Middle East and North Africa: NDI’s Middle East and North Africa Young Women Leaders Academy

In July 2008, NDI organized the inaugural MENA Regional Young Women Leaders Academy in Doha, Qatar, which gathered together young women leaders from the Middle East and North Africa. The young women, who included students, civil society leaders and political activists, gained the tools and skills necessary to become political leaders.
The group included undergraduate and graduate students and activists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and Yemen. Organized jointly by the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) Women’s Political Participation and Middle East/North Africa Teams, the program aimed to provide young Arab women with the intellectual tools, comparative knowledge and practical skills necessary to become leaders in their communities. NDI is a nonprofit organization working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide.Each participant came to the academy with the shared desire of strengthening the role of women leaders in their own country. During the nine-day academy, participants attended seminars on women’s leadership and social and political issues in the Middle East and North Africa.Marwa Wafsy, a participant from Egypt, has already started an NGO that focuses on women’s rights advocacy. She will use her newfound skills to make her organization more effective. “We should all work to empower women to take responsibility for participating in the decision-making process, especially in the Arab world,” Wafsy said. Students also improved their leadership skills through a series of intensive sessions on topics including public speaking, conflict resolution, advocacy and fundraising. During the public speaking training, the young women each prepared speeches on a topic of their choice which were videotaped and critiqued by a communications expert. Midway through the academy, the women participated in a panel discussion with three successful young women leaders in Washington, DC. The panel took place in Georgetown’s Global Classroom, a unique venue that contains a high-definition video connection between Washington, DC and Doha, built to make users feel like they are in the same room. The panelists included Jumana Musa, a human rights attorney who is currently the Policy Director for the Rights Working Group; Zaynab Nawaz, a women’s human rights campaigner with Amnesty International USA; and Amy Pritchard, a political consultant who currently directs the Washington, D.C. office of Mission Control, a direct mail firm which works with Democratic candidates and campaigns. Academy participants engaged Jumana, Zaynab and Amy in a discussion about their experiences working in politics, legislative advocacy and civil society and also asked the women to address how they balance careers and a personal life. Abeer Al Qadasi, a participant from Yemen, commented on the speakers, saying: “I want to follow in their footsteps and be like them in the future. It reminded us that nothing can stop us from meeting our goals.” Watch a clip of the panel here: Throughout the week, the women worked in small groups to develop their own political campaign. Each group elected a candidate, a campaign manager, a policy director and a communications/media manager. The groups developed campaign platforms, outreach and media plans that they presented to an audience on the final day of the academy. Following the presentations, the audience voted on which candidate they would elect to office.“These women are amazing. To be so young and so dedicated to improving the lives of people in their countries has been inspiring for all of us who worked with them this week,” said Katie Croake, MENA Program Manager. Building upon the intensive academic and training components of the program, the participants will participate in internships with parliaments, political parties or civil society organizations when they return to their countries in order to help them utilize their newly acquired political, advocacy and leadership skills. The internship experiences provide the ladies with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in political processes, build leadership skills, and continue becoming more effective leaders. According to the participants, the camp was a success. “There is nothing more empowering than a group of young women leaders gathering for a whole week to learn from each other,” said Imane Tounsi, a participant from Morocco.To respond to the needs and interests of young women in politics, iKNOW Politics created a discussion circle on Young Women and Political Leadership. Please click here to join and participate in the discussion circle.