SIPA Celebrates Launch of Leadership Program to Empower African Women
On June 28 SIPA welcomed a group of 13 African women leaders to kick off the 2023 Leadership Forum hosted by the Picker Center for Executive Education.
The four-day executive training program, designed in partnership with Fundación Mujeres por Africa, seeks to empower participants to make a lasting impact in their individual fields. The program combined classroom lectures, engaging activities, and a visit to New York’s City Hall to provide an immersive and enriching experience.
Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo visited the group at the program’s outset to extend a warm welcome.
“This executive training program stands as a testament to our commitment to fostering private-public partnerships and promoting women’s participation in politics,” she said.
The program was designed with an eye to catalyzing breakthrough collaborations: Participants gathered in groups of four or five to develop storyboards — in English and in French — that highlighted the tools and resources they could draw on to fight against corruption in Africa.
Within the bright orange walls of the workshop room, participants identified key legal frameworks at their disposal — including international treaties, African instruments, and national laws. They also emphasized the importance of using the media, advocacy, nonviolent protest, and data collection to spread the anti-corruption message on the local, regional, and international level.
The lively group discussions were enhanced by the varied backgrounds of those taking part. Whether political leaders or human-rights lawyer, economist or teacher, journalist or computer engineer, each participant offered fresh perspectives on how to encourage sustainable development of their continent.
With support from Professors Kristy Kelly and Matthew Murray, the group identified six important steps necessary to bolster development in Africa: pass anti-corruption laws, empower the next generation, conduct evidence-based reporting on corruption, create an anti-corruption movement among young people, communicate anti-corruption goals effectively, and create more government pressure to establish anti-corruption values on a regional and continental level.
This collaboration with Mujeres por Africa, a private nonprofit organization based in Madrid, started in 2021 when the group approached Maria Cecilia Barcellos-Raible MPA ’92, SIPA’s manager of executive education, with the ambitious goal to drive positive change and break down barriers. The program aligns with MxA’s core mission supporting African women to aid in the development of Africa’s democracy, governance, peace, human rights and sustainable economic and social development.
This year’s immersive program included women from 12 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DR Congo, the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.