 Good morning everyone and welcome to our webinar on mainstreaming gender along the resettlement continuum towards an inclusive integration approach. I see many participants joined us for this event. I'm very happy to welcome all of you. My name is Gértre Lanot. I work at the IOM Regional Office in Brussels as the regional specialist for migrant integration, labour mobility and human development. And today I will be your moderator for this webinar. It's actually the third webinar already that we're organizing in the context of the commit project. Commit is actually a project funded by the European Union that aims to enhance the integration of refugees that are being resettled towards EU member states and we particularly focus in this project on women and youth, which is why for today's webinar we wanted to look more specifically at gender and how we can strengthen gender mainstreaming from the pre-departure stage starting with the pre-departure orientation training to the post-arrival integration support. Alicja, can I ask you to move to the next slide so we can look at the program of today's webinar. So we will start actually our webinar with a brief update on some recent EU policy developments in the area of resettlement. And for this we have Severeen Orenge Fleischmann with us, who is a policy officer at the European Commission DG Home. And she will tell us a bit more about the recent policy developments, perhaps also touch about the new pact on migration and asylum. After that we will hear a story from a refugee herself. We have with us Rania Dia Bekerli, who is a Syrian refugee who has been resettled to Italy and she agreed to share her story and her experiences with us. We will then hear from Anna, Anna Justinyani from IOM Rome, who is the commit project manager and she will tell us a bit more about the guidelines that we've produced about mainstreaming gender in pre-departure orientation. And then finally we will move to the post-arrival integration sphere and we're going to hear from Elisabeth Palermo, the project coordinator of the Equal City project, who will tell us a bit more on how we can mobilize local authorities and frontline services to better include gender aspects in their assistance to migrant families, women and girls. And then at the end we will have the closing remarks from the director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, Laurence Hart. So we have a full and a nice program for today. Of course we are also eager to hear from you, the participants. So should you have any question, any comment as we go through today's program, feel free to use the chat function. You will see at your screen below there is a chat function. You can click on the chat and you have the option to send your questions to all panelists. So don't send your questions to an individual panelist. Please send them to all panelists. I can also see your questions and I will then direct your question to the panelists in question. So that's it for the program. Alicia, I think we can move to our next slide, which if I'm not mistaken is just a quick overview of Commit. What is Commit? Commit is a project funded by the European Union under the AMIS, Asylum Migration and Integration Fund and it looks at pre-departure and post-arrival support for refugees who are being resettled to Europe. We have a particular focus on the following countries, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain, but at the same time some of our activities like for example these webinars are of course open to any participant in any country in Europe. Next slide please, Alicia. So here we see the specific objectives of our Commit project, which as I said has a focus on women and youth and we look at the full resettlement continuum starting from the pre-departure stage where we want to see how can we enhance pre-departure orientation for these specific groups. So in our previous webinar we launched a youth curriculum for pre-departure orientation for refugee youth. Today we'll be looking at gender aspects in pre-departure orientation. Under Commit we also look at how we can enhance community support in receiving communities. We have a partner in the Commit project with piloting a mentorship scheme for example and of course we want to foster the transnational exchanges built on the experience of all of you amongst let's say resettlement countries that are perhaps more experienced to share lessons learned and good practices. So I think with this we have introduced the webinar and the Commit project and I think we can move to the next slide Alicia, which is the policy developments in the area of resettlement and I'm very happy to introduce Severing Orenge Fleischmann, policy officer at the European Commission, DG Home who will tell us a bit more about the latest policy developments in the area of resettlement. Severing you have the floor. Thank you very much, can you hear me well? I hear you perfectly, thank you. Thank you very much indeed to present myself very briefly and a policy officer at DG Home in the unit in charge of legal pathways and integration. I've been in this position for about a year and a half now but I've been dealing with resettlement before joining the commission from the member state side for the seven years before so resettlement is a topic dear to my heart. So I'm very very happy to participate in this event as we all know a successful resettlement program is one which succeeds to fully integrate all resettled refugees including women on youth into the new host society and for that of course starting the integration process even before arrival with adapted pre-departure orientation is important to facilitate integration. So I'm really looking forward to hearing more about the gender aspect and how they can be better taken into account within the pre-departure orientation and I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you. Without further delay let me briefly present the commission recommendation on the legal pathways to protection in the EU which was released as part of the pact on asylum on migration on the 23rd of September. The fact really set up a European framework from migration and asylum management. It's really based on the comprehensive approach where all elements are integrated and the fact that this recommendation was adopted as an important part of the pact shows the importance that the commission is giving to safe and legal pathways to protection in the EU not only now but also in the years to come. The recommendation has three main focus it's we affirm the EU commitment to resettlement it encourage member states to develop other legal pathways for protection and it's in addition to resettlement we'll come back to that and the recommendation also calls for promoting community sponsorship teams and as an efficient way to better integrate refugees arriving through those legal shadows. Let me get back to some of those points a little bit more in detail. So about the EU commitment to resettlement really the recommendation affirms the strongly used support to resettlement. It calls member states which do not have currently operation to start resettlement and right now we have 16 member states actively engaging in resettlement and we hope we could have more starting or resuming because some have stopped entirely the program. So states are really involved. The recommendation of course takes into account the fact that the pandemic COVID pandemic had a significantly impacted and disrupted the implementation of resettlement. We all know that it will have any major impact on the 2020 pledge made by member states of almost 30 000 places. Due to the disruption of operation for months and the closing of borders we know it will be difficult for many member states to fill the places before the end of the year as initially planned. So we really encourage member states to resume their program as soon as possible and many have already done