline 'where quality service is our pride'.

We had two or three days left to make any final preparations for the first of our three regional training workshops on protection, gender and gender based violence (GBV), sexual reproductive health (SRH) and HIV and AIDs in emergencies for field practitioners from regional Government and NGOs from a total of 6 regions. The first one brought participants together from the four O's (Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshana and Oshikoto) at Ondangwa Town Lodge.

Dream-team UNFPA, Teopo, Cat and Alex while we
packed the car with workshop materials

I facilitated 3 sessions on protection, the first was an introduction to protection in natural disasters, the second was on systems, tools and resources for protection and the third session covered protection coordination.

Me introducing the first protection session at the 4 O's workshop

Cat facilitated the session on gender and gender based violence and Teopo led the combined session on sexual reproductive health and HIV and AIDs in emergencies. After those we enjoyed some very creative and oscar-winning role plays by the participants.

One of the groups putting on their mini-play demonstrating
various protection issues they had learned about

The closing sessions of the workshop explored priority actions the participants committed to taking forward in their respective workplaces. We repeated the same format in Kavango and Caprivi regions and were encouraged by the high calibre of participants and their commitment to improving disaster preparedness and response in their regions!

Workshop participants in Kavango Region