Celebration of 64 gender advocates

Today, 64 young civil society leaders were celebrated in an online diploma ceremony, as they graduated from the Swedish Institute's leadership programme SI Leader Lab 2021. From March to June the participants have met regularly online to develop their leadership skills, explore new tools for effective advocacy and share experiences around common challenges. 

This year’s SI Leader Lab, the third one, has brought together 64 young influential civil society leaders in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa region who are active advocates of gender equality. From March to June the participants have met regularly online to develop their leadership skills, explore new tools for effective advocacy and share experiences around common challenges. 

Aishwarya Rani Singh, Managing Director at Putali Nepal, is one of the participants of this year’s programme. 

– I’ve really appreciated how the mentors of SI Leader Lab 2021 made sure to strengthen the voice and recognize each participant for their individuality and uniqueness, said Aishwarya Rani Singh.

By creating child-friendly education tools, Putali Nepal, a the not-for-profit organisation, works with local communities to educate young people about menstruation and facilitate them to be changemakers in their family and community. The aim is for them to initiate to solve issues related to menstruation and thereby promote gender equality in the long run. 

At Putali Nepal Aishwarya Rani Singh she is responsible for many different areas, such as HR management, programme management, monitoring and evaluation, governance, network building, financial supervision, strategic management, marketing and fundraising. 

– These three months have been opulent in terms of knowledge sharing, learning and has truly been a transformational journey for me personally as a leader and also as an individual. The interpersonal skills and especially the advocacy skills have been salutary in fortifying myself as a gender equality advocate. I look forward to implementing these skills. 

The leadership programme is founded on experience-based and collaborative learning and one of the ideas with the training is to allow the participants to explore real challenges and areas of development that will benefit their local organisations. 

Tarek Fakhereddin works at the organisation Global Communities in Syria, implementing integrated protection services to vulnerable, crisis-affected populations, including women and children. 

– It has been such a great opportunity to meet other people from all over the world aiming at achieving gender equality in all its forms. During the SI Leader Lab journey, I have been able to listen to so many different inspiring stories outside of my own context and to learn from many internationally influential people, and it has helped me a lot in reflecting on my own work, he said. 

Here you find more interviews with alumni of SI Leader Lab and other similar leadership programmes:

“As a gender advocate, I want to empower other women” – Svenska institutet (si.se)

“It fundamentally changed my concept and definition of networking” – Svenska institutet (si.se)

“I use almost everything we learned in my personal and my professional life” – Svenska institutet