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Pilot Training on Leading for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights

15 November 2016

Transformative leadership has been recognized as a vital key for transformative organizations aiming to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Guided by the Fit for Purpose, Right Up Front, and Planet 50:50 initiatives, the UN Women Training Centre has developed the training course Transformative Leadership: Leading for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights. The pilot training for this course was held in Geneva from 9 to 11 November, 2016.

Leading for Gender Equality workshop in Geneva

This course aims to raise awareness, mobilize political commitment, capitalize and strengthen gender knowledge of senior managers to make informed and strategic decisions to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment within institutions and with external partners. The course specific objectives are grounded within the following goals:

  • Enhancing knowledge and understanding on transformative and inclusive leadership particularly in the context of effectively delivering gender equality and women’s rights commitments;
  • Strengthening gender knowledge and strategies among managers and leaders;
  • Strengthening gender knowledge and strategies among managers and leaders;
  • Strengthening leadership skills and capacities to lead positively under the gender justice principles; and
  • Providing space for cross learning, exchanging experience, and networking.

The training is grounded on feminist principles and pedagogies. It employs adult-learning, participatory, adaptive, emancipatory, experiential and interactive approaches. The training fosters critical examination of power, privileges, and biases. Additionally, the course seeks to provide participants with a strategic set of tools and ‘lenses’ that they can use as they implement their plans to lead for gender equality and women’s rights.

The course was delivered to 30 practitioners (from governmental offices, civil society, development organizations) with managerial roles and responsibilities, and/or with functions to provide strategic and visionary guidance to their offices/organizations. Participants were able to enhance knowledge on a variety of topics related to leadership for gender equality and human rights, including: international normative frameworks, communication, advocacy and negotiation techniques, building alliances and resource mobilization, organizational transformation, self-examination, among others.