Thailand: Special report on AWID’s young women and leadership Institute
Source:
AWID Shirkat Gah - WLUML Asia regional coordination office - were partners in this Institute, held in Bangkok.
The idea of the Young Women and Leadership Institutes was born out of the need to create spaces (face to face) where young women could articulate what their issues were.
AWID: What are the YWLIs all about?
Shamillah: The idea of the Young Women and Leadership Institutes was born out of the need to create spaces (face to face) where young women could articulate what their issues were. We decided on doing it regionally as it would then also allow young women from the region to understand the range of issues that other young women face in that particular region, to see the diversity of issues, but also to find common areas where they could direct their collective energies for challenging some of the forces that impact on their lives.
The other piece of it is also that we wanted to create spaces where young women could make the connections from the local/regional/global and the other way around to gain a comprehensive picture of power - a picture that was not limited to a single issue - but where they could see the interrelation of issues that create the social reality we have today. The process of the institutes therefore allow participants to identify and map their social realities; and following that, we develop and enhance their capacity with a set of skills and tools to see power through a feminist lens, from a human rights perspective and also to understand the impact of economic frameworks. Following this power-analysis, participants then start looking at social justice strategies (ones that have worked and those that have not) and start interrogating what could be done differently. The purpose of the YWLI's is therefore to deconstruct and reconstruct ways of engaging in order to be more effective in their own engagement in social justice.
Jo: Early this year, Shamillah contacted me to be part of a telephone conversation to talk about AWID's plan to hold a YWLI in Bangkok within the year. As outlined by AWID, the goal of YWLI is build young women’s capacity to strategically work towards women’s rights in their regions and globally. The Institutes bring together young women to focus on critical issues that impact on their lives and employ a methodology that aims to explore the linkages between the personal, structural and institutional challenges to developing young women’s leadership.
For the YWLI in Bangkok, the institute aims to gather participants from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos).
The objectives of the YWLI are to facilitate networking and support of young women participants in their respective countries; to build feminist analysis of participants on 3 key issues identified; and to deepen feminist advocacy and leadership of young women through strategy development to enable them to impact on social justice in their respective contexts regionally and globally;
In terms of methodology, the program for the Institute integrated an inter-sectional approach that builds capacity and facilitates a strategizing process for participants to assess what actions to take either individually or collectively to address identified issues. The Institute provided spaces for information sharing, networking and inter-generational dialogue. Through a process of engaging with historical trends, theory and perspectives, participants learn to apply skills and knowledge to current situations.
Anasuya: The YWLIs were primarily intended, as the first YWL Advisory Committee felt, (apart from Shamillah as Program Manager, there were seven of us from around the world; there is now a new committee we've handed over to), as a way in which to deepen the work of the YWL programme - which till then had been basically a mentorship programme and a maillist - into regionally specific capacity building for young women. We were looking at raising awareness about young women's issues, but equally creating spaces and opportunities for young activist women to analyse their activism, empower their advocacy skills and reflect upon their leadership potential. The first YWLI that Shamillah, Nyambura, Sheryl and I (from the first committee) helped organise and facilitate (with others from AWID) was in Cape Town in 2003, and was specifically focused around HIV/AIDS advocacy, as that was clearly felt to be one of the most critical issues for young women in the region. Shamillah then partnered with other organisations across Africa, and led a series of institutes/workshops with young women, with similar objectives, and region-specific issues being considered.
Exactly two years later, we felt it was important that AWID create a similar space and opportunity in Asia. When all of Asia seemed too daunting initially, we decided (a group of us comprising Shamillah, Jo, Tashia, Everjoice Win from ActionAid and I) that we should focus on South and South-east Asia, for our first YWLI here. We also suggested partnering with other organisations with similar objectives, and so DAWN, CREA and Shirkat Gah joined AWID and ActionAid. With the range of issues and geography that confronted us, we felt it best that the institute focus on young women's leadership and feminist advocacy, with the linkages between gender, sexuality, rights and economic justice being analysed in order to reflect on different important issues across the two regions, and possible advocacy strategies for these issues.
AWID: How do YWLI’s strengthen young women’s participation in feminist movements?
