Lebanon

WLP Lebanon/Collective for Research and Training on Development.Action (CRTD.A), in cooperation with Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) International, is conducting an online distance learning course (eCourse) for 25 women from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine from September 3 through November 3, 2007. The course is designed to develop inclusive and participatory leadership skills, encourage dialogue on rights, and facilitate cooperation for gender-equitable change initiatives.

From September 5 to October 21, 2005, a group of 14 experienced leadership trainers from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine participated in a five-week prototype Arabic eCourse to test and adapt the Arabic curriculum in preparation for a full eCourse in 2006.

WLP trained partners from Morocco and Lebanon to act as facilitators for the upcoming course, focusing on use of the course technology and the interactive, problem-solving methodology that guides the course.

August 9, 2006 Update

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

In the two weeks since our last update, thanks to your very generous support and contributions, WLP partner, Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), made its goal of $62,500! We cannot thank you enough for your support at a time of great need.

Your donations are being delivered in the form of relief kits by an extensive network of local women’s groups and volunteers to women housed in 105 public schools and IDP (internally displaced people) centers in Beirut, Saida, Metn, Jbail, Kesrwan, and Tripoli. CRTD-A has been able to purchase all the needed supplies. Each woman headed-household is visited before and after distribution, first to identify specific needs of her family and then for follow up.

Interview with Lina Abou-Habib, Director of Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), March 4, 2006

By Anna Workman, Program Associate, WLP

Why is the right to nationality an important issue for women in the Middle East and North Africa?

Essentially because nationality is a case in point of how citizenship in this region is gendered.

In 2006, WLP will stand in solidarity with partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Gulf regions to call for women's equal citizenship rights, including equal rights to confer nationality to their spouses and children. In the majority of MENA and Gulf countries, only men have the legal right to confer nationality to non-national spouses and children.

"Nationality is a case in point of how citizenship in this region is gendered...whether or not you are a national will determine very much whether you're have the right to representation, whether you have the right to social entitlements, whether you're a full citizen or not. So when the laws in most countries in the MENA and Gulf regions say that a citizen is someone born of a father of that country only, this clearly says that the state considers that only men are real citizens," said Lina Abou-Habib, Director of WLP's Lebanese partner Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), one of the organizations leading the regional campaign for Arab women's right to nationality.

On November 18-21, 2005, 27 women's rights activists and leaders of women's groups from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen gathered in Beirut, Lebanon to attend the Middle East-Gulf Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers.

Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) and Collective for Research and Training on Development Action (CRTD-A) convened the Institute to create an opportunity for women activists in the region to develop skills in participatory leadership, facilitation, communications, and advocacy, building their capacity as leaders. This intensive skills development was designed to support participants in their work to empower grassroots women in the Middle East-Gulf region to actively participate in decision-making processes within their families, communities, and societies. In addition, the Institute created an opportunity for women leaders to engage in dialogue and reflect on shared challenges, developing stronger national and regional linkages.

Grassroots Lebanese and Palestinian women activists and representatives of Uzbek media participated in leadership training workshops organized by WLP and our partner organizations. They challenged authoritarian models of leadership and stereotypical portrayals of women in the media. WLP’s Lebanese partner, Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking and Information Project (MACMAG GLIP), and WLP’s Uzbek partner, the Women’s Resource Center of Tashkent (TWRC), organized the workshops as part of ongoing training programs using the Partnership’s handbook . Participants commented that the workshop experience enabled them to discover their own leadership abilities, analyze current political trends, and share experiences on ways of challenging the status quo within their communities.