Leading to Choices: A Distance Learning Course on Participatory Leadership

May 26-August 3, 2003

Facilitators: Suheir Azzouni and Nancy Flowers
Co-organizers: Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) and Human Rights Education Associates (HREA)

The 2003 course has concluded.
READ the report of the course (PDF, 947 KB).

This innovative distance learning course on developing participatory leadership skills is intended for leaders, activists, and staff of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in promoting human rights and equitable societies.

The course is based on a conceptualization of leadership as horizontal, inclusive, and participatory. Leadership is approached as a process that leads to greater choices for all by fostering communication among individuals who learn from each other, create a shared vision, and reach a common goal forged by consensus. The alternative leadership model introduced in this course responds to the need for leaders who aspire to create egalitarian, democratic, and pluralistic societies based on collaborative decision-making, coalition-building, and gender equality. The course sessions will be organised as a progression in learning to encourage participants' involvement in decision-making processes and to promote a participatory and dialogical leadership style.

The main course text is Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women by Mahnaz Afkhami, Ann Eisenberg, and Haleh Vaziri (Women’s Learning Partnership, 2001), developed in collaboration with WLP’s partner organizations in the Global South. Leading to Choices is a prototype handbook with a flexible curriculum that has been used in leadership training workshops in Afghanistan, Cameroon, India, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Tanzania, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. Participants have included women, young girls, and men; Muslims and Christians; and human rights activists, university students, women NGO representatives, refugees, and domestic workers, among others.