Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality: Stories of Transformation

UN Women has been partnering and working closely with Amhara Bureau of Women, Children and Social Affairs (BoWCSA) to increase women’s effective participation and equal representation in leadership through the “Enhancing Women’s Leadership and Empowerment Project” since 2017 by employing multipronged strategies. Among the strategies, capacity development programme on Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality for women leaders at various level coupled with mentorship support and promoting dialogue and awareness on the thematic area among various governmental and non governmental stakeholders in addition to facilitating community dialogue at grass root level to transform negative gender social norms have been employed since the start of the project.

So far, UN Women in collaboration with AmharaBoWCSA built the capacity of more than 1300 women leaders and held gender forums including dialogues to promote women’s participation in leadership and decision-making positions in the region. It also linked 109 mentees with 109 mentors through one-to-one mentorship approach. In addition, women leaders’ networking platforms were established at regional, zonal and woreda levels to increase the voice, agency and leadership of women leaders and aspirants in Amhara region. These interventions boosted the confidence of women leaders to aspire for higher leadership positions as well as promoted gender responsiveness in their respective positions.