Hajiya Bilkisu (MNI)
20 November 2008
Last week, from November 10-15 2008 a capacity building workshop was organised for emerging leaders from various Non-Governmental Organisations on leadership and reproductive health. It was preceded by an earlier one organised for trainers between October 27- 31. The workshops were part of the activities organised by a group transformative leaders from Nigeria.
The Transformative Leaders Initiative (TLI) was developed in 2006 by a group of civil society leaders who were trained by the California Based International Health Programme (IHP) which has been training leaders from different parts of the world. Other countries from where the transformative leaders were drawn include Ethiopia, Philippines, Pakistan and India. The transformative leaders from Nigeria are, Dr Safiya Mohammed, a Permanent Secretary in the Federal civil service, Malam Shehu Mohammad Makarfi, the Provost, College of Health Technology, Dr Mairo Mandara a consultant gynaecologist, Dr Moji Odeku, a Director in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Yahaya Hashim Executive Director of the Development Research and Project Coordination Centre DRPC and my humble self. After their training, the leaders from Nigeria developed an action plan to promote leadership development among a crop of young people who have the potential to initiate and promote social development and catalyse change in their communities especially in Northern Nigeria where the incidence of maternal and child mortality is very high. The leadership training was facilitated by the Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences and Technology SICHST in Makarfi, Kaduna State. Funding was secured to organise a train the trainers TOT workshop for leaders most of whom were earlier trained under the Leadership Development Mechanism LDM and the Visionary Leaders Programme VLP funded by the Packard Foundation. After the TOT, another step down training was organised specifically for twenty five young and emerging leaders that are currently working in the various fields of reproductive health in Northern Nigeria.
The objectives of the training, among others, are to build the capacity of organisations engaged in Reproductive Health (RH) through training their young ones; and to empower individuals and institutions with leadership skills in RH.
The trainings were designed to actualise the above objectives through improving the knowledge, skill and to effect attitudinal change with the aim of reducing the high maternal and infant mortality in Northern Nigeria. Young leaders were taken through major issues in RH components, communication, advocacy and various leadership skills required in project development and implementation in a culturally sensitive environment. Most of the workshop participant were young people within the age of 20-30 years of age, and belonged to Nigerian Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Student Organizations, Faith Based Organizations FBOs. Youth managed and youth serving organizations. Middle level managers of the above organizations are also included among the participants. Malam Shehu Makarfi and my humble self facilitated the training on behalf of the transformative leaders.
The TOT which held at ABANTU for Development Kaduna was designed to produce master trainers in Reproductive Health who will be able to train others.
It had various sessions on how to organise participatory training, who is a leader, a comparative analysis of management and leadership styles, introduction to gender, mainstreaming gender in organisations, constructive feedback, group dynamics, conducting advocacy, managing change, appreciative inquiry, strategic fund raising, proposal writing, and action planning .The other segment of the manual focused on introduction to reproductive health and its components, population and development, the international conferences and conventions that are reproductive health related such as the International Conference on Population and Development ICPD and the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
Being a participatory training, participants were divided into groups after some of the sessions and given group assignments to undertake after which the groups reported to the plenary session and handouts were distributed to enhance learning. One of the handouts the participants discussed at length was the one that defined reproductive health and its components. The UN International Conference on Population and Development defined Reproductive Health (RH) as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters related to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes". RH centres on human needs and development and it is envisaged as an entire life cycle concept "from womb to tomb". Reproductive Health (RH) covers a broad range of services such as: safe delivery and post-natal care, education services for pre-natal care, infant and women's healthcare, family-planning counseling, information, education, communication and services, prevention and treatment of infertility, prevention and treatment of infections, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, breast cancers and cancers of the reproductive system and other reproductive health conditions; active discouragement of harmful traditional practices, such as female genital cutting."
"Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community".
During the session on population and development, some of the participants said they had not engaged with the MDGs and were not conversant with its goals. The facilitator therefore took an extra time to dwell on its eight goals and how achieving their targets could do to transform the lives of people in Nigeria. Adopted by the United Nations in September 2000, the Millennium Development Goals. MDGs aim to reduce poverty in the world by half on or before 2015, an agenda that compliments the Vision 2010 that had been developed in Nigeria. The MDGs has eight components and targets to be delivered were articulated. The goals are as follows: Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education. Goal 3 Promote gender equality and empower women, Goal 4 Reduce child mortality. Goal 5 Improve maternal health. Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Goal 7 Ensure environmental sustainability and Goal 8 Develop a global partnership for development. The various targets set under the goals were meticulously presented but space constraint would prevent their reproduction here.
The session on managing change began with a group work. Participants were asked to leave the training room and in their absence, the room was disorganized. Chairs and tables were moved around and their work book placed in entirely different places where they had to go around looking for them. They were then asked to return to the hall. The facilitator then began the session by asking them how they felt and what change meant to them. The session generated some interesting discussions as participants shared their experiences with implementing change in their organisations. The handouts on change made it clear that change is an inevitable process in life and outlined the various guidelines for managing change in organisations. It states that 'all organisations have to change if they are to develop and grow. However, change is often a difficult process and many people can be very resistant to change at first. This is particularly true of change which involves transforming attitudes, values and beliefs - in fact, in organisational terms the organisations culture. Formulating strategies for change is relatively straightforward.
(To be continued)
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