In the beginning of April, our regional gender specialist in Mozambique Elisa Matola organized a training with the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Manica that focused on specific challenges a woman faces when it comes to leadership.   

The title of the training was: “Gender and Power Relations, Leadership and Freedom”   

During the training, the goal was to try to understand what leadership means and how it relates to freedom and female empowerment. A highly interesting and important topic, especially when it comes to gender equity and power relations. Among other things, there were very interesting discussions about the need for transformative leadership which engages people (regardless of gender) with a feminist perspective and vision of social justice. We need people to transform themselves individually and collectively to use their power, resources, and skills in structures and processes in a non-oppressive and inclusive way. In short: there is a need for feminist transformative leaders who seek to mobilize others around a shared agenda of social, cultural, economic, and political transformation towards equality and the realization of human rights for all. The next step is finding specific and practical ways to find, shape, and support these leaders. 

Elisa Matola is an emergent gender specialist with strong expertise in organisational and institutional change. She works together with and for the government, NGOs, Civil Society and other groups with different backgrounds on the empowerment and promotion of women’s rights and capacity. We are very happy with Elisa as our regional gender specialist in Mozambique!

Stay tuned to hear more about Elisa’s activities and our other ongoing projects!