UNESCO Participation Program: 2nd round of National Workshops on Empowering Women for Leadership Roles in Academia
On October 18-20, 2023, ADA University Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD) successfully conducted the second round of National Workshops on Empowering Women for Leadership Roles in Academia.
On October 18-20, 2023, ADA University Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD) successfully conducted the second round of National Workshops on Empowering Women for Leadership Roles in Academia. The workshop was conducted under UNESCO’s Participation Programme (2022-2023), which supports activities of the Member States that are in line with the Organization's programme priorities. The National Workshops on Empowering Women for Academic Leadership Roles have been a yearlong initiative of the IDD EU Program that was successful in gaining funding from the UNESCO Participation Program. Two rounds of National Workshops and three fellowships gaining opportunities for mid-level academic and staff professionals from HEIs in Azerbaijan have been implemented within the initiative.
Program Objectives
Under the overall objective of contributing to UNESCO’s one of the major global priorities (gender equality), the specific objectives of the program are:
· to equip participants with professional skills set focused on developing leadership competency among academic and administrative female mid-level managers
· to promote gender balance in higher education institution leadership and decision-making
· to set a platform for professional skills and educational networking to address the systemic challenges impacting women in academia and higher education.
Participants of the program represented 12 Higher Education Institutions from Azerbaijan, holding academic and administrative mid-level positions.
The workshop topics included communication skills, motivation skills, public speaking, and presentation skills, meetings with women holding leading positions in academic entities; roundtable discussions on gender equality in academia; and participation of women in decision-making at all levels.
It is worth mentioning that in March 2023, the first round of National Workshops on Empowering Women for Leadership Roles in Academia was successfully organized by the Institute for Development and Diplomacy at ADA University. During three full training days, 35 representatives from various Higher Education Institutes in Baku upgraded their skills and knowledge in various areas.
The first and second rounds of the National Workshop aimed to develop leadership and professional development skills among academic and administrative female mid-level managers with the aim of promoting gender equity in leadership and building a pipeline for executive positions in universities.
