PSI Gender Sensitisation Workshop

Following approval of our intervention with the Palestinian Standards Institute (PSI), the GESI Lead engaged directly with the newly assigned Gender Focal Point at PSI. She provided coaching on rapid gender analyses for services provided by PSI, and trained her on Tasdeer's GESI Analysis Tool.

We facilitated a GESI sensitization workshop with PSI’s management and technical teams relevant to interventions. Our overall objective was to improve stakeholders' understanding of the barriers to gender equality and social inclusion that prevent small-scale and marginalized traders and producers from benefitting from PSI's services and opportunities

The workshop discussion highlighted examples where PSI’s approach could be more inclusive. Workshop participants reflected that GESI issues were integral to PSI’s work, with all 11 respondents (19 participants) noting they could effectively apply lessons to their work. Key recommendations included:

• Develop a simplified toolkit on certification requirements to make them accessible to small scale and marginalised traders, particularly those with limited education;
• Streamline certification requirements for marginalised and small-scale traders;
• Conduct site visits where these would ease or expedite the certification process;
• Return to providing subsidised quality certifications for some smallscale producers, with a focus on marginalised groups. Alternatively, PSI could explore developing different cost tiers to make certification accessible.  
• Create a GESI working group within PSI, and build their capacity to mainstream GESI into PSI’s service provision.