Jumuiya Women Fund (JWF) recently concluded a transformative five-day training for its board members and senior management, focusing on feminist leadership, core values, principles, resource mobilization, corporate governance, and strategic management. This crucial training marks a pivotal step in JWF’s journey toward institutional strengthening and capacity building, reinforcing its mission as an indigenous women’s rights fund in East Africa.

Feminist Leadership: Anchoring JWF’s Vision

At the heart of this joint training was the emphasis on feminist leadership, a model that aligns with JWF’s mission to empower women and girls. Feminist leadership goes beyond traditional power dynamics, fostering collaboration, inclusivity, and shared decision-making. By training both board members and staff together, JWF ensured that the entire organization is aligned with these leadership principles. This alignment is critical in promoting a culture where diverse voices are heard, leadership is shared, and decisions are made through a feminist lens.

The training highlighted the importance of intersectionality, where JWF board and management explored how different forms of discrimination, including gender, race, and socio-economic status, interact. This understanding is essential for JWF as it continues to advance its agenda of gender equality and social justice in East Africa.

Core Values and Principles: Strengthening Organizational Identity

For any organization to thrive, a clear understanding and commitment to its core values and principles is essential. JWF’s joint training focused on reaffirming and deepening the understanding of the fund’s guiding values, including inclusivity, transparency, accountability, and a rights-based approach to philanthropy.

By collectively revisiting these values, both the board and management team solidified their commitment to ensuring that all programs, partnerships, and advocacy efforts reflect these ideals. This shared vision is crucial for maintaining organizational coherence and ensuring that JWF’s work continues to be grounded in its feminist and social justice mission.

Resource Mobilization: Driving Sustainability for the Next Phase

In today’s challenging financial environment, resource mobilization is critical for the sustainability of organizations like JWF. As JWF moves into a new phase of institutional strengthening, building financial resilience and securing diverse funding streams are top priorities. The training equipped both the board and senior staff with cutting-edge strategies for resource mobilization, ensuring that they are well-positioned to secure funding from both local and global donors.

A key component of the training focused on the power of partnerships and collaborative funding approaches, especially in feminist philanthropy. Participants explored innovative fundraising methods, such as impact investing and leveraging digital platforms for mobilizing resources. These strategies are instrumental for JWF as it aims to deepen its financial independence and amplify its impact.

Corporate Governance: Enhancing Accountability and Decision-Making

Sound corporate governance is the backbone of any successful organization. For JWF, which operates in a complex and evolving socio-political environment, good governance is essential to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective decision-making. This training was particularly timely, as JWF embarks on its new strategic phase to solidify its role as a leading indigenous women’s rights fund in the region.

Participants were trained on best practices in corporate governance, with a focus on the roles and responsibilities of the board, financial oversight, and risk management. By strengthening governance structures, JWF is ensuring that it can effectively manage its resources, navigate challenges, and continue delivering impactful programs that benefit women and girls.

Strategic Management: Building a Future-Focused Organization

The joint training on strategic management was designed to equip JWF’s leadership team with the skills and tools needed to steer the organization through its next phase of growth. As JWF aims to become a more agile and responsive organization, strategic planning and management are essential in adapting to emerging challenges and opportunities.

The training sessions focused on long-term planning, scenario analysis, and fostering a culture of continuous learning. JWF’s leadership team now has a robust framework for setting and achieving ambitious goals, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to changing external dynamics. This is particularly important as JWF seeks to scale its programs and influence feminist philanthropy across East Africa.

Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building: The Road Ahead

This joint training marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for JWF. The organization is not only reaffirming its feminist identity but also building the internal capacity needed to sustain and scale its operations. By investing in the professional development of both the board and staff, JWF is laying the foundation for long-term success.

The training underscores JWF’s commitment to being a strong, independent, and locally led women’s rights fund. As an indigenous fund, JWF is uniquely positioned to understand the specific challenges faced by women and girls in East Africa. The knowledge gained from this training will enhance JWF’s ability to drive meaningful social change, build powerful partnerships, and secure the resources needed to empower women and girls.

The training featured dynamic ice-breaker sessions and engaging aptitude tests that fostered a collaborative atmosphere among board members and staff. These activities helped participants connect on a personal level, breaking down hierarchical barriers and promoting team cohesion. A particularly insightful session involved board and staff working together to build visual models of Jumuiya Women Fund’s (JWF) vision for the future. Each group presented their interpretation of JWF’s long-term impact, creatively illustrating how they see the organization evolving to further empower women and girls in East Africa. These sessions not only enhanced communication but also provided fresh perspectives on JWF’s strategic direction.

The board and staff joint training on feminist leadership, core values, resource mobilization, corporate governance, and strategic management is a critical investment in JWF’s future. As the organization moves forward, this training will ensure that JWF is equipped with the skills, strategies, and shared vision needed to advance its mission of gender equality and socio-economic empowerment.

By focusing on both institutional strengthening and capacity building, JWF is positioning itself as a leading force in feminist philanthropy, driving sustainable change for women and girls in East Africa.