AIDS Leadership

Advancing Women’s Leadership and Advocacy for AIDS Action is an initiative to equip and empower a cadre of women from around the world with the knowledge and skills to strengthen and lead the global response to AIDS.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, it brings together leading global agencies including CEDPA and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) and UNAIDS-led Global Coalition on Women and AIDS.

The initiative includes: 1) a training component led by CEDPA and its partners; and 2) a small grants program led by the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS.

Women’s Leadership in HIV/AIDS Nigeria Workshop
Date: Aug. 25 – Sept. 12, 2008
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Application Deadline: May 8, 2008

Workshop Overview | Eligibility | Costs| Application

The world has never had a more pressing need to involve women in the fight against AIDS. Worldwide, 17.5 million women are living with HIV, and three out of four live in sub-Saharan Africa. Young women age 15 to 24 in sub-Saharan Africa are three times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men of that age. More than half of all adults living with HIV in the Caribbean are women, and new HIV infections among women are rising rapidly in Asia and elsewhere.

Overview The Nigeria workshop is the first country-level workshop conducted under the Advancing Women's Leadership and Advocacy for AIDS Action initiative. It follows three workshops already conducted under this initiative:

A master trainer workshop in March 2007 in Washington, DC to train 21 Women’s Leadership in HIV/AIDS master trainers,
A global workshop in July 2007 in Washington, DC for 23 women leaders from 20 countries, and
An African regional workshop in April 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya for 24 women leaders from 5 African countries.

The goal of the Nigeria workshop is to build the leadership, advocacy and technical expertise of women—particularly HIV positive women—who are working on the frontlines in the fight against AIDS throughout Nigeria.

The workshop will be conducted by the Africa regional master trainers in collaboration with CEDPA. The three-week workshop is intensive and highly participatory, providing a supportive learning environment for exchange of best practices and experiences, technical depth, strategy development and skill building. The workshop offers country-specific technical knowledge on the epidemic and its impact on various populations, and highlights successful approaches to HIV prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, care and support, and access and adherence to antiretroviral treatment. Participants will develop a greater appreciation for their individual leadership styles and capabilities and enhance their program management, financial sustainability and advocacy competencies.

Key topics to be addressed in the workshop include:

Dimensions of Leadership — identify and strengthen personal and professional leadership traits to design and implement institutional, community, and national responses.
Policy Analysis and Advocacy — understand policy making processes and the impact of policy on HIV programs, services and rights; enhance advocacy skills; and develop national and/or state level advocacy strategies.
Program Management — develop and apply techniques and tools for effective program management.
Financial Management — improve project budgeting and financial analysis skills.
Strategic Communications — understand and apply strategic communication techniques to educate, motivate, and mobilize communities, decision makers, and institutions for change.
Fundraising – strengthen donor relations skills; learn strategies for effective fundraising; develop tools to improve the proposal development process.
Gender and HIV/AIDS — explore the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls; examine global, regional and country level responses, and develop strategies for integrating gender into HIV/AIDS programs and policies.
HIV/AIDS Technical Updates — examine, analyze and develop strategies to adapt or replicate successful, cutting edge program approaches in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

Participants The Nigeria Women’s Leadership in HIV/AIDS workshop is designed for early to mid-career women from NGOs, PLWHA organizations, government, the private sector and political institutions who work in HIV/AIDS programs at community, district, state or national levels. Women with a commitment to building women’s leadership in HIV/AIDS and who meet the following criteria will be considered:

Current staff or volunteer working with government or non-governmental organizations or networks at the community, district, state or national level in the field of HIV/AIDS,
A minimum of 2 years experience working in HIV/AIDS program management and/or advocacy,
Demonstrated commitment to HIV/AIDS programming or advocacy that positively impacts women and girls,
Demonstrated commitment to meaningfully involve women living with HIV/AIDS, and
Demonstrated motivation or ability to bring about change at the community, district, state or national level.

The workshop will be conducted in English and selected applicants must be highly proficient in written and spoken English.

Training Program Costs If selected for the program, participants' tuition, travel and per diem costs will be fully covered.

Application Form You can download the application in Word or PDF.