LEADERSHIP AND DEBATE CLUBFunded by the British Embassy in Ethiopia

2013-2014

In October 2013, CCL, with the support of Brit-ish Embassy, launched six all female Leader-ship and Debate Clubs to universities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of these Lead-ership and Debate Clubs was to create a safe, nurturing, dynamic and self-sustaining space in which young women could develop confidence in themselves as individuals and active mem-bers of society. With time and further devel-opment, these clubs can ultimately create a culture of leadership and debate among young university women, strengthening the voice and democratic values of an important and yet often overlooked demographic of society.

The report comes follwoing the completion of the first year of the Leadership and Debate Clubs and aims to highlight the impacts of the program as well as lesssons learned and con-cluding recommendations for future programs such as this one.

Findings Summary Thus far the Leadership and Debate Clubs have been met with success. While developing a widespead culture of leadership and debate within participating universities will take time, all the club’s specific program goals were met

within the first year. The young women participants demon-strated increased self-awareness, self-esteem, confi-dence, willingness to share ideas, and com-fort speaking in public and asking questions. The clubs hosted a to-tal of 12 debates over a 6 month period and the participants cited the benefits of having a broader profes-sional network, stron-

ger support system in school and increased ability to think and plan ahead, specifically in regards to time management. Perhaps, most importantly, the clubs show promise for future sustainability; when interviewed, nearly all the girls expressed a strong interest in continuing to participant and run the club during the following school year.

The challenges encountered throughout the clubs this year were relatively minor and easy to deal with. Participants and mentees alike struggled with time management, scheduling, delayed start dates, dealing appropriately with exam periods, finding consistent classroom spaces and low energy levels during meeting times. Many of these minor difficults however pushed the girls to work together more closely and establish early on new standards for how the clubs would be run.

Looking forward, we recommend that new iterations of this program focus on providing the resources and skills necessary to ensure that the participants will be capable to successful-ly continue running the clubs by themselves. Additionally, more attention can be given to anticipating scheduling conflicts, providing more training workshops and opportunities for the girls to bond outside the classroom, and keeping energy levels high during lunch time meetings.

INTRODUCTION

In Ethiopia, young women from all back-grounds frequently experience challenges that distort their self-perception and pre-vent them from reaching their full potential. Whether a girl is from a rich or poor family, a rural or an urban community, she is equally vulnerable to isolation and the restrictive - of-ten damaging - socio-cultural norms, prac-tices, attitudes and beliefs about what it is to be a girl. As in elsewhere in the world, wealth, education and class cannot guarantee protection against the discrimination, gen-der-based violence and deprivation that girls may suffer, simply because they are girls.

One of the most effective ways to combat these issues is to work closely with young women to provide spaces in which they can build networks and support systems, sur-round themselves by positive role models, develop their voice and take an active role in creating a more inclusive and equal society. Helping girls to build confidence and change the ways in which they think about them-selves and one another allows them to ques-tion their place in society, take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them and make the most of the activities in which they are engaged.

To provide exactly this community, CCL, with the help of the British Embassy, has worked with eight university campuses in Addis Aba-ba to create six self-sustaining young wom-en’s Leadership and Debate Clubs. Building on its very successful 2012-2013 Social Innovation Mentoring (SIM) pilot at the EiABC campus in Lideta, CCL’s new program has increased reach and offers the young women who graduated from the SIM pilot the chance to share what they learned with others.

CCL sees ongoing leadership development and debate at the university level as an opportunity to build a community of young women that are thought leaders, uniquely po-sitioned to use their education and voice to inspire and affect positive change. Young women engaged in the Leadership and Debate Clubs will build the con-fidence, self-awareness, resilience and commu-nication skills needed to make the life choices that will allow them to

become models of what it means to be a woman in Ethiopia.

Most importantly, establishing a safe, nur-turing and inspiring space that encourages young women to think and speak freely helps to create a culture in which they are accepted as leaders, innovators, and socially-minded entrepreneurs. These spaces can offer young women, ready and able to initiate meaningful dialog among their peers, the opportunity to strengthen the democratic values in an often overlooked demographic.

BACKGROUND

PROGRAM GOALSMission: To create a culture of leadership and debate among younguniversity women.

Objective: To create a safe, nurturing, dynamic and self-sustaining space in which young university women can develop confi-dence in themselves as individuals and active members of society.

