Accra hosts two Australia Awards alumni workshops

From 20 to 23 May 2024 Accra in Ghana played host to two alumni workshops presented by the Australian High Commission in Accra and Australia Awards Africa. The Alumni Association Presidents of nine West African alumni associations (Burkina Faso, Core d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) and local Ghanaian alumni association members attended the Alumni Association Workshop on 20 and 22 May while Women in Leadership Network (WILN) representative from 24 African countries attended a two-day WILN Council Workshop on 23 and 24 May 2024.

Both groups joined staff from the Australian High Commission, Australia Awards, and other stakeholders for an evening networking reception on 21 May hosted by the Australian High Commissioner, H.E. Ms Berenice Owen Jones. The High Commissioner also officially opened both workshops on respectively 20 and 23 May.

West African Alumni Associations Workshop

The alumni association delegates listened to experts who talked about the writing of winning proposals, artificial intelligence at work and climate change and sustainability while other speakers provided their perspectives on leadership, self-leadership, and its application in practice. The President of the Burkina Faso Association, Mr Urbain Zoungrana shared his tips on sustainability and shared best practices from his association.

The alumni delegates enjoyed a sight-seeing tour of Accra with staff from the High Commission on conclusion of the workshop. This was followed by round-table discussions for the nine association Presidents hosted by the Australian High prior to the start of the evening reception.

WILN Council Workshop

For the first time ever, WILN representative from 24 countries gathered to deliberate about the formation of a WILN Council that will represent the different country WILN groups. The women discussed the strategic positioning of the Council, its purpose and objectives, approaches, and action plans to revitalise the respective country groups.

The purpose of the Council is to provide a platform for individual chapters to network and engage across the continent, to share best practice, lessons learned and to leverage a wider WILN and to revitalise WILN country groups across Africa. The Pan-African Council will play a key role in ensuring that all country chapters are working towards the same goals while creating a networking platform for all country chapters. The Council will advice Australia Awards Africa on specific approaches, events and capacity building needs while also providing entry points for success stories and other communication opportunities.

In between the strategy planning sessions, the alumnae were highly appreciative of the Keynote Speaker, Dr Georgette Barnes, who shared her insights on Understanding Pan-African Perspectives in Leadership. Another highlight was the high energy session by motivational speaker, businesswoman and Ghanaian television celebrity, Ms Oheneyere Gifty Anti who took part in a panel question and answering session with the workshop facilitator, Ms Nancy Biwott. Gifty Anti shared her views on the rallying of people towards a common purpose. This energetic session ended with spontaneous dancing and singing.

The workshop delegates also learned from their fellow alumni: On Day One, representatives, Dr Asma Wadh form Kenya and Ibiyemi Ibikule from Nigeria shared their WILN country group journeys, approaches, and successes while Mookho Motheo from Lesotho and Mbathio Ngom from Senegal shared tips on sustainability, building collaborations and resource mobilisation on Day Two.

The two-day workshop was concluded with presentations of implementation plan outlines and the election of a WILN Council Executive lead by Maureen Mwalabu from Malawi as chairperson and Renalda Mlay (Tanzania), as vice-chairperson. Other members of the executive are Evelina Kanenga – Finance (Namibia), Sharon Negsang – Sustainability (Cameroon) and Christine Logbo-Kosso – Communication and Public Relations (Cote d’Ivoire). This group will lead several technical working groups such as monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and mentorship, resource mobilisation, information, communication, and visibility where the rest of the Council members will provide their inputs.

If the buzz on the newly formed WILN Council WhatsApp group is anything to go by, the women left the workshop inspired and motivated and are already rallying the members of the WILN country chapters.