so so it's very encouraging. Nevertheless to ensure really the full implementation of the pledge it was decided to expand the implementation period until the end of 2021 and the implementation period of the MF funding which I was secured for the 30 000 places as previously called the LAMSTOM or incentive payments that will be also expanding until the end of 2021. Of course the commission really remains strongly committed to resettlement and it's our collective ambition to scale up resettlement at the EU level as soon as the situation gets back to normal. Beyond good quantitative aspects and number of places, the recommendation calls for ensuring quality of resettlement programs and this part is especially relevant to the discussion we have today because it calls for both strengthening pre-departure measure and putting in place efficient integration and social inclusion programs from the arrival. And your program really is a good practice for how to better adapt pre-departure measure to the specific needs of refugees and we really hope the tools that were developed through this program could be widely disseminated. In addition to resettlement for the first time the EU calls on member states to really consider other admission programs in addition and not in replacement to resettlement and one of them is humanitarian admission and we already know that there is a wider way of humanitarian admission models already developed in the EU and that could include for example the humanitarian corridors or some family-based private sponsorship schemes and we encourage member states to innovate or to adapt existing models to their specific needs. Another aspect is facilitating a family reunification. You know it's an important legal pathway because we know that the wish to be reunited with family members is often a driver for migration. So not only member states can provide assistance to family members who have access their legal rights in line with the EU law because you know we have the directive which is the 2003 directive on family reunification which needs to be fully implemented but barriers to access sometimes do happen so member states can help to facilitate access to this right and in addition member states can also extend the scope of family members who are benefiting from family reunifications through for example humanitarian admission programs like the one I mentioned family-based private sponsorship schemes. In addition the recommendation really encourages member states to pilot and extend other complementary pathways such as the one linked to education and work. States are really called to work with universities and the private sector to facilitate access to existing legal pathways for those in need of protection. Those pathways can provide solutions for people who are not necessarily eligible for assessment but because they are not considered vulnerable enough that they're remaining real need of the durable solution in a certain country and those pathways take into account the skills and qualification and motivation of individual in need of international protection. So they can be really a win-win situation for both the refugees and the member states. At last but not least really the recommendation calls on the member states to promote community sponsorship scheme and that is another new element of this recommendation. The important point is really to give communities, individuals, civil society, organizations a strong role in the integration of new commerce. There are many evidences that community sponsorship has many benefits and we believe it is important that it complements what member states provide to refugees. If the partnership with the state it doesn't take away the responsibility of the state. Community sponsorship is really providing more support and friendship to make refugee field welcome in the annual society and you will find reference of community sponsorship in various places of the text because it is cross-cutting. It can underpin resettlement, it can underpin humanitarian admission and other complementary pathways. And we would like really to work with member states and other partners on developing a European approach to community sponsorship and to do so we need to take into account the U.S. item laws that already give many rights to beneficiary of international protection and in addition to provide political support with its recommendation and operational support to the member states with the help of FIATO. One way you can provide support to develop this program is by providing financial support. So I want to mention the 2019 call for proposal and anything in action to support community sponsorship. So the procedure has now been concluded and agreements are being signed with the applicant and five projects should start in 2021. At last the 2020 call aim to support action in favor of complementary pathways for persons in need of protection and we will look to support really innovative program which will facilitate access to study in European universities, facilitate access to work related residents permits for those with relevant skills for the EU labor market to enable family members of beneficiary of international protection to really join them safely and legally to the EU and also to promote new initiatives to establish community sponsorship schemes. So I think considering the topic of today we will be glad to know that the call indicates that proposal should ensure specific attention to women in need of international protection especially those in potentially vulnerable situations. This new call has been released on the 16th of October so it's really recent and application has to be submitted before the 16th of February 2021 and we encourage you to look at it and propose innovative programs. So to conclude and as you see there's a lot is happening in the field of resettlement humanitarian admission and complementary pathway at the EU level it is exacting times with a lot of opportunities. So I look forward to the discussion today and that's what I wanted to mention so thanks for your attention. Thank you very much Savorin very interesting to hear these updates in the field of resettlement but also to hear the thinking of the European Commission around complementary pathways. I see a question from a participant who's asking if we can share the link to the new EU call for proposals. Yes of course we will put it in the chat for everyone so that you can see the link to the new EU call the Amis call as Savorin said it is just being launched and it includes priorities both on integration as well as on complementary pathways. So thank you very much Savorin for this update I think that really that's the scene and as you rightly said it's very important to link the pre-departure with a post arrival and at the same time you know keep in mind the needs of specific groups such as youth and women and of course on their committees we are happy to to share the tools that we are developing starting from the guidelines on mainstreaming gender and the youth curriculum but there's more to follow as well. So good Savorin thank you I think we can move on to the next session of our webinar which is actually to hear the experience from Rania. Rania is a refugee from Syria who has been resettled to Italy and she kindly agreed to share her story with us today. Rania can you hear me? I think you might need to unmute. Hello. Good morning and I want to say thanks for every stop in the IOM and the IOM and for letting me give me a chance to participate with you. So I would like to be efficient or something for this thing. Yes and likewise we really appreciate that you know you agree to share your story with us and all the other participants online because for us it's very important when we talk about refugees to also hear from you and what was your experience. So Rania I actually would like to start with this question. If you can tell us more about your