Regional Learning Community in East and Southeast Asia aims to inspire long-term social change for violence prevention

In East and Southeast Asia (ESEA), practitioners who are working toward gender justice are building a new capacity development initiative called the Regional Learning Community. This regional initiative seeks to develop a collective approach to knowledge creation and skills building for the primary prevention of violence against women (VAW) and the promotion of gender justice in the region. The Regional Learning Community process aims to inspire and support national actions to contribute to long-term social change for gender justice and violence prevention. This group of practitioners have put steps in place to generate and share their knowledge through a series of community learning processes, including trainings, networking, and partnerships. The knowledge generated through this initiative is being organised under a regional curriculum that will be in the form of a web-based wiki. The regional curriculum is being developed by and for practitioners, activists, advocates, experts, researchers, individuals and organisations from the region. On 28-30 March, the curriculum development group of the Regional Learning Community met in Bangkok to work on the regional curriculum on violence prevention and gender justice promotion. This meeting was strategically held after two members of the curriculum development group participated in an 18-day training of the South Asian Network to Address Masculinities, a collective learning network in the South Asian region. Lessons learned were brought back to the process in ESEA. Participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Philippines, and Viet Nam took part in the Bangkok meeting. The group brainstormed on the process of developing the regional learning curriculum. The process of developing content for the foundational knowledge part of the curriculum is currently underway (for more information, see http://partners4prevention.org/news/east-and-southeast-asia-learning-community-call-consultants). *** WATCH THIS SPACE The Regional Learning Community (RLC) will be calling for applications from organizations and individuals in East and Southeast Asia committed to gender-based violence prevention and gender justice promotion to participate in the RLC process. Applications will be accepted between July and August. More information will be made available on www.partners4prevention.org and www.engagingmen.net soon. *** For more information, see http://partners4prevention.org/sites/default/files/documents/one_pager_-_rlc_esea_20_june_2011.pdf or contact [email protected].