Shamillah: AWID's work overall is about strengthening feminist movements. Therefore, the YWLI's act as a very critical part of the Young Women and Leadership Program, recognising that there are young women who are engaged in social justice initiatives. They may not call themselves feminists - but they are employing the core feminist principles such belief in equality, belief in gender justice, and the universal sanctity of human rights in achieving their work. The YWLI's bring together these young women - allow them to look at their work in different ways - and also openly talks about movement building as critical for achieving the sustainable change. So - the Institutes are not necessarily only focusing on the individual 'leadership' and development. It looks at the individual but also emphasises the integrity of the collective, prioritizing working together at different moments and thus prioritizing openly confronting the tensions of working within movements and across movements. So, I think that the YWLI's are doing the important work of strengthening young women to critically engage within feminist movements and with other movements. We stress the importance of working multi-generationally and not isolating the issues of young women from the broader feminist agendas. The idea is therefore to provide young women with more capacity and support to share their analyses and to make their contributions felt within the movements. So, the real work is actually after the YWLI's.
The YWLI is actually only the beginning of the process for the young women who attend. At the YWLI's we create the space for the participants to identify areas and issues they want to prioritise working on after the YWLI within a year or two. Through supporting this work - we are then strengthening the group's ability to work within the collective, and to find concrete ways in which they can then contribute to the feminist movements. From these smaller initiatives, the idea is that the work and impact of these groups will grow over time and make much greater contributions within the feminist movements.
Jo: The YWLI has opened up opportunities to mobilize young women to claim their space within the “feminist movement.” The analytical and practical advocacy skills that they learn from the YWLI strengthen their conviction and boost their confidence in challenging structural inequalities that continue to undermine women’s autonomy and rights.
The YWLI has and will continue to bridge the gap between “young women” and the not-so-young and old women in the feminist movement. For the past years, I perceived the “feminist movement” as largely dominated by “pioneers” and “luminaries” whom you just read about in feminist literature and listened to in big conferences and events. For me, the highly esteemed “feminists” are well above me and isolated from the rest of us who are still grappling with our own “feminism” and political activism. Thus, for me, the YWLI will continue to be an important venue to gather both young and old women, learn from each other, particularly on strategies that are needed to challenge the increasingly complex threats confronting us today. It will continue to foster an intergenerational dialogue between the old and the young so as not to lose important lessons in the history of the women/feminist movement.
Greater involvement of “young women” will re-energize, spice up and inspire the feminist movement.
Anasuya: I think many young women are still working their way through their own understandings of feminism and activism; certainly we, as organizers and participants in the YWLIs are constantly evolving in the ways we ourselves think about these issues. The YWLIs are a safe space in which these deeply personal as well as political confusions can be shared, and possibly, clarified. Whether young women wish to call themselves feminist or not, I think the most important anchor we should have (and that the YWLIs, we hope, create or support) is the passion and the values with which we live and work. If this helps any young woman to identify further with feminist and women's groups and movements, then the positive impact is manifest. They are also a space in which the history of feminist struggles are shared in a non-patronising, but inspiring, way while at the same time, the complexities of our present struggles are analysed - and this too, possibly, helps bridge generational 'gaps' and misunderstandings.
AWID: This was the second regional YWLI, with the first being held in Cape Town, South Africa. What have the YWLI's achieved so far, and apart from practical skills, what are some of the other, unexpected outcomes that have resulted from the YWLI’s?
Shamillah: Firstly, we have learnt so much since that first YWLI in Cape Town. For example, the African regional YWLI was done by AWID alone. We organised the meeting, the funding and did the process all by ourselves. Also, in terms of the strategy session - we were not as focused as we were in the ones following that particular institute - so the plans that were developed by the participants were really broad and in some cases unable to be implemented. Following that experience, we then decided that if we are to really build on our work, we need to conduct National level institutes in the region.
So in 2004, we conducted a national YWLI in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia. What was important in how we did this was that we worked very closely with local partners and role-players in actually developing the process so that it was informed by what was happening at a policy and societal level in that particular country. In all cases, we also tried to ensure that one of our local partners was a young women's organisation - thus ensuring that there was a mechanism to continue or implement any of the follow up activities emerging from the institutes. It was through this process where we also developed the framework for the YWLI's and a manual is currently being compiled so that organisations can use it to run institutes in their own contexts without it necessarily being AWID.
For this YWLI in Bangkok, from the outset what happened was that as AWID we consulted some young women in the region (Anasuya, Jo and Tashia Petersen - Malaysia) to ask their advice on how we should proceed with a YWLI in the region. This group together with Everjoice Win (ActionAid) developed a framework for the YWLI. They also helped identify the partners for this particular Institute - we tried to identify those who were working in the region and also some national level feminist organisations who also had some focus on young women. So from this we came up with DAWN, ActionAid, CREA and Shirkat Gah, which meant that we had a wider resource pool in terms of experience and skills to draw on for the process and materials we put together for the Institute. The other great outcome is that CREA has now committed to organise the next YWLI in the region for 2006. Also - the involvement of Anasuya, Tashia and Jo ensures that there is access to mentorship for the participants as they move to implement the plans they set for themselves at the YWLI.