experience as a Syrian woman being resettled to Italy what was your experience and what also had some of the difficulties you encountered? Well I can say the resettlement process is a huge process and it's a great step. The only thing that you need to be strong to go in this step I feel a little bit scared. I couldn't be sure 100 percent. The idea is when I arrived to the airport it was good. After getting out of the airport I need to meet the staff. I know that I have to meet the new person but I didn't meet them before in the video chat or Skype in the question. So maybe if I get an idea to meet these people through the Skype it will be more feeling safe for doing this. The idea is that when I get I need to go out with them in the car there were two men and it's better I think in the first step to be a lady in this step to be more safe feeling. It needs to be a translator because I have a problem with the language. I don't know any word in Italy in Italian so maybe the language it was a problem for me. When I even arrived to the office it was in session. All the time I was concentrating on the rules giving some idea or indication about in a kind of a map how much far the place from the airport or giving some indication of the lady with me in the car and so in this way you feel more safe. In the office I had another problem with the language so maybe if I get a course of basic Italian can the communication it will be better. I can explain myself better to them in the office and the problem of the house when I get I know that the house is sharing out and it's a reception for letting out but I didn't know how much privacy there was. So for me example I had a problem with the privacy. If I had a video chat or a talking or some photos that show me how much I will be sharing with the other ladies or if I have to share with the other ladies the staff the other staff it will be better. I will not spend energy and time serving or trying to solve that problem and in that case I want to become independent very soon so I have to be able to start my work in my field as a physiotherapist and rehabilitation. It wasn't easy because as soon as I tried to search for a job and I want to work I realized that I have to call up with my certificate it has to be valid in Italy so that was a great step. I really thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs they helped me a lot and it was a big step that they made my certificate valid in Italy but according to that I am in the medical field I have to make my certificate valid and take the permission from the Minister of Health. So that was the problem because I need a local person to be with me an Italian person it's not easy it should be good in Italian and you have to follow with them constantly by email by call there's a lot of documents and thank God I bring from original documents with me for the refugees it's not easy because there's a lot of people they cannot bring that original document maybe it's better I don't know but maybe it's better there should be some exception for the refugees to go on in their life either in the university or either in the work the ministry so I need to follow up with them it's a long procedure one year and a half to get a permission from the Ministry of Health and even the languages was difficult in general I think there was the I feel that there is an empty chain there is the process it has a frequency point meeting point that makes me spend much time and energy to understand what's going on and the other thing that I have is maybe the document it should be for the resettlement person it should be sent before and working with these documents to save money if you take time and energy for the resettlement person if you want to continue the study if you want to work and the problem of the person arrived he doesn't know everything it's better to be with a host of people like a host family or a host center they help them in the daily living in the daily living the needs the street how to work how to do a contract they should be a lawyer there should be a psychologist the lawyer should follow up with the resettlement person and because it will give him an idea how you will do a contract what is the article how he will start working what is the law for him if you want to rent a house how you will do how it starts with life and I think this is the important thing that the lawyer the resettlement person needs especially for the ladies the ladies all the time they need support they need how to do and we can own themselves thank you Rania I just wanted to pick up on something you just mentioned so I understand some of the challenges relate also to the fact that you didn't know where you would you know the people who received you and we are now trying to pilot something new on the committee where in these already in the pre-departure orientation you could speak with the for example the mentors do you think this this would be helpful the type of mentorship scheme that that we're trying to pilot you think this would have an added value for the future yeah I think it's very important to have and as I said the language is courses of language for the person before he arrived it's important the courses for the staff working with the current people it's very important and this is one of the things that helps communication and the even the person himself is a single like me I arrived completely single I completely depending on myself or if they are family and I think we have to see this kind of problem and try to solve it and there's one thing I want to say even when now when the resettlement person arrives the main important thing is a team start to be him in the emergency call maybe he needs some calls so we need to call the insurance start and the depth start with some money to help them at the time he arrives because otherwise there will be a great problem for him to solve this you know I shouldn't hear you hello sorry I wanted to ask you when I speak because otherwise there is a bad echo hello yeah I think that's better thanks a lot um Rania I wanted to convey also a question from one of the participants who is asking if you received any pre-departure orientation and how was that and secondly from my side I wanted to ask about you mentioned some of the problems about the recognition of your qualification if I understand can you maybe explain to the participants what's your profession and if in the end you know you managed to get your qualifications recognized and get into the the labor market would you be comfortable answering that Rania okay so I am in the service and you have a patient so what I have that I have to make my certificate recognized in Italy first from the ministry of welfare the current affair because I'm not Italian and then the second step to be uh to take the permission of from the ministry of health so that is important to start either part studying to continue my studying in the university or for working and my problem was that it takes a long time because I don't uh have a good language Italian I didn't understand what the ministry of health they need and I need a local version to be with me to follow up with me I'm working now I have at the initially I have the patient that I go to their house and I'm working with a group of um Italian group that they send patients to me I'm working all the day so and I have my job now I have a contract that's excellent to hear Rania and I understand that you know it was challenging to go through the process of you know getting your certificate recognized but in the end you managed so congratulations that you know you're now working as a physiotherapist that's that's great to hear there was um uh one of the participants who was asking about uh if you went to any pre-departure orientation could you tell us something about that did you receive a course before you departed to to Italy yes I did had a course in Lebanon for three