About Us

Kenyan-Georgia Exchange Promotes Women’s Participation in Leadership

Members of parliament from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, in addition to community advocates, were in attendance for a three-day symposium on women and leadership in Nairobi July 29–31. The Vinson Institute hosted the event during the final part of its exchange program entitled The Women of the Maasai: Empowerment and Networks project.

Participants in the symposium discussed the importance of elevating women to positions of leadership. They heard statistics and stories about the difficulties faced by African women as they pursue participation in decision making at local and national levels. The symposium focused on the situation of women from pastoral nomadic communities, like the Maasai in East Africa.

The Maasai culture is male dominated; women and girls have limited autonomy or access to education. For the past two years, the Vinson Institute has implemented the Women of the Maasai project in collaboration with the RETO Maasai Women Association. It has encouraged increased leadership among Maasai women through an exchange of women leaders between Georgia and Kenya. The intent of the cultural and professional exchange is to promote mutual learning and networking among participating Kenyan and American women.

The Nairobi symposium took place during a visit by 10 American women to different areas in Kenya. While there, the American women engaged in discussions with government officials as well as members of various organizations that are working to improve the status of women. Topic areas included leadership and governance, natural resource management and conservation, agriculture, health, entrepreneurship, education, and violence mitigation.

Prior to this visit, 14 Maasai women from the Rift Valley visited several Georgia cities for three weeks in March 2009, including Athens, Atlanta, Savannah, and LaGrange. They engaged in seminars aimed at enhancing their skills in such areas as public speaking, lobbying and advocacy, grant writing, ethics, media, violence mitigation, conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship. In addition, they participated in discussions with American business and government leaders, many of them women.

Similar exchanges occurred in 2008.