Some unexpected outcomes? For the Cape Town one, one of the young women from Liberia (who had been a refugee in Ghana) - returned to Liberia and she started up her own organisation working with young women. The participant from the Democratic Republic of Congo organised a training for young women in Congo last year and she is a member of the Young Women and Leadership Advisory Group. For the national YWLI's - Nigeria is in process of organising a follow-up for possibly early next year. Kenya is in the process of developing a follow-up and Zambia has already had a follow-up meeting for International Women's Day. So - it is ongoing and it is simply important for us to remain in touch with these young women and see what support they need to build on their work.
Jo: I have not been involved in the first YWLI held in Cape Town, so I can’t really talk about it. My involvement was in the conceptualization stage and actual conduct of the second YWLI that was recently held in Bangkok. On the whole, the YWLI in Bangkok was intellectually stimulating, intensely provocative, surprisingly creative, highly liberating and amazingly inspiring. Being amongst intelligent, committed, talented twenty-nine young women from different parts of the region is enough to inspire and affirm my belief that we can indeed make a difference.
What the YWLI did in Bangkok was akin to a drop in the bucket… there is more work ahead for the young women who participated in the institute and for me as well. The arena of struggle to advance women’s autonomy and rights is no longer confined within the personal, local and national boundaries, but has a global scope. The challenge now lies in sustaining the solidarity that we have forged, building on each other’s work and collectively endeavouring to claim our space within the feminist movement.
Presently, some of the young women participants are preparing to participate in the advocacy and campaigns action during the WTO Ministerial conference in Hong Kong this coming December.
Anasuya: I think one unexpected outcome is being able to reflect on how we ourselves have grown over the past two years! From Cape Town to Bangkok, we have come a long way as friends and comrades in our quest for personal happiness and political justice. The friendships that have evolved along the way (with the DAWN institute being another young women's institute that created many such relationships that are now overlapping into the AWID YWLIs) are not unexpected, but they are always inspiring, and in many ways, critical to our well-being. As many participants shared across the YWLIs, beyond the analysis and the reflection, is the comfort that despite our struggles in local contexts, we are 'not alone'. There are others who struggle alongside, who inspire and energise us. And best of all, are ready to party with us when the long day's work is done!
Shamillah: The idea of the Young Women and Leadership Institutes was born out of the need to create spaces (face to face) where young women could articulate what their issues were. We decided on doing it regionally as it would then also allow young women from the region to understand the range of issues that other young women face in that particular region, to see the diversity of issues, but also to find common areas where they could direct their collective energies for challenging some of the forces that impact on their lives.
The other piece of it is also that we wanted to create spaces where young women could make the connections from the local/regional/global and the other way around to gain a comprehensive picture of power - a picture that was not limited to a single issue - but where they could see the interrelation of issues that create the social reality we have today. The process of the institutes therefore allow participants to identify and map their social realities; and following that, we develop and enhance their capacity with a set of skills and tools to see power through a feminist lens, from a human rights perspective and also to understand the impact of economic frameworks. Following this power-analysis, participants then start looking at social justice strategies (ones that have worked and those that have not) and start interrogating what could be done differently. The purpose of the YWLI's is therefore to deconstruct and reconstruct ways of engaging in order to be more effective in their own engagement in social justice.
Jo: Early this year, Shamillah contacted me to be part of a telephone conversation to talk about AWID's plan to hold a YWLI in Bangkok within the year. As outlined by AWID, the goal of YWLI is build young women’s capacity to strategically work towards women’s rights in their regions and globally. The Institutes bring together young women to focus on critical issues that impact on their lives and employ a methodology that aims to explore the linkages between the personal, structural and institutional challenges to developing young women’s leadership.
For the YWLI in Bangkok, the institute aims to gather participants from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos).
The objectives of the YWLI are to facilitate networking and support of young women participants in their respective countries; to build feminist analysis of participants on 3 key issues identified; and to deepen feminist advocacy and leadership of young women through strategy development to enable them to impact on social justice in their respective contexts regionally and globally;
In terms of methodology, the program for the Institute integrated an inter-sectional approach that builds capacity and facilitates a strategizing process for participants to assess what actions to take either individually or collectively to address identified issues. The Institute provided spaces for information sharing, networking and inter-generational dialogue. Through a process of engaging with historical trends, theory and perspectives, participants learn to apply skills and knowledge to current situations.