days and that was a great help for me it's a great information about Italy what where I would should be and permission in general and even they try to plan everything for me and they give me a kind of a small book to give a great information more information about how I live the law and how what I should do in Italy to go on in my life Rania I I have one more question um for you um is there something you would like to tell to other women who will uh experience the settlement um because you you have gone through this uh do you perhaps have you know a message or an advice for other women going through the settlement I want okay I want to say it's important that to be from your dignity is the the first thing you have to look at uh God gives us the heart and intelligence so if you have chance to control your emotions we are we are stronger than we think and it's very good to keep protecting yourself don't listen to the other people don't listen to the people they try to block the streets for you they're trying to go on in their lives the important thing that when you reach that means you start you start your life you set your life that means you have to get your culture and just a new culture and you have to get in the community try to live with the people try to learn from them and keep for them because life is dead to be vented so it's important that you have friends I have a best friend for me they live there and I and you have to get in a relationship with as far with offers that they want to you I still have my friendship with them and I really thank them very much they helped me in in several things thank you Rania it's good to hear about your experience and about the positive things but also the suggestions that that you give in terms of you know what could be improved and definitely you know the importance of the language learning the language this this is essential but also the community support and I think Savireen mentioned that in in her presentation the importance of you know community sponsorship so that you know when you arrive there is also you know a community that you can rely on a community to welcome you I think this this is indeed you know very important as well and related to the labour market the recognition of qualifications I believe this is also something the European Union is looking into now I'm sure you're not alone in that experience you hear it very often that it's extremely difficult actually to get your qualifications recognized it's a long process the language obstacles sometimes as well to integrate into the labour market but so we're happy to hear that for you eventually it worked out and definitely we take note of also all the suggestions you have I see in the meantime that some another question came in if you don't mind Rania I will ask you the question from one of the participants was there any support group from the host community and do you think it could be a good idea to work on promoting a network for women who are settled alone would you like to respond to that question Rania Rania would you like me to repeat the question perhaps yeah so it's a question from a participant can you kindly mute yourself for a moment yeah so it's a question from a participant who is asking when you arrived was there any support group in the community where you arrived the support group for the resettled refugees in the host community and do you think it could be a good idea to work on a specific network for women who are settled alone because perhaps you know you as a being resettled alone you face different challenges than families yes there was the group there was a staff from staff the office responsible for me said that they were waiting for me at the airport and I said there were two men I think there is a lady with them and the problem was that I couldn't communicate with them very good and I think the internet is very important to the lady and it's important even to give some skills it's in the port like I do it in Lebanon as they found out some skills that people they don't understand how to do the how use the internet how they use the Google map it's very important to improve these kinds of skills especially for the ladies to find their way and to work in their lives yeah indeed Ramya it's something that can you mute please something that wasn't mentioned yet but the digital skills and especially now during COVID I see how much you know we all rely on doing things online we need you know our inner for everything and I can only imagine you know how difficult it can be if you don't have these digital skills to navigate your your new life in the host society so I think it's a very good suggestion as well to focus a bit more on the digital skills and make sure that you know it's it's possible actually to I heard once you know from a refugee who couldn't make an appointment with a doctor because it had to be done online and even that was you know an obstacle so let's not forget this and I have a final question from another participant if I may run yeah I'm was asking what was the most challenging part of your resettlement and integration process besides let's say the the recognition of your qualifications what would you say was the most challenging part of the settlement process I can say is it's important for me when I actually the main point for me is to continue my study and to find a good job with my son as a single mom the good thing of the resettlement project is to give you another chance in your life to do what something you couldn't do it in your city that is a positive thing for me that another chance in my life to start a new life maybe I can change my specialty maybe I can do something that I couldn't do it in my city and beside the problems besides the difficulties that I found this I'm now going on on my life and I have a good relationship with my patient and I'm trying to do and go on to have a house to do to have a good life with me and my son and my family and for sure my family will support me all the time in Germany I always want something with them so I thank you all thanks a lot Rania and also from our slide we're very happy that you got this new chance in your life and we're very happy to see that you're making most part of that so thank you so much for sharing your story and definitely we take note of all the recommendations you have it's very good to hear that from you from your experience and it gives us really concrete ideas on you know what we could do to improve and I think this leads us nicely to the next presentation Anna who's already sitting there next to Rania who is going to tell us a bit more about the guidelines that were developed under the commit project about mainstreaming gender in pre-departure orientation so as we heard from Rania she as well as other refugees went through pre-departure orientation in her case it was a three-day course before departure and we have been doing some thinking as IOM on how we can improve also gender aspects in the pre-departure orientation to already start from the very first phase of you know the the resettlement and integration continuum to think about you know the specific needs of women girls and it's important that we address this early on in the process so I give the floor to Anna Chustiniani who's the commit project manager and who will tell us a bit more about the guidelines on mainstreaming gender in pre-departure orientation Anna you have the floor thank you guys Ryan thank you very much to the many of us who are here with us today so to continue with the tradition of the commit webinar has been set before also the present one is linked to the launch of one of the two that are envisaged by the commit project these guidelines tend to provide petitioners but these are those who work directly with refugees with some key tools to be able to systematically integrate gender into pre-departure orientation and you will see this while I go through the