Maghreb Regional Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers

Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) convened the Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women’s Leadership and Training of Trainers from December 11-14, 2004 in Marrakech, Morocco. The goal of the Institute was to empower women in the Maghreb region to actively participate as effective leaders and advocates in the decision-making processes that affect their personal, family, community, and national condition, and to develop their facilitation skills in training grassroots women to be leaders working towards gender equity and human rights for all citizens. Twenty-six women’s rights activists and leaders of women’s groups from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia participated in the Institute. The Institute was one of the first training and networking forums that brought women activists and trainers together from across the region.

The Institute was organized in cooperation with WLP’s partner in Morocco, Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), one of the largest and most effective Moroccan women’s organizations working to defend and promote women’s human rights through education and skills training programs and through engaging in advocacy for gender equitable policies and social practices. ADFM members were experienced workshop trainers who facilitated sessions in the Institute. Institute participants included experienced journalists, educators, children’s rights and women’s rights advocates, and activists working to promote democracy, human rights, and women’s political participation.

During the four-day intensive training, the Maghreby-Arabic edition of Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women served as the primary curriculum for sessions on developing skills in participatory leadership, interactive facilitation, effective communication, and advocacy campaign development. The Institute sessions addressed: how to identify and cultivate individual leadership skills, how to effectively communicate for change, and how to build and develop consciousness raising and advocacy plans around a specific cause.

In the session on participatory leadership, participants recognized that all women have the ability to become leaders regardless of age, economic status, or education. “All women can be leaders. There are just different types. Public leaders are just one type,” expressed one participant. In the Maghreb context, leadership ability is often linked with privileged positions granted through family or tribal ties, money, and education; however, participants identified a number of “ordinary” women as leaders because of their courage and the risks they took in raising their voices against certain taboo issues and unjust practices.

Institute participants agreed on the need for organizational capacity-building for women’s groups in the Maghreb region, particularly in the area of media and communication. Participants practiced communication techniques through mock interviews and by preparing press releases. They were particularly interested in exercises that focused on how to communicate a cohesive and compelling message through print, radio, and television media. One woman commented, “It has taken my generation 20 years to learn how to speak to the media in convincing ways and I want this new generation to learn these skills more quickly.” Participants also engaged in role play exercises that focused on developing effective communication skills. In one role play exercise, participants presented a mock radio talk show about a rape case, with each participant taking a different viewpoint on the subject. The exercise was challenging for the participants who played roles where they had to communicate views opposed to their own. One volunteer remarked “This exercise is important because we are occasionally provoked when communicating on women’s rights issues and we must learn ways to handle such situations.”

In a session on advocacy campaign development, participants identified the steps involved in developing effective campaigns and creating flexible action plans, and worked to strengthen their negotiation skills. Participants from each country shared their experiences in mobilizing women in their communities to become involved in social change processes. Several women shared their strategies on implementing successful and ongoing advocacy campaigns. Participants from Algeria discussed the "20 Years Barakat" campaign ("20 Years is Enough") in which Algerian women activists protested a proposed bill limiting women’s rights based on Shar’ia law. Despite widespread repression of their campaigns, they continued to organize seminars and protests. “We are accustomed to promises but we are only satisfied with actions. We will continue our fight against the family code until it is replaced with civil rights for all,” said one activist. All participants expressed a particular interest in the Moroccan experience of successful legislative reform. After more than 40 years of campaigning led by a coalition of women’s organizations, including ADFM, the Moroccan government adopted a new landmark Family Law on January 25, 2004, supporting women’s equality and granting them new rights in marriage and divorce, among others. The success of revising the Moudawana, Morocco's Civil Status Code, was viewed as an example of effective advocacy campaigning by all Institute participants. Many times throughout the four days, participants expressed their mutual admiration for the work of women’s groups in all the Maghreb countries.

At the conclusion of the training, one participant summarized her experience at the Institute, “All that I have learned during the Institute will help my organization to do more and accomplish more.” Several participating organizations plan to incorporate the horizontal, participatory leadership methodologies into the functioning of their organizations. Others plan to incorporate leadership skills-building projects into existing programs, and a number of organizations will use the facilitation training and leadership-learning materials to conduct leadership training workshops with their constituencies. Many participants suggested that more Leadership and Training of Trainer Institutes be held at community, national, and regional levels.

Participants stressed the importance of skills gained but emphasized the equal significance of networking and forming new relationships. The Institute was the first time that grassroots women activists from the Maghreb region were given the opportunity to meet in a forum specifically designed to encourage them to share experiences and to learn from each other. Participants expressed their hopes to expand their new relationship with WLP and the WLP network.