The African Women's Leadership Institute

AKINA MAMA WA AFRIKA
A non-governmental development organisation for African women.

PRESENTS

THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) is an international, pan-African, non-governmental development organisation for African women based in the UK with an East and Horn of Africa regional office in Kampala, Uganda. AMwA was set up in 1985 by women from different parts of Africa resident in the United Kingdom. Translated from Swahili, the name means `solidarity among African women', signifying African sisterhood. AMwA was founded to create space for African women to organise, and build links with African women active in the areas of their own development.

Mission Statement

AMwA is an African women’s international non-governmental development organisation based in the UK and Africa, which coordinates local, regional and international initiatives. AMwA serves as a networking, information, advocacy and training forum for African women, and builds their leadership capacities to influence policy and decision-making. AMwA does this by:

• Building the leadership capacities of African women and their organisations

• Networking and consulting on local, regional and international levels

• Marketing the skills, expertise and creativity of African women

• Mobilising and empowering African women

• Challenging sexist and racist stereotypes by emphasizing positive images of African women.

THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE.

The Regional African Women’s Leadership Institute

The African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI) is a regional networking, information and training forum, which trains women aged 25-45 in critical thinking on gender issues, organisational and resource development and strategic planning. The AWLI was established as a program of AMwA in 1996, as a contribution towards the post-Beijing initiatives in the Africa region. The AWLI has two main features. First, it serves as a network of young African women (25-45) for professional support, advice and information, and sharing of expertise. Second, the AWLI convenes an intensive three-week residential leadership-training institute every year.

The Sub Regional African Women’s Leadership Institute

The sub regional leadership AWLIs were developed to address context specific issues in each of the African sub regions. There have been important political and economic developments at these levels over the past few years, which require the active participation of women. The sub regional institutes take place over two weeks, and aim to bring closer ties and working partnerships amongst young women activists in the various sub regional contexts.

The objectives of the AWLI are to:

==> Develop the leadership potential of young African women who would like to commit themselves to a progressive women’s movement in Africa.

==> Provide leadership training for young African women who are in leadership positions in women's NGOs, mixed NGOs, government institutions or corporate bodies.

==> Empower African women living in fundamentally patriarchal communities with self-development and life skills training.

==> Initiate a forum for young women to meet and build alliances for individual and professional support.

==> Develop a mentoring and role modelling system in order to benefit from the knowledge, skills and expertise of older women.

==> Strengthen existing regional and sub regional networks through networking and solidarity and to build and sustain links with the international women's movement.

==> Improve the quality of gender analysis and research coming out of Africa, and give African women more access to international publishing.

Activities of the African Women’s Leadership Institute.

• Organising an annual residential leadership training institute, sub-regional institutes and specialist leadership workshops.

• Supporting institute graduates to run training in organisational skills and development for organisations in their own communities.

• Organising panels and workshops at regional and international conferences.

• Publishing a journal twice a year to link institute participants and other women’s organisations on the continent.

• Publication of policy briefing papers and occasional research documents on gender, development and analysis in Africa.

The ultimate goal of the AWLI is to encourage and train significant numbers of women for informed leadership positions that will ultimately promote a progressive African women’s development agenda. The development of a feminist constituency among the next generation of African women leaders is essential to the future of the African women’s movement.

THE INSTITUTE PROGRAMS.

The main Institute activities include formal training sessions, Institute lectures, an inter-generational dialogue, simultaneous workshops, and group work. Participants come from a variety of professional and academic backgrounds, with a keen interest and understanding of gender issues and a desire for leadership skills to strengthen their work. During the selection process, the participants are asked to identify their training needs, and the AWLI training programs are designed accordingly. The training sessions are facilitated by a group of African women trainers based within and outside Africa, and all the training sessions are conducted in a lively and participatory manner.

THE P.O.T LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK.

The leadership framework, which is used to develop training modules and programs, is an analytical framework, which AMwA has conceptualised, and which is called the P.O.T framework. This framework specifically addresses concerns of African women activists interested in the next generation of leadership. The POT signifies an inter-disciplinary and multi-faceted approach to activism, and the various personal, political and contextual issues individual activists face within their communities. The resource persons and trainers for the AWLI design their training programs bearing this framework in mind.

PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT

This is crucial for African women activists to be able to commit themselves to challenging deeply oppressive systems, most of which are rooted in years of culture and tradition, and which makes it impossible to advocate for change. Self-empowerment, self-esteem and the ability to balance personal and professional issues have been a major concern of African women activists. Specific areas, which our training programs address, include self-development, balancing personal issues, leadership dynamics, etc.

ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The ability to make effective use of organisations or institutions to promote a progressive agenda for women and advocate for fundamental change. This also includes the need to mobilise and manage resources needed to develop institutions. Organisational in this context might be autonomous and non-governmental, or might be governmental machinery set up to address gender concerns. Training topics in this area include strategic planning, managing change, NGO governance and structure in Africa, resource mobilisation and management, communications and information.

TRANSFER OF SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

AMwA’s leadership programs aim to develop inter-generational systems of knowledge and skills transfer. Through this process, younger women learn from older women and older women learn from younger ones. The ability to effectively transfer knowledge on an inter-generational basis is also crucial to the sustainability of a progressive development agenda. It is also important to affirm women as knowers and creators of knowledge within their communities, a fact which patriarchy never admits.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT AMwA’s TRAINING PROGRAMS.