presentation why have we decided to focus on them there and Chustiniani just told us the resettlement process triggers in refugees a number of changes and among these probably one of the most challenging ones are the changes in gender roles if those changes are not addressed in a timely manner we can exacerbate and become gender inequality it is therefore very important for PDO training to incorporate and to take into account all gender concerns and gender concepts as part of the process throughout why have we decided to focus on PDO I think this question has already announced that the European Commission has recognized the essential feature of the sexual integration as pre-departure orientation is there to equip and empower as Rania told us recipes prior to their departure to inform them about their rights but also about the responsibility and obligation the primary role of pre-departure orientation is to have a recipe with the skills and knowledge they will need when they arrive in a new country part of this involves anticipating and discussing concerns as well as potential changes in gender settings and gender roles and if we understood that if we do this during the PDO refugees will not find these changes as a shock when they come to the new country in addition to doing so we also possibly contribute to reduce existing gender inequalities by ensuring the own individuals men women girls boys alike enjoy equal rights responsibilities and opportunities regarding regardless of the sex they determined at birth how did we get here um how did we develop this this guideline set um we collected a number of inputs by the refugees themselves by the PDO trainer from the South Indian reception centers in their southern countries and we started a very long brainstorming activities we followed a particular approach coordinated by an external expert that has trained the content as you will see set in in the in the guidelines and I'm sure colleagues will soon shall review the link to the English version of the guidelines so we realized that a lot is already there a lot is already done but especially the trainers why they need to see these concepts that are in French in our day-to-day life better framed so the need for these guidelines to be to be developed so the results you can see here the table of content this plan to be a very user-friendly guideline it's made of three main sections and three answers as I said is already available in English as the link you can see in the chat it will soon be available in a few days in the other four languages of the project mainly Portuguese Spanish Croatian and Italian in practice mainstream engendering to video training means that experiences concerns and expectations by women, girls, men and boys are integral part of the of the process of development in the training this includes of course training with assessment design development and delivery and evaluation of the video with the ultimate objective being that video training must ensure that all recipes benefit equally from the training and that the training does not reinforce discrimination right thank you gender content it should be mainstream throughout the process as I just said and should be introduced in a progressive and not so professional manner during the training. Possibly true activities that encourage participants reflection and direct participation in the distribution of the content rather than just imposing ideas with our new to the participants challenging and constructing gender roles that have to be a very sensitive and long-term task. One way of ensuring that gender has been swimming to video is to adopt a gender inclusive language. Language is part of everyone's culture comes with a number of embedded preconceptions for instance that we often say in Levy, Landlord, Polisna we always try to pass functions and roles from sex at birth so we can say the inner owner, police force this is something that we may be doing but in the in the guideline to say this is the this is a key element a key invitation when developing and implementing the pre-departure retention training to conclude and linking with what we have been saying also with RANA, video training provides an excellent opportunity to start establishing links between pre-departure and post-survival spaces and societies ideally as RANA does during video sessions participants would have the opportunity to start interacting with peers that have already gone through the same experience and are settled in the resettlement country with community mentors with reception staff. Mainstream engendering to video is indeed an important part of the resettlement and attribution continuum for both the individual and the also the resettlement country itself. Existing training curricula do contain most of the elements required but these guidelines are meant to address possible gaps and possibly to guide future development so for this reason we do invite all of you to have a look at the at the guidelines. I personally found a particular interest in the reserve section but also the sections that are tips for now to design and implement video activities. We really hope you can find this useful yourself and please do share with us your comments because this is a living document and we'll be very happy to hear from from you any feedback. Thank you. Thank you so much Anna please mute. Sorry because there's a big echo there otherwise. Thanks a lot. Thank you for for introducing these guidelines and I have posted in the chat the link to the publication so we just launched this today at the occasion of the webinar. It means you participants are the very first persons to see those guidelines. You will find it in the chat so if you click there you can actually download the document and indeed the guidelines look at how can we consider you know gender aspects right away from the design of the pre-departure orientation the needs assessment all the way through the implementation the training activities and the evaluation. Now I see some questions from the participants Anna so if that's fine I will address these questions to you. The first question is whether there are any examples in the guidelines of activities that encourage participants reflection is this part of it you know encouraging participants reflection on for example gender issues? Yes there are a number of activities like that particular annex it's really relevant there are a number of activities I can describe one. One that a PDO trainer could share with participants some cards in pairs showing for instance that a different type of job that as I was mentioning before a police woman instead of a police man a woman driving a bus or a female teacher and this way those participants who have for instance the same card will be asked to work together in identifying and challenging the roles and when we ask to share the results with the rest of the of the of the group participating so that a discussion can start and and three defined gender roles can start to be unpacked and analyzed further. But there are many activities that can be that can be utilized to this end. Yeah yeah thank you for yeah thank you for sharing that example Anna indeed there are many other ideas for possible activities also in in the guidelines that can hopefully you know give all of you some inspiration I think your answer also links well to the next question that we have in the chat we talked about the fact that refugee women especially those who might not have higher education tend to be stigmatized by society and are often seen as individuals with no desire of integrating or working and that are only focused on staying at home taking care of the family while receiving benefits from the government. So what could be done to institutionally fight the stigma and help these vulnerable women in their integration process or it's a question from a participant that relates to perhaps some of the stigma