Congratulations to the UNU-GEST fellows of 2015
The United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (UNU-GEST) celebrated the graduation of 10 fellows with a post-graduate diploma in international gender studies. The fellows came from four different countries; five men and five women from Malawi, Mozambique, Palestine and Uganda.
At the graduation ceremony several distinguished guests addressed the fellows including Dr. Ástráður Eysteinsson, Dean of the School of Humanities as well as Ms. Gréta Gunnarsdóttir, Ambassador at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Mrs. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the former President of Iceland and Patroness of UNU-GEST. On this occasion Dr. Irma Erlingsdóttir, Director of UNU-GEST, accounted for the activities of the programme in the past year and Mr. Willy Nkumbi from Uganda spoke on behalf of the graduating fellows on their experience during their stay in Iceland. Mrs. Finnbogadóttir delivered the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Award, this year received by Mr. Tony Bero from Palestine for his project: Strengthening gender-based violence preparedness and prevention in emergency situations in seven UNRWA refugee camps in the North Area of West Bank, Palestine. His supervisor was Þór Clausen.
Mrs. Finnbogadóttir reflected on this issue by looking back to the time when she was elected President of Iceland 35 years ago. She said tremendous progress had been made since then when there was a stifling silence surrounding gender-based violence and domestic abuse, which reflected social taboos and patriarchal ideas about unequal sexual power relationships. It took decades to bring this societal problem into the open debate.
Since the foundation of the GEST programme in 2009, fifty-three students have graduated from the school. The objective of UNU-GEST is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through research and eduation. Its main target group is professionals from developing countries and post-conflict societies working for government and civil society organisations. During the semester-long programme the fellows are provided with an interdisciplinary education by specialists from all over the world to make them more equipped to work on gender issues in their respective countries.
UNU-GEST is affiliated with the School of Humanites at the University of Iceland and operates with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as a part of Iceland´s contribution to development cooperation efforts. UNU-GEST is part of the The UNU programme based in Iceland; the UNU Fisheries Training Programme (UNU-FTP), UNU Geothermal Training Programme (UNU-GTP), and UNU Land Restoration Training Programme (UNU-LRT).
Information on the final projects of the 2015 UNU-GEST fellows can be found here.
At the festive occasion, the class of 2015 performed an original song for the UNU-GEST staff and friends in Iceland.