• The trainers are experienced, professional and first-rate

• `The AWLI was a great learning experience for me and an excellent opportunity to network and focus on things crucial to the African women’s movement’. Participant at 3rd AWLI, 1999

• `There is such a high level of professionalism about you, I will get our organisation to use Akina Mama as a role model’.

• AMwA should start a university for African women!

• All the three years I spent in the University cannot compare to the three weeks I have spent here. (Justine Nkurunziza, Burundi, AWLI 1997)

• ‘The Institute was excellent. Please keep up the good work, your efforts go a long way to improve the lives of African women’.

• ‘We received a brilliant collection of materials and books that we can use over and over again’.

• ‘The AWLI has not only changed my life, it has revolutionised it’, Angie Dawa, participant, 1st African Women’s Leadership Institute, February/March 1997.

• ‘AMwA’s training programs for African women are brilliant…there are lots of other women out there who are desperately in need of the valuable information we have been privileged to get’, Participant at the 2nd African Women’s Leadership Institute, February 1998.

• ‘The hard work, the fun, the fatigue, the laughter, and the tears that marked the end when we had to part -the AWLI was really something. You had to be a part of it to appreciate the wonderful experience we had’. Betty Byanyima, participant at the 2nd African Women’s Leadership Institute, 1998).

• ‘This initiative to develop the capacity and skills of young African women is long overdue and has come at a critical period of Africa’s development’. Mme Josephine Ouedraogo, Chief, Africa Centre for Women, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

• ‘In this critical period after Beijing, we are looking towards the young women in Africa and other parts of the world to carry on the work. The future is in their hands. If they are not brought on board, we might lose all we have gained over the past twenty-five years’. Hon. Gertrude Mongella, Secretary General, Fourth UN World Conference on Women, 1995.

ELIGIBILITY FOR PARTICPATION IN THE EASTERN AFRICAN SUB REGIONAL AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

The following criteria applies to all AMwA leadership development programs:

• Candidates must be African Women from the following African countries Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania aged between 25-45.

• Participants are expected to be resident in the above countries. Participants in the sub regional Institutes are expected to be residents in the relevant countries of the sub region in which the institute will take place.

• Must be from local, national, sub regional or regional women’s organisations, civil society organisations, government departments, or commerce and industry.

• Applications from eligible organisations should be from a minimum level of Program Officer or the equivalent.

• Applicants must have a minimum of two years experience (voluntary or professional) in gender issues.

• Participants should be able to demonstrate how they will carry forward what they learn at the institute. We will therefore select only those who will be in a position to report back to their organisations or establishment, and not those applying as individuals.

• Participants will be required to stay throughout the duration of the program, i.e. three-weeks for the annual AWLI and two weeks for sub-regional institutes.

• Participants will be asked to prepare a discussion paper (minimum 2,500 words) on current issues concerning their area of work prior to the institute, for discussion at the institute plenaries or working groups. These discussion papers will be developed for publication afterwards.

• AWLI participants should be prepared to engage in critical discussions and analysis of feminist theory and practice.

• Ability of participants to share costs.

FUNDING

The total cost for individual participants at the AWLI is as follows:

a) The two-week sub-regional AWLI: $5000 per participant

The costs cover travel, accommodation, all meals and refreshments, site visits, local events, and excellent training materials. AMwA usually raises funding to sponsor participants to attend the AWLI programs. However, due to the increasing demand for the AWLI programs, and for sustainability purposes, we are encouraging future participants to approach local donors for full or partial sponsorship to meet their costs.

The following donors have so far made the AWLI programs possible:

• The African Women’s Development Fund
• Comic Relief (UK)
• Carnegie Corporation of New York (USA)
• Christian Aid (UK)
• Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA-Kenya)
• COOPERAID (Switzerland)
• Commonwealth Foundation
• Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA-Uganda)
• German Development Service (Uganda Country Office)
• Global Fund for Women (USA)
• Ford Foundation
• Hivos
• Shaler Adams Foundation (USA)
• Staples Trust (UK)
• Caritas Fund of the Tides Foundation (USA)
• United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
• United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
• UNICEF (Uganda Country office)
• UK Department for International Development
• UK National Lottery Charities Board, International Programs
• OXFAM (UK/I)
• K.U.L.U. Women in Development (Denmark)
• Mama Cash (The Netherlands)
• Match International (Canada)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Akina Mama wa Afrika
A non-governmental development organisation for African women.
334-336 Goswell Road
London EC1V 7LQ
Tel: 44 207 713 5166
Fax: 44 207 713 1959
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.akinamama.org

Akina Mama wa Afrika
East and Horn of Africa Office
Plot 30 Bukoto Street, Kamwokya
PO Box 24310
Kampala, Uganda
Tel : +256 (41) 543 681
Fax : +256 (41) 543 683
Email : [email protected]

Registered as an International NGO in Uganda by the NGO Registration Board.

UK Registered Charity Number: 1041431 Company Limited by Guarantee Number: 295812

AMwA is an international NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

The African Women’s Leadership Institute is a program of Akina Mama wa Afrika, a non-governmental development organisation for African women based in the UK, with an East and Horn of Africa regional office in Kampala, Uganda.