Specific Program Goals:• Improved self-awareness, self-esteem

and perceptions of individuality in order to improve participants’ well-being and leadership status

• Increased self-confidence and willingness to share ideas

• Improved understanding of how to articu-late an argument or debate

• Access and inspiration from NGO’s, entre-preneurs, innovators, an creative person-alities

• Improved verbal and non-verbal communi-cation skills for leadership

• Ongoing forums that facilitate ideation and debate among young women in university

• Increased networking and support for young women vulnerable to dropping out of university

• Help participants create a vision for the future by building solidarity and enhancing young womens’ sense of self-worth

• Increased ability to think and plan ahead

WHO, WHAT, WHENWhen: Leadership and Debate Clubs began to meet in mid/late Oc-tober and ran until the end of March. Although the clubs were originally intended to begin in September, the program start date was significantly delayed because the universities’ official start dates for the 2013-2014 school year were pushed back by nearly 2 months.

Who: Clubs were made up of 20-25 1st, 2nd and 3rd year female universi-ty students. Participants were drawn from 8 universities, 5 of which were public and 3 of which were private, and were selected for their demon-strated interest and enthusiasm to participant in the program. Clubs were formed mostly within single universities however, Arat Kilo and Amist Kilo University shared one club between the two schools as did Sidist Kilo and Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) University. In total, this made for 6 clubs with over 120 participants.

The list of participating universities includes:

• Arat Kilo• Amist Kilo• Sidist Kilo• Faculty of Business and Econom-ics (FBE)• Ethiopian Institute of Architecture Building Construction (EiABC)• Hope University College • Admas University College • Unity University

What: Each Leadership and Debate Club was run by 3-4 young women who had previously graduated from CCL’s successful 2012-2013 Social Innovation Mentoring (SIM) pilot pro-gram at the EiABC campus in Lideta. The clubs met once a week during a time chosen by group consensus and participated in a number of different activities throughout the programs’ duration. The Master Mentors also met before the start of the school year to prepare for the prorgram and once a month while the clubs were in session to discuss and find solutions to the common challenges.

Weekly Lunch and Learns:Every week each Leadership and Debate Club hosted one or more guest speaker to share their experiences with the group of young women. The guest speakers came from all walks of life, but whether they were entrepreneurs, volunteers, professors, or artists, they always provided the group with a pos-itive and new reflection of what suc-cessful women can and do look like.

Monthly Debates:On the last Saturday of every month, each Leadership and Debate Club had the opportunity to debate a club from a different university. Through these small events, the girls were able to practice formulating and communicat-ing an argument and speaking in front of others in a safe and comfortable environment. The Master Mentors were also able to provide valuable support and feedback to the girls on how to improve their presentation, delivery and argument.

Leadership Training:The Master Mentors led their Leader-ship and Debate Clubs through CCL’s highly effective and culturally tailored 2-day Leadership Essentials Training workshop. During the workshop, the girls discussed communication, trust, leadership, time management and bonded in a ways that wouldn’t be possible in a normal social setting. The trainings also provided the Master Mentors with the opportunity to improve their own facilitation and mentoring skills.

Volunteering:Girls from the Leadership and Debate Clubs vol-unteered with Elilta, an NGO located in Addis Ababa that provides training and rehabilitation for former female prostitutes. The girls worked mostly

tutoring and mentoring the young chil-dren of the women undergoing training with Elilta’s rehabilitiation program.

Public Debates in Hawassa and at National Theater:

Representatives from the six Leader-ship and Debate Clubs participated in three large public debates: the first at Unity University in Addis Ababa, the second at Hawassa University in the Southern Nations Nationalities and People region, and the third at Ethio-pia’s National Theater in Addis Ababa. These larger debates gave the girls the opportunity to put what they’d learned to the test and defend an argument in

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

ASSESSMENT

One of CCL’s top priorities is to ensure that the work and projects we support have pos-itive, sustainable and the intended impacts for all of our beneficiaries. We use creative and innovative assessment tools to evaluate the impacts of our programs and gather a clear understanding of the ways in which we can improve ourselves as a consultancy.For the Leadership and Debate Clubs we used a mix of qualitative and semi-qualita-tive methods to evaluate how well we ful-filled the program’s initial objectives and to better understand the specific impact these clubs had on the lives of the young women we worked with.

Post Program Paper Evaluation:CCL used a post-program paper reflection form to capture an understanding of partic-ipant’s self-perceptions as well as assess their perceived degree of change in 6 focal areas. The reflection forms were distribut-ed by an external evaluator and filled out anonymously by a random selection of 49 participants from 3 different universities.The paper evaluations took approximately 15-25 minutes to complete and included 3 free response questions and 6 areas

in which participants were able to rank themselves 1-10 according to how they perceived themselves before and after the program.

The free response questions:1. How would you describe yourself to your best friend?2. What makes a good leader? Do you see yourself as a leader? Why or why not?3. How do you think this program has af-fected your life and your idea of who you are and what can you do?

