Course 12E03: Leading to Choices: A Distance Learning Course on Participatory Leadership
26 May-3 August 2003

Facilitators: Suheir Azzouni and Nancy Flowers

Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) and HREA are offering an innovative distance learning course on developing participatory leadership skills. The course 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. Additional audio-visual materials will also be used in the course.

The course involves approximately 40 hours of on-line sessions, interaction with students and facilitators, readings and assignments, and is offered over a 10-week period, beginning on 26 May 2003. The course is based on a participatory, active-learning approach, with an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Participants will engage in on-line sessions and discussions, prepare interim and final assignments, and do the required readings. Participants in this course will be eligible to participate in a subsequent training focusing on training trainers to facilitate interactive, culture-sensitive workshops on participatory leadership skills development.

The maximum number of course participants is 25. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation.

Course outline

Weeks 1-3: Developing the Self for Leadership

Week 1: The Building Blocks of Leadership
Week 2: Who Is a Leader?
Week 3: How Am I a Leader in My Own Life?

Weeks 4-6: Communicating With Others

Week 4: What is My Vision?
Week 5: How Can We Serve Diverse Interests?
Week 6: How Will We Empower Each Other?

Weeks 7-10: Creating Learning Partnerships

Week 7: How Will We Find Shared Meaning and What is Our Plan of Action?
Week 8: How Do We Mobilize for Action and Share Responsibilities and Results?
Week 9: How We Define a Successful Organisation?
Week 10: Skill-building Session

About the facilitators

Suheir Azzouni is the former Director General of the Women's Affairs Technical Committee, Palestine, a highly esteemed Palestinian nongovernmental organization working toward eliminating discrimination against women and establishing a democratic society that respects human rights. She has published and lectured extensively on the issue of Palestinian women's rights. Currently living in Paris, Ms. Azzouni serves on the Advisory Board of the Gender Consultative Council of the MENA region for the World Bank and as a consultant for human rights and gender. She hold a Masters degree in Gender, Law and Development from Birzeit University (Palestine), a diploma in Human Rights from Lund University (Sweden), and a BSc in Chemistry with a diploma in Education from Birzeit University.

Nancy Flowers is a human rights consultant who has worked as a trainer and writer in the field of human rights for over 15 years. Ms. Flowers has consulted worldwide with governments, nongovernmental organizations and UN agencies. Ms. Flowers is the author of numerous publications, including Local Action/Global Change: Learning about the Human Rights of Women and Girls (UNIFEM, 1999), In Our Words: A Guide For Human Rights Education Facilitators (Sisterhood Is Global Institute, 1999) and the Human Rights Education Handbook (University of Minnesota, 2000). She holds the BA degree from the University of Georgia and Cambridge University, and an MA from Columbia University.

Who should apply

The course is intended for leaders, activists, and staff of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in promoting human rights and equitable societies.

Costs

The course tuition fee is USD 425. A limited number of scholarships are available for this course for applicants from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe/Newly Independent States, the Middle East, and Latin American/Caribbean.

Application

The application deadline for this course was 1 May 2003. We are no longer accepting applications. This course will be offered again by Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) in Arabic and Persian in 2005.

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