associated and the fact that you know often refugee women being resettled are looked at as okay these are women who maybe don't have a desire to work they want to stay at home with their families what can we do to to fight that stigma you think. So I think that one first step I mean we will need to do many many different things but one first step could be perhaps to also recognize the perhaps also soft skills that these persons have and recognize their capacity to take care of their children their families being able to budget the money they have to make sure that the family can have all what they need. So I think recognizing the role indeed as a key person in the family is also very important to debunk a little bit the stigma that is around women that are there that you know as a burden for the man who's working or for the society that is accommodating them and I mean Rania is an example of this she has managed to become despite all the difficulties why soon independent from the reception system and I think that many efforts at the receiving hand in the resettlement countries should be should be put in place to help the women recognize their skills to be empowered to be able to to express themselves so I think a lot has to be done also at the receiving hand actually to be able to fight the stigma and another aspect that Rania also mentioned before and I think it was also part of one of the questions is to perhaps create support networks to perhaps also mentorship teams that could support the integration as well as the actual development of the persons that is that is being resettled so to conclude I believe that more tools and instruments should be there to be able for all the women to be settled to to to to fully develop themselves in this new environment and I think as the survey was saying at the beginning there are a lot of opportunities for us to come up with new ideas and new solutions to get to this result thank you Anna indeed empowerment is very important here but also combating the stigma perhaps through promoting you know also the the success stories and I think Rania is a very good example here of someone who clearly had the ambition to actually go and work and and manage them indeed we have to break a bit this image of you know the refugee woman who arrives and will just depend on you know the welfare system this is not at all the case and it's important that we combat this stigma maybe link to that as well to share that as IOM we also piloted under our linked project the pre-departure skills profiling as part of the pre-departure orientation we started looking at you know the refugees skills profile and with skills we don't necessarily mean qualifications because you can have a person who you know who has skills although they might not have formal qualifications and we noticed that it really also helped refugee women to reflect and see that yes I have skills you know even I might not have a university degree or any other formal formal qualification I do have skills and I can start you know thinking on you know how I will also use my skills when I arrive in Italy or in any other destination country and I see also in the chat that we have Rana from IOM headquarters with us who would also like to say something and Alicia could you check if it's possible to unmute Rana kindly confirm if it's possible Alicia Anna you're saying it's possible can you hear me yes yes we can hear you perfect thank you thank you for inviting me I mean this discussion has been ongoing since 30 plus years I'm doing this resettlement on gender especially since our place known and beneficiaries have always been from regions where culture plays a really important role in segregating gender particularly the stigmatization of women the role of a woman I've remember many classes with Sudanese and the Somalis and many others where the idea the prospect of a woman actually having a voice when she gets to the other side was horrific to the men to actually be the role model to have rights all of it so for me just what you just said Gertrude is really important because it starts before departure so the more time we have before they leave to empower them and also identifying skills yes they're not going to all be educated or have any education but if you dig deep there are skills that may be in a normal country like these resettlement countries that we think they go to might not be or for them they don't consider it as a skill but if you translate it into the language that we know in Europe and elsewhere is a skill we can tap on to that and then help them to feel better about themselves that they've actually got a skill be it bringing up kids being cooking whatever it might be there might be other things some are perhaps you know what we have back home you call the midwives back home it's a normal occurrence without a certificate to be honest but you know it's that kind of thing so I think both sides need to understand the culture so that the both side can meet in the middle I will stop here because I have to run for a meeting I wish you all the best and look forward to hearing more about this and where we get to thank you very much Rana for your contribution indeed I think we all agree that we have to combat this stigma and that is that the earlier also we start in the process the better and we hope that our thinking through the commit project can also contribute to that but perhaps this can be there's also to the next part where we look at the other side of the the settlement and integration continuum which is at the post arrival phase and what can be done at post arrival stage also to you know provide better services to refugees or other migrants and to include also gender aspects in the assistance that we give to migrant families women and girls and we have Elisabeth with us from Iowa and Belgium who's managing a project called Equal City that looks at how we can mobilize local authorities and frontline services to better include gender in you know the integration services they offer so Elisabeth over to you yes thank you very much a good pie hello everybody thank you already to the other panelists for the interesting presentation especially Rana for sharing your story so indeed today I'll present to you some findings from the work that we've been doing at Island of Belgium to mobilize local authorities in EU member states to better include migrants in their services and in particular how to how they include better gender specificities in their assistance to migrants so we all know that migration is a global phenomenon and that the impacts of migration are most profoundly felt at the local level if integration policies are generally formulated at the national or regional level they're mainly implemented through local institutions and services frontline workers working at the local level are the first ones to provide services to migrants and to respond to their specific needs and by frontline workers and I will use this term a lot I mean all people that are in touch with migrants in their daily work so the social services medical mental health services legal services housing police schools etc the local actors do not always have the capacity or resources needed to provide tailored support and especially when assisting vulnerable vulnerable groups of migrants such as migrant women migrant children or lgbtui plus migrants so let us start by looking at the case of migrant women specifically we all know that migrants constitute a broad and diverse range a diverse group they have different backgrounds different residents or citizenship status they migrate for a variety of reasons we all know that migrants face different situations or barriers and opportunities when integrating into their host society migrants women in particular face multiple challenges when integrate integrating into your pink society due to the intersection or combined effects of amongst others their gender