Self-Ranking:Please rank yourself in the following areas according to how you felt before you began the program and after:

• Self-esteem• Comfort asking a professional a ques-tion• Comfort speaking in front of others• Ability to form an argument• Support you feel in your university• Control you feel you have over your life

Head/Heart/Feet/Trash:After completing the paper reflection forms, the girls were broken up into two or three groups and, sticking post-it notes on large poster paper, answered four general ques-tions:

Head: What have I learned from my time in this program?Heart: How have I felt throughout the program?Feet: What will I walk away with or feel inspired to go do now?Trash: What part of the program would I throw away or change?

Focus Group Interviews:Small focus group interviews were conduct-ed with small, randomly selected groups of 4-6 mentees and Master Mentors. These discussions gave participants a chance to speak freely and openly about specific pro-gram details that could not be addressed through the other evaluation tools. The focus group discussions were led a female external evaluator and conducted at CCL during times that were chosen by the partic-ipants.

Participants saw a 60% increase in perceived change of self.

IMPACTS AND FINDINGS

5! 4.8! 5! 5.1! 5.2!5.7!

8.2!7.8!

8.2! 7.9! 8.1! 8.3!

Self Esteem! Comfort Asking a Question!

Comfort Speaking in

Public!

Ability to Form an Argument!

Sense of Community

Support!

Sense of Agency!

Participant Perceived Change in Self!

The way in which we perceive ourselves directly impacts our behaviors and the ways in which we interact with our sur-roundings. There is no easy or unbiased way to measure things such as confidence, self-esteem, comfort levels, and sense of agency. However, if we believe that we are more confident - then we usually are. And we if we feel more comfortable speaking in public - then it is most likely true.

Understanding this, we asked the girls to evaluate the change they saw in them-selves in six focal areas of the program: Self-Esteem, Comfort Asking Questions, Comfort Speaking in Public, Ability to Form an Argument, Sense of Community Support, and Sense of Agency.

What did youlearn?

What will you walk away

with or feelinspired to go

do now?

What part would you

throw away or do

differently?

IMPACTS AND FINDINGS

Improved t

ime

managementTo be

more

punctual!

It’s easier

for me to

talk about myself

I have a

VOICE

!

STRONG

. CONFI

DENT

I learned that it’s not so scary to

talk in front of people

I feel inspiredto volunteer

Meetings often

didn’t finish on time

I hate th

at the

classroo

m changed

all the t

ime

Sometimes it washard to concentrateduring lunch time

and I wouldfeel tired

What did youfeel?

I feel less shythan before I f

eel m

ore

posit

ive!

I have a widernetwork now

I feel more

confident

I enjoyed the games!

It feel more comfortable communicating

I hope to continue

participating in the

club next school year!

I don’

t want

to st

op

this c

lub, ev

en if

fundin

g run

s out

we’ll

keep i

t goin

g next

year.

Speaking with the Master Mentors provided an excellent opportunity to learn from a different perspective what were the strengths of the program and what areas could be improved.

The SIM girls’ feedback on the program and their experiences as Master Mentors was largely very positive. One girl exclaimed during a focus group interview,

The Master Mentors stressed the way in which their own skills and ability to lead became strengthened through the process of manag-ing the Leadership and Debate Clubs. Many of the mentors explained that managing the program and, more specifically, the relation-ships between the mentees was challenging at the beginning. The participants came from a number of different studies, had conflict-ing schedules and were varying in age and university level. It was not easy to bring the

girls together and create the type of camara-derie that had come more naturally in the pilot SIM program. Nevertheless, each and every Master Mentor that we interviewed referenced the amazing bond they witnessed between the girls at the end of the program.

Seeing this happen was in large part the result of Master Mentors consistently working be-yond the scope of their assigned responsibil-ities to help the girls work through their differ-ences to find points of connections and take extra time when necessary to meet outside the clubs. As one mentor explained, “Some girls had more burdens than others, what with out-side jobs or difficulties with transport. But in the end we had to work it out. Everyone had strengths to bring to the table and it was just about finding what those were.”

Challenges:• Time Management: Both Master

Mentors and participants were forced improve their time management skills in order to effectively juggle their responsibil-ities with the Leadership and Debate Club and their studies.

• Energy Levels: Participants often felt tired or sluggish during meetings held at lunch time or early before school.

• Late start date: Universities began nearly 2 months later than originally ex-pected, thus shortening the length of the Leadership and Debate Clubs and caus-ing confusion at the start of the program.

• Finding a Space: Many clubs did not have a classroom or designated space that they were able to use consistently for their weekly meetings.

• Exam Periods: Clubs always took breaks during university exam periods to give the students time to focus on their studies. These breaks however, made it difficult to maintain consistent energy lev-els throughout the school year.

• Scheduling: Given the different univer-sity levels and schedules of the partici-pants, it was often difficult to find a time in which all participatnts from the clubs could meet

IMPACTS AND FINDINGS

“I felt inspired from the first moment that I saw that girls until the last time I watched them debate at the National Theater.”

