WLP Launches Its First Roaming Institute for Women's Leadership

June 22-27, 2002

"WLP's dynamic and innovative Roaming Institutes have begun to shape the future of women's leadership by empowering women in the Global South to play significant roles in their nation's social, economic, and political development." - Sakena Yacoobi, Afghan Institute of Learning

The first Roaming Institute for Women's Leadership took place from June 22-27, 2002 at the Bolger Center for Leadership Development in Maryland. The week-long meeting on enhancing women's rights, leadership, and political participation in the Global South brought together 17 women heads of NGOs and leading rights activists from Afghanistan/Pakistan, Cameroon, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, and Uzbekistan.

The Institute was a leadership learning meeting during which participants strategized about ways to empower women in diverse Muslim societies to take on leadership roles within their communities and to develop the skills to become better advocates for women's equal participation in decision-making and civil society. "Our experience here at the Institute with workshop simulations, development of communications strategies, and advocacy training will be extremely useful to my organization and others in my community," commented Amina Lemrini of Morocco.

WLP's concept that inclusive, horizontal, and participatory leadership empowers women and leads to the development of gender equitable and democratic societies is the framework for the Roaming Institutes' dialogues and workshops. During the meeting, trainers from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East presented scenarios on conflict-resolution and negotiation, women's political participation, and gender-sensitive leadership styles. The discussions that followed focused on enhancing participants' facilitation skills and developing country-specific solutions that incorporate alternative leadership possibilities. WLP's partners in Afghanistan conducted a role-play scenario that encouraged participants representing diverse Afghan ethnic groups to communicate and negotiate across cultural barriers to achieve their shared goal for girls' education and advancement. WLP's Jordanian partners facilitated a session in which participants analyzed challenges to women's involvement in local and national elections and strategized about ways to motivate women at the grassroots level to become politically active.

The Institute also focused on communication skills training for media campaigns, strategy development, and cross-regional democracy-building. In addition to practicing individual media interviews, participants learned from one another by sharing their strategies for grassroots advocacy campaigns, mobilization initiatives, and establishing community networks. WLP's partners in Malaysia discussed their mobilization and advocacy efforts to improve legislation on violence against women by raising public awareness and impacting law-makers. WLP's Moroccan partners presented their initiatives for creating dynamic local and regional networks to support changes in legislation governing women's rights within the family.

This was an excellent opportunity to network with other organizations, improve our facilitation and communication skills, and strategize about ways to collaboratively empower women in our communities.

The Institute concluded with a session during which participants developed strategies to implement future national and regional Roaming Institutes. Participants agreed that the goals of future Institutes are to enable women in Muslim societies to claim their human rights, develop leadership skills, and become strong participants in the social and political developments of their communities and nations. Future Institutes will accomplish this through a variety of methods, including organizational capacity-building, training of trainers, and the development of further collaborative leadership learning materials (such as interactive videos, on-line training manuals, and distance-learning courses). Various WLP partner organizations plan to host national or regional Institutes in the near future. "This was an excellent opportunity to network with other organizations, improve our facilitation and communication skills, and strategize about ways to collaboratively empower women in our communities," commented Mishka Mourani Mojabber of Lebanon at the conclusion of the Institute.