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Women's groups in Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe are using the manual to help participants hone their skills for women's rights advocacy. A participant from Liberia described how she overcame intimidations from fellow cabinet members, and went on to implement major improvements to the ministry under her purview.
Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women
Authors: Mahnaz Afkhami, Ann Eisenberg, and Haleh Vaziri
In consultation with: Suheir Azzouni, Ayesha Imam, Amina Lemrini, and Rabèa Naciri
Leading to Choices is based on a conceptualization of leadership as horizontal, inclusive, and participatory. In this model, leadership is viewed 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 handbook 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.
If you would like to conduct workshops using Leading To Choices in your country, please contact us at wlp@learningpartnership.org.
Leading to Choices features a contextual chapter, twelve workshop sessions, and an appendix containing culture-specific scenarios relevant to the cultivation of effective leadership skills. At the heart of each workshop session is a case study or scenario. The scenarios depict individuals who discovered personal leadership skills that enabled them to address a challenging situation in their community. Scenarios also feature the innovative work of organizations from around the world that emphasize participatory decision making and communication, both internally and with their constituencies. The sessions are organized as a progression in learning.
Leading to Choices is designed to be adapted and customized to suit the diverse cultural, political, and socio-economic needs of women and men around the world. Meant for use in interactive workshops, the handbook includes "Guidelines for Facilitating" that enable the user to create a stimulating environment that promotes mutual respect, dialogue, and collaboration. The curriculum has been used in leadership training workshops in over 50 countries with women, young girls, and men; Muslims and Christians; and human rights activists, university students, women NGO representatives, refugees, rural women, domestic workers, lawyers, and journalists, among others.
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This manual is being used in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman, among other countries. Participants are developing leadership, communication, and negotiation skills, and learning to work cooperatively to gain further economic, social, cultural and political rights.
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Women's groups in Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania are using the manual to help participants hone their skills for women's rights advocacy. One participant commented, "The workshop sessions and exercises have helped me notice the sexist and discriminatory social practices in my community and I have a new determination to change them."
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Indigenous women in India's northeast region are finding the distinctive participatory leadership methodology of the Leading to Choices Assamese edition beneficial in envisioning and developing collective solutions for problems they face such as environmental preservation, land rights, governance, and civil society building.
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The Bahasa Indonesia edition of Leading to Choices (Memperluas Pilihan: Manual Pelatihan Kepemimpinan bagi Perempuan) is being used in Indonesia, where participants are developing leadership, communication, and negotiation skills, and learning to work cooperatively to gain further economic, social, cultural and political rights.
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Women in Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, Mauritania, and Morocco, among other countries, are using Montrer Le Chemin to develop skills for political decision-making, conflict resolution, and peace building. For instance, Moroccan workshops includes participants who are development activists, women's rights advocates, literacy instructors, technicians, lawyers and teachers, and in Mauritania workshop participants have established a network of women's organizations.
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This manual is being used in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Central Asia region. Though the concept of horizontal, participatory leadership is not an easy topic for women in a post-Soviet society who are accustomed to appointed hierarchical leaders, the manual has also served as the basis for a very successful 12-session live radio training program.
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This manual is being used in leadership training workshops with women and men of diverse ages, ethnicities, perspectives, and abilities in Malaysia. The Malay edition of the manual (Memimpin Menuju Pilihan: Buku Panduan Latihan Kepimpinan Wanita) was translated, adapted, and tested by WLP's partner in Malaysia in a series of training workshops that focused on gender, governance, and feminism.
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This manual is being used in leadership training workshops with indigenous women in India's northeast region, where endemic armed conflict has heightened tension surrounding issues such as land rights, the sex trade and trafficking, governance, and civil society building.
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This manual is being used in Iran, Afghanistan, and refugee camps in Pakistan. Its curriculum serves as the basis for dynamic and interactive Persian eCourses, and region-wide institutes which have included representatives from local NGOs and officials from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Education. Afghan participants also use the handbook to collectively develop strategies for counteracting the severe political and social discrimination women face in Afghanistan.
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The Portuguese edition of the Leading to Choices manual includes new case studies and scenarios specific to women's issues in Brazil. WLP Brazil/CEPIA carried out their first leadership workshop using this manual at the Rio de Janeiro State Council for Women's Rights.
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This manual is being used in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyryzygstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, among other countries. Participants include vocational students, representatives of broadcast and print media, and NGO activists working to empower women socially and economically in the face of heightened security and political tensions in the region.
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This manual is being used in Zimbabwe in refugee camps with participants from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, the Sudan and other Sub-Saharan countries. Workshops are in particularly high demand in the Tongogara refugee camp. Working collaboratively in the Leading to Choices workshop setting, diverse groups of women are recognizing their leadership capabilities and empowering themselves to improve their quality of life.
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This manual is being used with urban and rural participants from Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador, who are developing ways to strengthen participants' awareness of women's human rights and their commitment to community organizing.
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The Swahili edition of the Leading to Choices manual is being used in leadership training workshops conducted with refugee women and girls living in Zimbabwe, as well as in workshops held in Tanzania. The wide variety of programs initiated by workshops participants include income-generation projects, an adult literacy center, and an intra-refugee camp conflict resolution committee.
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This manual is being used in Uzbekistan and other countries, where the leadership training workshops have given Uzbek women a new sense of responsibility for their future and a desire to make decisions for themselves. The workshops have spurred discussions among media representatives on ways to challenge the stereotypical portrayals of women in the media, and have resulted in the creation of several NGOs.
Alerts & Updates
November 30, 2012
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Asia, Human Rights, human rights, Human Rights Alerts, Human Rights Center/ Citizens Against Corruption, Kyrgyzstan, Leading To Choices, Kyrgyzstan
November 15, 2010
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Claiming Equal Citizenship, Middle East, Leading To Choices, Leadership, Lebanon
November 11, 2010
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Asia, eNews 27, Leading To Choices, Leadership, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