their migrant status their social education and ethnic background the specific barriers that migrant women face from the needs for a targeted and gender sensitive measures to compensate for such inequalities and to promote their integration into their host society promoting gender equality in services and thereby promoting equal access to the services for all directly contributes to the achievements of the sustainable development goals which is my next slide um so but which barriers and which needs before I discuss the work that we've been doing in ireland Belgium I'd like to quickly go over a few observations we made during other projects that focused on building the capacity of frontline services the better response specifically to sexual and gender-based violence against migrants and my next slide you will see some of the barriers we have identified that would hamper the integration outcomes of migrants women and the barriers are multiple and structural so I listed just a few um but primarily we should look at the barriers to access services so this can be due to family obligations we mentioned this uh previously so for example the lack of access to childcare which makes it hard to attend language classes or training um a lack of knowledge of services simply because of a lack of information received or because of language barriers um we also see multiple legal and administrative barriers so especially in the case of family reunification for example where you have a legal dependent on the sponsor a migrant woman can then face delays in her right to work which can cause also social isolation there's also a risk of expulsion in case of a separation and also as Rania mentioned difficulty to have documents or qualifications or skills recognized then overall we see uh we saw also a gap in access to protection services more specifically so especially um legal support shelter uh mental health support and in cases of gender-based violence many other elements that hinder um the access for survivors to specific services so um there's a lack of trust in authorities but also uh fear of retaliation risks of stigma um fear of not being understood of being discriminated against and overall actually of um of going through a painful uh otromatizing experience again um health services play a very important role in um in support and integration to especially survivors of gender-based violence they can be an entry point to other services but also here um the women that we worked with in our project witnessed a lack of cultural sensitivity and understanding by service providers of the health needs and rights of migrant women um and all of these elements of course are even um more important when we work with women that are in an irregular situation so in this very short presentation I will of course not um assess the structural reasons behind these barriers and gaps but I'll take a more practical approach and look at the role that local authorities can play um and since this presentation focuses on the mobilization of frontline services I would also like to quickly underline the needs that they have raised um through our activities as well so on the next slide please um so most frontline workers that we work with expressed uh really a need for training on gender and migration so including the vulnerability links in migration the specific needs um of migrant women and girls or LGBTQI post migrants um they told us they have faced difficulties to overcome cultural barriers so they have a fear of stigmatizing when talking about topics such as sexual and reproductive health domestic violence harmful social norms um there's also a fear of re-victimizing um a person when when talking for example about traumatic traumatic experience or even the migration journey um and the question of migrants rights also comes back a lot um especially when we're working with people of course in a regular situation but when does a person have access to medical care under which circumstances how do we refer a person to a shelter but also the case of um discrimination on the labor market or on the housing market is something that comes back a lot um and the last point is also the not knowing to which services to refer to someone so a lack of knowledge let's say of other social services and a lack of coordination between existing services um so based on these experience we developed the equal city project which I think I mentioned um which is a project that aims at building the capacity of frontline services at the local levels on the topic of migration and gender and more specifically on the topic of sexual and gender-based violence against migrants um on the next slide you will see so the aim of the project is to develop really practical training uh training tools and awareness raising materials um to be usable in different city contexts um and for all types of frontline services that I mentioned already before um with the tools that we have developed um the the beneficiaries let's say for the frontline services that will receive the tools will be better equipped to tackle four topics in particular um so in the city of Brussels we're developing tools on um the development of safe spaces for LGBT rights for migrants but it will include guidelines and training materials in Luxembourg we look at how to identify and respond to sexual and gender-based violence against migrant women and girls specifically so this includes having increased knowledge on topics such as uh trafficking domestic violence female genital mutilation how do you assist someone that you have identified as maybe being being a victim of gender-based violence in Rome we are developing tools that look and that look at how to assist um and accompany migrant children through mindfulness exercises so really looking at stress reduction and also um training uh legal guardians and social workers that work in reception centers and then the last one is the city of Gothenburg where we look at how integration services um can discuss and tackle questions of violence in a family sphere and then more specifically uh the question of honor-based violence um then let's see so all the training tools that we're developing they will develop will include an introduction of forced gender and migration broadly but then elements of cultural awareness protection of vulnerable migrants an introduction to the legal frameworks at the global at the local level and then provide information on diversity non-discrimination and equality principles the tools will also pay special attention to the fact that migrant communities may suffer discrimination um on multiple grounds and be more vulnerable to violence not only by the host population but also by members of their own communities some of the tools will include also awareness raising uh material that will be aimed um at migrant communities and at frontline services themselves so to make sure that our toolboxes that were developed at this stage developing um would benefit as many cities as possible across the EU we reached out to city networks and organizations at local national and EU level um you'll see on the next slide just a few of the of the network that we're working with and those are organized those are networks and organizations that focus their activities mostly on migration and also gender equality um the response to uh the project so far has been very positive um on the next slide you will see we have for the moment 30 it's quite small I think but 30 uh confirmed trainee cities on board so these cities will be cities benefiting from the tools once they're finalized um some of the questions that we received from cities is the fact that their services do not directly engage with migrants so in this case we explained that um actively engaging in in the integration process does not mean uh the local authorities need to do everything on their own right there's their number of possible partners like