For the last three years WOCAN has been engaged with IFAD for the Building Capacity for Women’s Leadership in Farmer Producer Organizations in the Asia and the Pacific Region Project. As a final activity, WOCAN delivered the training on Reframing Leadership for Women and Men for Gender Equality to the project’s participants. The training was held from 12-16 January in Bangkok, Thailand and brought together 12 participants (5 women and 7 men) from India, Lao PDR, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. WOCAN’s two Lead Trainers, Barun Gurung and Colletah Chitsike facilitated the training in collaboration with other WOCAN Trainers Dibya Gurung, Abidah Setyowati, Kalpana Giri and Sunitha Bishan.
The participants started by identifying and getting a better understanding of various types of leadership (traditional and relational) and the differences between women and men’s approach and practice.They discussed the range of challenges that women and men leaders face when practicing traditional and relational leadership, and the specific cultural and internalized barriers for women leadership. Each participant then went through a process of self-assessment and self-awareness of their own leadership style. The last part of the training focused on the importance of networking and negotiation and how to improve these skills in a systematic and strategic manner. The training concluded with an evaluation of the training itself and the experience and progress of participants in terms of gender awareness and empowerment throughout the duration of IFAD’s project
The objective of this training is to create reframed leaders who are able to strategically lead by building teams and a robust network of influential and powerful women leaders, and men leaders who support women leaders to advance women’s leadership and gender equality within agriculture and natural resource management sectors.