Campaign Management Workshops

Campaign Management Workshops focus on training trainers how to train others to run for elected office and are conducted in partnership with local non-government organizations around the world. The workshops are designed to train women leaders in the technical skills of standing for elected office, managing campaigns and advocating for issues and include a component on the strategic use of technology. Workshop participants are established leaders representing all sectors of the economy with an interest in elected offices. 

Social Innovators Workshops

Social Innovators Workshops are designed to build and strengthen civil society and the civic engagement skills of women leaders in new and emerging democracies. Partnering with local non-government organizations, IWDC works to train community-based leaders with tools in voter education, media, advocacy and transparency in government.

Where We Work and What We've Done

IWDC is working with the African Institute of Democracy in Dakar, Senegal to establish a regional training center. The Center will train women in nine countries in West Africa how to run for elected office for upcoming elections over the next five years. The Center will also train women leaders in policy development, legislative analysis and constituent services to ensure that they have the necessary tools to serve in public office. 

IWDC met with representatives of business, religious organizations, government associations, societies and community-based leaders in Kuwait to lay the groundwork for a long-term program designed to train women how to fully engage in civil society. In partnership with the Kuwaiti Graduate Society, IWDC will lead workshops training women how to advocate for issues central to the mission of their organizations and how to train others. 

IWDC is training women from Northern Ireland to be community-based leaders with the skills to lobby their new assembly and to advocate for issues critical to their communities through the Community Advocate Mentor Program. 

IWDC began a three-year partnership with the National Women's Association in Haiti to prepare women at the national and local levels to run for elected office. The first training workshop for women candidates focused on topics such as message development, message delivery, election law and fundraising. 

IWDC partnered with Emang Basadi, the National Women's Association in Botswana, to facilitate a three-year campaign management and development workshop to increase the number of women candidates for general elections. IWDC facilitated a campaign management training for 35 women representing nine political parties, women candidates for parliament increased from 3 to 11 and women candidates for local council increased from 70 to 159.

IWDC opened a regional office in Ankara, Turkey to serve as a focal point in the Middle East to train women leaders in campaign management skills in the Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. IWDC facilitated workshops in Turkey for 76 women leaders from 12 regions throughout the country focusing on leadership skills and strategies for increasing the participation of women in senior-level policy and decision-making.

Sixty-five women from 12 countries in Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania and Cyprus) gathered at Cambridge University for an IWDC-led workshop on developing national strategies to increase the number of women in policy and decision-making roles within their own governments.