local migrant organizations civil society or even the private sector that can contribute to the process but the cities can play an important role of integrating um of initiating integration measures of coordinating and facilitating activities providing spaces for activities or putting different actors in touch so the project is now ongoing for a year and the tools are being reviewed by a panelist expert and will be ready in at the end of next year and of course I'm taking the opportunity here as well to invite any local authority interested in this initiative to reach out to me so my time is very short and I will end just with a few lessons learned which are based on um unequal city on the development of the project and implementation so far and the things that we thought would be important for us to share today and it's my last slide um so first and foremost um we have to shift the focus and I think we mentioned it just before as well um shift the focus from seeing women and other groups exposed to discrimination and gender-based violence as victims seeing them as survivors and as actors of change perceptions of women as vulnerable in a need of protection renders their voice in agencies an agency invisible and hinders a nuanced understanding of their different experiences um we have to include as much as possible the target groups in the development and implementation of projects so in our case for equal city include migrant women include lgbtwi migrants in your in the development of your activities and also front-line workers themselves um built trust also through community engagement engage with the diaspora work with intercultural mediators um follow a needs-based approach what are front-line services missing what are the barriers that migrants face what training is needed um and adapt your training tools um related to the input that you will receive based part of the training on the deconstructing your own stereotypes and your own prejudice um discuss gender stereotypes racism discrimination how inclusive is your service is it safe how can you improve it and overall try as much as possible to foster mutual learning between front-line actors between cities um again include migrants themselves in the process so it finishes presentation i'd like to thank you all for your attention and i'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much it is a bit so indeed to all participants if you have any questions feel free to use the chat and there's the questions to all uh panelists so thank you adiva that i i think it's very good also to see the connections between the equal city project and the commit project um we have of course you know a more specific target group under commits with the recital refugees but i think a lot of the work that you're doing under equal city and in particular the tools that you're developing could really also um benefit us and although you're looking at let's say a broader group of of migrants including refugees i believe that you know the approaches you're taking and the tools you're developing are very relevant um for a set of refugees um as well because it's a question of you know how we can we adapt the services particularly you know those available at the local level and how can we make sure that those um services also cater for the specific needs that that women or girls um might have and i also like you know what you put here under the lessons learned survivors as agents of change i think this comes back to the previous discussion on combating the stigma and also you know um representing you know the the the the positive change um and and and you know women as agents of change and not just as as victims um i see a first question in the chat which could be of interest to others as well when will the tools of the project be available um it is a bit yes thank you um so right now we have the draft versions of the tools which are that are being reviewed by an expert tunnel and we will pilot them throughout next year so hopefully by november 2021 we have we will have the finalized tools ready to be distributed we are looking forward to that and indeed for many of the local authorities who are online if you're interested um in the equal city approach in the toolkit in also the capacity building uh please do reach out perhaps eliza that you could provide the link to the equal city webpage also in the chat so that uh participants can go there and and look for more info um i also have another question um here related to victims of um trafficking um if you have any idea about you know um trafficking and what's the main country of origin and what kind of guidelines um is uh the the project you're working on intending to uh develop to to handle specifically you know the question of victims of trafficking is this a topic you're looking into as well and and you know how does this reflect in the guidelines for all the two kids it's a very good question and so like i i i we have these four different toolboxes that have really one specific focus each of them um trafficking will um i believe only really be uh looked into uh in the toolbox that looks at gender-based violence against migrant women and girls and there there will be normally a module that would also cover the topic of trafficking and then looking more specifically at um um at at protection of of victims and how to assist as really as a frontline service how to identify and how to assist the victim of trafficking and most importantly how to correctly refer the person to the right services right um so yes i would say that in that toolbox that will be definitely one of our focuses okay thank you very much uh elizabeth for um sharing this so please uh do put the link in the chat and uh for the participants in the meantime we've also put in the chat the link to the amnesty proposal that was mentioned by saverine so you can click on the link you will go directly to the call for proposals which addresses issues related to integration like the ones we discussed here now with elizabeth but also issues related to for example complementary pathways um in addition to resettlement um so encouraging all of you to to have a look at the call for proposals and of course to apply should you have good project ideas and finally also to let you know that we are on twitter uh our iom office in brussel this live tweeting about the meeting please uh do follow us and share with your networks you will find also the information in the chat so i think that with this we've gone through all our sessions of um the webinar except for the closing um so i'm just checking with um colleagues um i think there are no further questions at this point in the chat i don't see anything so i think um with this i would then like to close um our webinar and thank all the participants who've been uh with us um today we hope this was useful for you to have um some ideas on how we can improve gender mainstreaming both at pre departure stage as well as you know post arrival um integration phase um it's one out of you know the many webinars that we are organizing on their commute so definitely we will keep you in the loop of the next webinars uh there are more tools that we are developing so we would like to share them with you in next webinars um of course um so with this uh thank you to all the speakers um thank you rania thank you um ana uh thank you sirin thank you elizabeth um i also come to the conclusion that we had you know a very female panel for today for our topic um so thank you so much to everyone for contributing uh we will also share with all participants the link to the recording of the webinar in case you missed some parts in case you want to watch it again uh you will receive the link to the recording together um with uh the publication so uh with this i close our webinar for today thank you so much for joining us and we hope to see you soon in one of the next uh commit webinars thank you and goodbye