Anasuya: The YWLIs were primarily intended, as the first YWL Advisory Committee felt, (apart from Shamillah as Program Manager, there were seven of us from around the world; there is now a new committee we've handed over to), as a way in which to deepen the work of the YWL programme - which till then had been basically a mentorship programme and a maillist - into regionally specific capacity building for young women. We were looking at raising awareness about young women's issues, but equally creating spaces and opportunities for young activist women to analyse their activism, empower their advocacy skills and reflect upon their leadership potential. The first YWLI that Shamillah, Nyambura, Sheryl and I (from the first committee) helped organise and facilitate (with others from AWID) was in Cape Town in 2003, and was specifically focused around HIV/AIDS advocacy, as that was clearly felt to be one of the most critical issues for young women in the region. Shamillah then partnered with other organisations across Africa, and led a series of institutes/workshops with young women, with similar objectives, and region-specific issues being considered.
Exactly two years later, we felt it was important that AWID create a similar space and opportunity in Asia. When all of Asia seemed too daunting initially, we decided (a group of us comprising Shamillah, Jo, Tashia, Everjoice Win from ActionAid and I) that we should focus on South and South-east Asia, for our first YWLI here. We also suggested partnering with other organisations with similar objectives, and so DAWN, CREA and Shirkat Gah joined AWID and ActionAid. With the range of issues and geography that confronted us, we felt it best that the institute focus on young women's leadership and feminist advocacy, with the linkages between gender, sexuality, rights and economic justice being analysed in order to reflect on different important issues across the two regions, and possible advocacy strategies for these issues.
AWID: How do YWLI’s strengthen young women’s participation in feminist movements?
Shamillah: AWID's work overall is about strengthening feminist movements. Therefore, the YWLI's act as a very critical part of the Young Women and Leadership Program, recognising that there are young women who are engaged in social justice initiatives. They may not call themselves feminists - but they are employing the core feminist principles such belief in equality, belief in gender justice, and the universal sanctity of human rights in achieving their work. The YWLI's bring together these young women - allow them to look at their work in different ways - and also openly talks about movement building as critical for achieving the sustainable change. So - the Institutes are not necessarily only focusing on the individual 'leadership' and development. It looks at the individual but also emphasises the integrity of the collective, prioritizing working together at different moments and thus prioritizing openly confronting the tensions of working within movements and across movements. So, I think that the YWLI's are doing the important work of strengthening young women to critically engage within feminist movements and with other movements. We stress the importance of working multi-generationally and not isolating the issues of young women from the broader feminist agendas. The idea is therefore to provide young women with more capacity and support to share their analyses and to make their contributions felt within the movements. So, the real work is actually after the YWLI's.
The YWLI is actually only the beginning of the process for the young women who attend. At the YWLI's we create the space for the participants to identify areas and issues they want to prioritise working on after the YWLI within a year or two. Through supporting this work - we are then strengthening the group's ability to work within the collective, and to find concrete ways in which they can then contribute to the feminist movements. From these smaller initiatives, the idea is that the work and impact of these groups will grow over time and make much greater contributions within the feminist movements.
Jo: The YWLI has opened up opportunities to mobilize young women to claim their space within the “feminist movement.” The analytical and practical advocacy skills that they learn from the YWLI strengthen their conviction and boost their confidence in challenging structural inequalities that continue to undermine women’s autonomy and rights.
The YWLI has and will continue to bridge the gap between “young women” and the not-so-young and old women in the feminist movement. For the past years, I perceived the “feminist movement” as largely dominated by “pioneers” and “luminaries” whom you just read about in feminist literature and listened to in big conferences and events. For me, the highly esteemed “feminists” are well above me and isolated from the rest of us who are still grappling with our own “feminism” and political activism. Thus, for me, the YWLI will continue to be an important venue to gather both young and old women, learn from each other, particularly on strategies that are needed to challenge the increasingly complex threats confronting us today. It will continue to foster an intergenerational dialogue between the old and the young so as not to lose important lessons in the history of the women/feminist movement.
Greater involvement of “young women” will re-energize, spice up and inspire the feminist movement.
Anasuya: I think many young women are still working their way through their own understandings of feminism and activism; certainly we, as organizers and participants in the YWLIs are constantly evolving in the ways we ourselves think about these issues. The YWLIs are a safe space in which these deeply personal as well as political confusions can be shared, and possibly, clarified. Whether young women wish to call themselves feminist or not, I think the most important anchor we should have (and that the YWLIs, we hope, create or support) is the passion and the values with which we live and work. If this helps any young woman to identify further with feminist and women's groups and movements, then the positive impact is manifest. They are also a space in which the history of feminist struggles are shared in a non-patronising, but inspiring, way while at the same time, the complexities of our present struggles are analysed - and this too, possibly, helps bridge generational 'gaps' and misunderstandings.
