Global Women in Management

The Global Women in Management program is CEDPA’s longest running training program, with thousands of graduates worldwide. The program responds to today’s development context, which demands greater levels of management accountability and programmatic results, by providing rigorous leadership and management training that builds women’s skills to run successful organizations.

Building Leaders for Development

The <i>Global Women in Management</i> program has been held in various countries and languages. Study after study has shown that investing in women advances community development. Institutions including the World Bank have documented how increasing women’s educational attainment and promoting their equal opportunity in the labor force and public life can reduce poverty and promote national growth. Investing in women also greatly enhances the well-being of thier families and their children, who are more likely to survive and thrive if their mothers are healthy and educated.

For more than 30 years, the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) has trained developing-country women—and committed men and young people—to advance international development and change the social and political context that impedes opportunity for women and girls.

Overview

The Global Women in Management program brings together women from diverse cultures, countries and regions to share, examine and adapt best practices worldwide to meet the needs of their own communities and their countries. The program is designed for mid-career women from non-governmental, community and faith-based organizations with 8-10 years of experience working at community, sub-national or national levels. The program, usually four weeks in length, has been offered in multiple languages and countries including Mexico, Nigeria, and the United States.

<i>The Global Women in Management</i> program has participants from all over the world. Working within the context of participants’ technical and program priorities, the Global Women in Management program strengthens competencies in project and financial management, leadership, fundraising and proposal development, strategic communication, supervision, and advocacy to prepare women leaders to assume increased responsibilities and accountability in their personal, institutional and community lives.

CEDPA creates a supportive and participatory learning environment for the exchange of best practices and experiences, strategy development and skill building among the participants. Participants also learn through meetings with international and community-based organizations working in various development sectors in the U.S, as well as presentations by international donors and development experts from related fields.

Major workshop themes include:

Dimensions of Leadership ~ Participants assess and strengthen personal and professional leadership traits, distinguish between leadership and management, and develop strategies for enhancing leadership skills.

Strategic Communications ~ Participants learn and apply strategic communication techniques to educate, motivate and mobilize communities, decision makers and institutions.

Fundraising ~ Fundraising strategies and plans are developed during the workshop, and participants learn how to cultivate and sustain donor relations, design proposal management systems and develop proposals.

Advocacy ~ Participants analyze the policy environment and elements of policymaking, enhance advocacy skills and develop strategies for coalition building.

Financial Management ~ Financial management procedures and tools are examined and applied to ensure programmatic and institutional transparency and accountability.

Project Management ~ Participants examine the project management cycle; learn to use project management processes and tools; and prepare monitoring and evaluation plans.

Partnership ~ Elements and skills for effective partnerships with private and public sectors are explored, and participants develop strategies for building and sustaining partnerships.

By the end of the workshop, participants leave with increased confidence and heightened awareness of their own leadership styles and management skills; knowledge and tools for improved project and financial management and supervision; strategies for creating linkages with donors and private and public sector organizations; and strengthened communication, advocacy, sustainability and fundraising skills and approaches. In addition, participants design action plans for personal, institutional and community level change.

Because CEDPA believes that training should be seen as the beginning of a long-term process rather than as a one-time event, the organization continues to support our Global Women in Management alumni as they move beyond the workshop setting and begin to apply lessons learned within their communities. Following the workshop, participants embark on a year-long coaching relationship with experienced CEDPA alumni for a structured and guided program of personal and professional coaching. CEDPA provides support throughout the coaching relationship and evaluates the program and its outcomes at the end of the year.

In addition, CEDPA sustains on-going relationships with alumni through its alumni Web portal; networking activities at local, regional and international levels; and professional consultancies. CEDPA’s field offices also promote and sustain capacity building with our alumni by targeting small grants to alumni-led organizations when opportunities arise.

Outcomes

CEDPA documents program results through post-workshop evaluations, follow-up surveys, and ongoing communication with our alumni.

The results show that most graduates link the new confidence and skills gained during the workshop to strengthened management capacity and often career advancements. For example, a 2005 training alumna reported: “I was promoted…I now have the chance to make decisions. Before CEDPA, I was timid in voicing my opinions, but now, with the measurable successes I have achieved as a result of CEDPA’s training and materials, I have found the courage to advance and the maturity to accept when I am wrong.”

Strengthened by their training, many program alumni have risen to top leadership positions in their nations, becoming cabinet and parliamentary leaders, founders and heads of non-governmental organizations, political activists and leading journalists.

Participants are armed with strengthened managment skills with which to improve their organizations. Participants also have reported that the training has enabled them to secure additional resources for their local organizations, strengthening these institutions to reach even more people within their communities. For example, a participant from Papua New Guinea secured over three million PNG Kina (over one million USD) in 2007 with new skills learned from the fundraising session.

In addition to strengthening individual women leaders and their institutions, the Global Women in Management program has had ripple effects throughout the communities where alumni work. Many alumni have reinvested the skills they gained in the workshop through trainings for others within their community, targeting program beneficiaries and staff at other community organizations with trainings to improve advocacy, communications and leadership skills. With enhanced skills and strengthened programs, alumni have improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people through their work in education, health, the environment and other sectors.

Since 2005, CEDPA’s Global Women in Management program has been made possible through the generous support of the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Educating Women and Girls Initiative.

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