APWLD is inviting women activists and leaders aspiring for political positions to apply for:


Asia and the Pacific Gender and Politics Training 2024 for
Building Transformative Leadership of Grassroots Women Leaders

Deadline For Applications: 22 April, 2024 (Extended)

 

Background

Globally, democracy is witnessing  a rapid decline since the last decade leading to less than half of the world living in democratic nations. Asia and the Pacific being home to more than half of the world’s population and the largest democracies play a pivotal role in asserting democracy globally. Unfortunately, Asia and the Pacific mirrors the global trend, finding itself at the centre of rising authoritarianism and shrinking of democratic and civil spaces. Amid this backdrop of democratic erosion, women, girls and gender-diverse individuals have been disproportionately impacted.

Women’s participation and leadership in decision making at all levels is a fundamental assertion for women’s human rights to participatory democracy and Development Justice. As democracy continues to deteriorate in this region, women’s influence and their direct participation in the political sphere are further threatened. The current systems based on power and privilege only serve the economic and social elites who dominate the political corridors garnering maximum political positions. They further collude with the neoliberal and fascist forces to entrench the oppression of the marginalised and maintain the status quo.

This is a critical juncture urging regional feminist movements to think more deeply about what we understand as democracy, reject the hierarchical and oppressive forces of  power and domination to push for radical and sustained structural change in political processes. To achieve this, it is imperative that women’s voices form the basis of decision-making in political agendas drawn from the lived realities of women at the grassroots. This necessitates an urgent demand for the practice and restoration of democratic and accountable governance, with grassroots communities and women leading the demand for structural change.

 

About the Training

APWLD has been carrying out its Gender & Politics (G&P) training since 2006. This is in recognition of the importance of capacity and transformative leadership building in increasing  women’s democratic participation and political power. The G&P training is designed to enable  women’s engagement in multiple forms and levels of politics and leadership in expanding  their participation in democratic processes, challenge gendered  political structures, lead women’s initiatives and engage with broader peoples’ movements and influence development agendas at local, national, regional and international levels. The G&P training aims towards building the transformative pathways to power by engaging  emerging fearless grassroots women leaders from marginalised communities across the region. Amid the rising authoritarianism, shrinking civil spaces, attacks on women activists, human rights defenders and movement leaders, there is greater need for grassroots struggles to engage in direct political action. Further, in view of the fact that women in positions of power in our region are often from dominant class, caste, religious, ethnic, linguistic, sexuality and other backgrounds, it  becomes more urgent to facilitate support in building the capacity of grassroot women leaders who are at the frontlines of the battle for fundamental women’s human rights and Development Justice across constituencies.


Objectives of the Gender & Politics Training 2024

The overall objective of the G&P training is to strengthen women’s transformative leadership to generate systemic change and advance  participatory democracy, women’s human rights and Development Justice.

The specific objectives of the training are:

  • To enhance the leadership capacity of grassroot women in political participation and decision-making to advance women’s human rights agenda for change in an era of growing authoritarianism, macho-fascism and imposed militarism.
  • To  enable  women political aspirants to contest in local, state/province level and parliamentary elections. 
  • To ensure that the upcoming women in power will be equipped with analysis that will enable them to counter structural inequalities with holistic Development Justice.

 

The training will be conducted from July 23rd – 27th (excluding travel) and the exact location/venue of the training will be notified to the selected participants upon selection.

What to expect from the training:

  • A feminist and participatory space to share about your feminist movements, political struggles, and aspirations.
  • An opportunity to learn important concepts and tools such as gender and patriarchy, politics and political systems; transformative leadership; gender and feminist participatory budgeting, Development Justice as an alternative feminist vision.
  • Tools and strategies to undertake advocacy and lobbying including campaigning; movement building; to build electoral campaigns around feminist political agenda(s).

Who can apply:

  • Women with a considerable experience of steering grassroots feminist movements and now aspiring to achieve political positions, or have previously attempted for political positions and want to continue their endeavours and grounded on a movement as a source of political power.
  • Women political leaders at the local level who are also part of the grassroots movements and aspiring to contest in the upper echelons of electoral politics.
  • Grassroots women leaders at the local level who emerged from Womanifesto and Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) processes associated with the nine APWLD programmes who are now aspiring to contest for political positions.
  • Women who are and continue to be involved in the political arena as facilitators, campaigners, trainers, mentors to enable women’s political participation and leadership.

Participants will be selected based on the following considerations:

  • Role of applicants in political organising of women, and most importantly their motivation to run for elections/electoral processes, need and motivation to join the training.
  • Balanced representation from countries across Asia and the Pacific region.
  • Election schedules in Asia and the Pacific in the next couple of years.
  • Limited group size of 10-12 participants.

Expectations and obligations of participants:

Pre-training (APWLD will provide guidelines and materials):

  • Collate and submit national information, policies or case studies.
  • Accomplish reading materials, as provided, before participating in the training.
  • Respond to emails in a timely manner as that will be the main method of communicating regarding deadlines, registration, hotel and travel arrangements.
  • Comply with all the logistical requirements in coordination with the APWLD team.

During training:

  • Attend the training for a full period of 5 days.
  • Actively participate and share knowledge, expertise and experiences, including making presentations, group work, mobilising speeches, etc. 
  • Develop a personal/organisational action plan/critical pathway at the end of the training that will demonstrate how they will utilise the training as part of a strategy to run for political positions within the next one to two years.

Post-training:

  • Maintain regular contact with APWLD and other training participants to exchange lessons, experiences, practices and impacts that result from the training. 
  • Report to APWLD on applying the action plan/critical pathway during the follow-up by APWLD.


Cost of the training and sponsorship:

APWLD will cover the selected applicants’ participation cost, including economy airfare, boarding and lodging during the training and applicable visa fees. Other additional travel-related expenses must be informed by the participant to APWLD beforehand for approval. 


Application procedure: 

All applicants MUST submit the following documents:

  1. Completed Application Form; 
  2. Updated Curriculum Vitae (not more than two pages long) clearly stating their experience; and
  3. Endorsement/Recommendation letter from the organisation/body/movement.

Endorsement/Recommendation letter from institution/organisation/party should state the applicant’s experience in the area of women’s human rights and political participation and recommending entity’s commitment/work on women’s leadership, political participation and vision towards enlarging spaces for women’s participation at decision-making.

To apply, please fill in the online application form. The application must be submitted by April 22, 2024.

If you are unable to fill-in the Google Form, please download the application form here, and email it along with your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Endorsement Letter with the subject line: Application for Asia-Pacific Regional Gender & Politics Training 2024 to following email addresses: Kamakshi Amar (Kamakshi@apwld.org) and Zar Zar Tun (ZarZar@apwld.org).

Only selected candidates will be contacted for further details. For any questions, you can write to our WiP Programme team on the above email addresses.

LATE AND INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS (with incomplete/missing application form, CV or endorsement/recommendation letter) WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Please note that only selected applicants will be contacted.