IMPACTS AND FINDINGS On March 8th, CCL organized a final debate with representatives from all 8 universities to discuss:

Sexual harassment: Is it about Sex or Power?

The debate was held at the National Theater and brought nearly 1000 audience members to the venue.The event gave the young women an opportunity to test their skills and demonstrate their awareness in a challenging environment.

Most importantly the event enabled us to engage in conversation with a larger audience and watch how one discussion can raise awareness, introduce new ideas and pose new concerns. We were sur-prised to see not only how new the topic was new to most audience members but also how engaged they became as the debate progressed, asking questions, giving feedback and challenging the ideas presented.

This event allowed CCL to see how small events can stimulate larger effects within communities and pose new ideas and concerns.

81% said new ideas were raised for them.

78% still said that the debate raised new ideas for them.

76%  

24%  

Of the 88 who said they had discussed the topic before...!Of the 88 people who said they had

discussed the topic before...

81%  

19%  

Of the 139 who had never discussed the topic before...!

Of the 139 people who said they had never discussed the topic before...

Using Debate to Raise Awareness and Begin Discussions:!

Only 39% of respondents said they had discussed the topic before

61% of respon-dents said

they had never discussed the root causes for sexual harass-ment before

Using Debate to Ask New Questions and Pose New Ideas

and Concerns!

79% of the 227 respondents said that the

debate raised for them new

questions, ideas and/or concerns

Just 48 people or the 21% of

the respondents said that the

debate did not raise any new

questions, ideas and/or concerns

• More focus should given to sus-tainability:

Having gone through the intensive SIM pilot program the year prior, the Master Mentors were exemplary at providing the necessary structure and guidance to the mentees. However, the participants of the Leadership and Debate Clubs were relatively dependent on the leadership of the Master Mentors and there were few opportunities for them to prac-tice organizing their own events or employing their leadership skills within the clubs. Fu-ture programs could introduce a transitional period in which the participants begin to coordinate their own guest speaks, volunteer opportunities and debates. This will give the participants an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned as well as increase participant accountability and ensure future club sustainability. Guidelines could also be developed to help other universities that ex-press interest develop their own Leadership and Debate Club.

• Anticipate scheduling conflicts:A common frustration articulated by the Master Mentors and club participants was that scheduling remained a conflict through-

out the entire program. Many of the clubs struggled to find a suitable classroom that was available every single week and it was common for the clubs to meet in a different space every meeting. In future programs more needs to be done to work with admin-istration or professors to find a classroom or space that will work consistently for the entire program duration.

• Bring or provide snacks:Weekly club meetings were usually held at lunch time, making it hard for the girls to concentrate. A simple but easy solution for future programs is to organize the provision of small snacks to help keep the girls alert.

• More training workshops:There was only one 2-day leadership train-ing workshop conducted for each club but many girls cited it as an highlight of their experience and an important learning mo-ment for them. Similarly, the Master Mentors expressed a strong interest in facilitating more training workshops so that the girls would have more time to cover topics outside of basic leadership skills. Future programs

could consider introducing more training (or training of trainer) workshops into the clubs that would help the girls prepare to run the groups themselves and practice their own management and communication skills.

• Include more outside bonding opportunities:

Much of the bonding that occurred between the young women in the clubs happened outside of the Lunch and Learn meetings and during training workshops, trips and volunteer opportunities. The friendships and bonds formed between the girls played an important part in increasing their confidence, self-esteem and sense of a support system within their university. Future programs can create more opportunities for the girls to become closer and learn from each one an-other in settings outside of their universities. Specifically, volunteer outings may provide the ideal space for this happen. Many of the participants expressed in an interest in doing more volunteer work and doing so is an effective and meaningful way to share pos-itive reflections of women in non-academic spaces.

CONCLUDING RECOMMENDATIONS

ABOUT USThe British Embassy, Addis AbabaWe represent British interests in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland and the African Union. We help boost political, cultural, economic and social relations between them and the UK by offering a wide range of ser-vices and funding of various projects. We encourage, support and develop strong partnerships between Britain and Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland, particularly those which contribute to positive change, sta-bility, conflict prevention and reducing poverty. In particular, we seek to bolster pluralism, accountability and rights.

The Center for Creative Leadership EthiopiaBased in Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia, we are the social innovation hub for the Center for Creative Leadership. Driven by our mission to advance the understanding, practice and development of leadership for the benefit for society worldwide, we work to develop innovative, cultur-ally appropriate tools, deliver high-quality programs at low cost in an emerging market context, and democratize leadership at scale. We have been experts and leaders in our field for the last 44 years and draw success from our unique research-based, design thinking ap-proach to developing creative and highly contexualized solutions to challenges of all scales.