SI Leader Lab was launched in the autumn of 2019 aimed at young civil society leaders working with gender equality in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. It was then SI’s first leadership programme with a greater focus on digital modules in addition to two planned meetings in Sweden. The idea behind the digital approach was to create conditions for the participants to train in self-organization and to provide tools for continued contact after the programme.
– What we did not know then was that online collaboration would soon be the new normal and that in 2020 we would turn the program into 100 percent online, says Maria Henoch, one of the programme managers for SI Leader Lab.
Despite the changes, 57 participants chose to continue participating in SI Leader Lab 2019. Now their work continues at home to, for example, counter child marriage in Nepal, strengthen sex education in Egypt and get more women into the formal job sector in Pakistan.
From SI Leader Lab, they bring with them new knowledge and new tools in leadership, organisational development and advocacy work. They are now part of a strong network of young change making leaders in 15 countries, all working for a more sustainable and equal world.
Here you can find an interview with a SI Leader Lab 2019 participant.