AWID: This was the second regional YWLI, with the first being held in Cape Town, South Africa. What have the YWLI's achieved so far, and apart from practical skills, what are some of the other, unexpected outcomes that have resulted from the YWLI’s?
Shamillah: Firstly, we have learnt so much since that first YWLI in Cape Town. For example, the African regional YWLI was done by AWID alone. We organised the meeting, the funding and did the process all by ourselves. Also, in terms of the strategy session - we were not as focused as we were in the ones following that particular institute - so the plans that were developed by the participants were really broad and in some cases unable to be implemented. Following that experience, we then decided that if we are to really build on our work, we need to conduct National level institutes in the region.
So in 2004, we conducted a national YWLI in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia. What was important in how we did this was that we worked very closely with local partners and role-players in actually developing the process so that it was informed by what was happening at a policy and societal level in that particular country. In all cases, we also tried to ensure that one of our local partners was a young women's organisation - thus ensuring that there was a mechanism to continue or implement any of the follow up activities emerging from the institutes. It was through this process where we also developed the framework for the YWLI's and a manual is currently being compiled so that organisations can use it to run institutes in their own contexts without it necessarily being AWID.
For this YWLI in Bangkok, from the outset what happened was that as AWID we consulted some young women in the region (Anasuya, Jo and Tashia Petersen - Malaysia) to ask their advice on how we should proceed with a YWLI in the region. This group together with Everjoice Win (ActionAid) developed a framework for the YWLI. They also helped identify the partners for this particular Institute - we tried to identify those who were working in the region and also some national level feminist organisations who also had some focus on young women. So from this we came up with DAWN, ActionAid, CREA and Shirkat Gah, which meant that we had a wider resource pool in terms of experience and skills to draw on for the process and materials we put together for the Institute. The other great outcome is that CREA has now committed to organise the next YWLI in the region for 2006. Also - the involvement of Anasuya, Tashia and Jo ensures that there is access to mentorship for the participants as they move to implement the plans they set for themselves at the YWLI.
Some unexpected outcomes? For the Cape Town one, one of the young women from Liberia (who had been a refugee in Ghana) - returned to Liberia and she started up her own organisation working with young women. The participant from the Democratic Republic of Congo organised a training for young women in Congo last year and she is a member of the Young Women and Leadership Advisory Group. For the national YWLI's - Nigeria is in process of organising a follow-up for possibly early next year. Kenya is in the process of developing a follow-up and Zambia has already had a follow-up meeting for International Women's Day. So - it is ongoing and it is simply important for us to remain in touch with these young women and see what support they need to build on their work.
Jo: I have not been involved in the first YWLI held in Cape Town, so I can’t really talk about it. My involvement was in the conceptualization stage and actual conduct of the second YWLI that was recently held in Bangkok. On the whole, the YWLI in Bangkok was intellectually stimulating, intensely provocative, surprisingly creative, highly liberating and amazingly inspiring. Being amongst intelligent, committed, talented twenty-nine young women from different parts of the region is enough to inspire and affirm my belief that we can indeed make a difference.
What the YWLI did in Bangkok was akin to a drop in the bucket… there is more work ahead for the young women who participated in the institute and for me as well. The arena of struggle to advance women’s autonomy and rights is no longer confined within the personal, local and national boundaries, but has a global scope. The challenge now lies in sustaining the solidarity that we have forged, building on each other’s work and collectively endeavouring to claim our space within the feminist movement.
Presently, some of the young women participants are preparing to participate in the advocacy and campaigns action during the WTO Ministerial conference in Hong Kong this coming December.
Anasuya: I think one unexpected outcome is being able to reflect on how we ourselves have grown over the past two years! From Cape Town to Bangkok, we have come a long way as friends and comrades in our quest for personal happiness and political justice. The friendships that have evolved along the way (with the DAWN institute being another young women's institute that created many such relationships that are now overlapping into the AWID YWLIs) are not unexpected, but they are always inspiring, and in many ways, critical to our well-being. As many participants shared across the YWLIs, beyond the analysis and the reflection, is the comfort that despite our struggles in local contexts, we are 'not alone'. There are others who struggle alongside, who inspire and energise us. And best of all, are ready to party with us when the long day's work is done!
