On August 22-24, a three-day workshop to improve South Asian community advocates’ leadership skills was conducted by APCOM in Bangkok. Titled “Developing Effective Leaders Resulting to Good Governance”, the workshop was attended by 29 HIV service delivery project managers and officers from nine community organisations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Nepal under Multi-country South Asia Global Fund HIV Programme (MSA).
Collaborating with leadership experts Evangeline Weiss and Malavika Thorudike, APCOM designed the workshop’s curricula to centre around increasing the participants’ leadership capacities, regardless of the level of experience they brought to the workshop. The agenda of the workshop is based on the Evangeline Weiss Consulting‘s Four Pillars of Effective Leadership, which encompass the following set of leadership credibility:
- Increased self-awareness about power dynamics and identity, personal values, self-care needs, and leadership visions.
- Increased comfort and confidence with conflict and management skills such as giving instructions and feedback, strategic planning, and giving and receiving feedback.
- Built collective sense of identity among participants as sexual minorities from across the region that encourages peer mentorship and support during and after the program.
- Integrated experiential learning and teaching into the participants’ day-to-day work.
