The KAIPTC since the adaptation of its Gender Policy has been applying an affirmative action system aimed at increasing female participation in courses but this has yielded marginal results. This coupled with the Centre’s 2019-2023 Strategic Plan seeks to among other things, to “Enhance KAIPTC’s contribution to fully implement the African Union (AU) Protocol on the African Charter on the rights of women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the UNSCR 1325”. In line with the KAIPTC’s third strategic objective and linked to a needs-based training portfolio which is specifically considering gender-specific aspects, the Centre envisages an increase demand for women leadership in PSO in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the AU. It is in line with this that the Women Peace and Security Institute (WPSI) together with the GIZ Support Programme to the KAIPTC developed and established this Women Support Scheme in 2019.

Course Aim

The Inspiring African Women Leaders in Peace and Security Programme aims at building capacity and networking opportunities for women to increase their leadership and participation in the peace and security environment.

Expected Outcome

It is expected that through the programme the participants will be able to:

• Apply leadership and mentorship skills set acquired to effectively guide and mentor other women in the peace and security environment;
• Design and implement concrete short, medium and long-term plans and actions that respond to the needs of their environment;
• Design interventions that target and increase participation of women at all levels;
• Apply skills developed to harness, lobby, advocate and/or mobilize support to implement their designed projects through this network, plus further linkages, and processes across other environment;
• Contribute to effective change in peacebuilding environments, and strengthen enabling environments (including institutional) for peacebuilding stakeholders to implement desired changes.

Target Group

The programme is targeted at middle level women in Peace and Security. Based on the core principles of the WPS agenda which are Participation, Protection Prevention and Relief and Recovery beneficiaries:

Criteria for selection

• An applicant must be a citizen of and resident in an African country at the time of application;
• An applicant should have at least two years of working experience in the peace and security field in a mid- level management position at the time of applying for the course;
• The applicant must show potential for leadership in their field of work;
• The Applicant must show ability to apply themselves and undertake the full rigors of the programme;
• Women working with grassroots community-based organisation are strongly encouraged to apply.

Programme Approach

The programme will consist of the following:

a. A two-week in-house training program (to be held in October 2021): This will focus on developing specific capacities among the cohort. The training programme will cover four broad modules, namely:

• The Women Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda
• Inspiring Women Leaders
• The Elective Courses
• Project Design

As part of the programme, participants will present leadership challenges relating to specific projects they are working on. The training programme will help participants to identify strategies to address these leadership challenges and fine-tune the project proposal they present for the course.

b. Coaching and webinar sessions (to be held virtually November 2021-April 2022): Participants will have access to coaches during and after the training programme who will support them to fine tune and implement their proposed projects. The post onsite engagement with the coaches will be virtual. There will be a series of tailor-made webinars for the cohort.

c. A one-week onsite training on mentoring course (to be held in May 2022):

This will serve as the final phase of the year-long IAWL-PS programme following the initial two week-long leadership training course and follow-on coaching and virtual training sessions where participants worked on their personal leadership projects. It provides an opportunity for participants to develop mentoring skills and ensures that they do not only become leaders but are also able to support the development of leadership capacities in other female colleagues.

Facilitation and Methodology

The group size will be kept to a maximum of 16 participants. This is to ensure that sufficient time is allocated to each participant to be able to deliver and receive adequate interaction time with facilitators and coaches.

The training methodology will take a participatory, learning-by-doing approach with a strong focus on the practical application of the learned insights. This will include interactive sessions, group works, presentation and other forms of knowledge exchange (webinars). There will be exchange with senior women from various fields to engage with the participants and share their experiences with the participants. There will be sessions of image enhancement with skills on public speaking and pitching offered to the participants.
The overall objective in delivering the activities in this scheme is to make it interactive and hands-on

Course Delivery
The course will be conducted in English.

Course Fee: This is a fully-funded course implemented in cooperation with the GIZ support programme to the KAIPTC funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as the British Peace Support Team (Africa).

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