GAYA Capacity Strengthening Activities

About

The Gender and Youth Activity (GAYA) strives to strengthen the capacity of implementers around the integration of gender and youth in food and nutrition security programs. To do this, GAYA collaborates closely with implementing partners to understand the crucial capacity, knowledge, and practice gaps implementers face. From there, GAYA develops products and capacity-strengthening opportunities that meet implementers' expressed needs. These opportunities include knowledge sharing and learning events; engagement in Resilience Food Security Activities’ (RFSAs) refine and implement year; and the Gender, Youth, Food Security, and Resilience Fellowship. Explore this page to learn more about GAYA’s Capacity Strengthening Opportunities. 

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Capacity Strengthening Events 

Small Grant Launch: Understanding GAYA’s Program Improvement Award

Held on December 6, 2022, the event provided an overview of GAYA’s Small Grants Program, highlighting key aspects of the Request for Application (RFA) funding opportunity. The GAYA team also provided answers to questions attendees submitted about the RFA ahead of the event. The recording and webinar question responses are available in English.

Opportunities in Gender and Youth Integration: Global Survey Findings

On November 8, 2022, GAYA held this webinar to share and validate initial findings from GAYA’s formative research. During this event, GAYA shared five key research findings and sought input from implementers on which findings resonated. This input helped inform GAYA’s Evidence-Based Guide to Action (Coming March 2023) which details recommendations and resources for the IP community. The recording, presentation, and frequently asked question sheet are all available in English.

What Does it Take to Be a Gender and Youth Champion?

Held on September 27, 2022, during this webinar, GAYA used a human-centered design approach to seek input on a resource document to outline core competencies for youth-focused practitioners. The resulting Youth Staff Core Competencies and Gender Staff Core Competencies document build off the Core Competency Series developed by the by the Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Program in 2017. They provide hiring managers, program managers, and program staff with explanations of the basic skills and knowledge senior technical staff should possess to carry out their positions effectively. The recording and presentation are available in English.

Cross-Organizational Commitments to Gender and Youth within the Food Crisis

Held on September 1, 2022, this event was a participatory discussion with implementers to reflect on lessons learned for gender and youth programming during the last few years of massive global shocks and stresses and in the midst of the ongoing global food crisis. In breakout groups, participants made a list of commitments they want to see across the international development sector to protect the progress made in gender and youth programming. The recording and presentation are available in English.

In order to promote these commitments further within the community, GAYA developed the Nourishing Inclusion blog series, which showcases examples of how implementers have promoted inclusivity during the food crisis and the lessons they learned along the way. Follow along as GAYA explores the intersection of gender, youth, and food security.

Critical Considerations for Gender and Youth Integration: Survey Launch

Held on July 26, 2022, this webinar launched the first iteration of GAYA’s Implementing Partner Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Survey on gender and youth integration. During this webinar, GAYA and participants defined how the survey data would be useful for program teams and identified key pathways for implementers to support survey dissemination. This information informed GAYA’s post-survey rollout. The presentation is available in English, French, and Spanish.

Learn more about GAYA’s Implementing Partners Survey here.