PELUM is excited to launch the Africa Women Leaders in Agroecology (AWOLA) Mentorship program. AWOLA is a leadership career development initiative, with the aim of equipping women with leadership skills. Through the AWOLA initiative, the PELUM network envisions strengthening leadership capacities and the active participation of women in agro-ecology and related fields.
The mentorship program is dedicated exclusively to women working in the fields of agriculture, natural resources and community development, policy and livelihood promotion, ready to inspire transformational leadership that could facilitate scale up of agroecology in Africa. The initiative aims to provide networks, knowledge and skills to strengthen leadership.
We are seeking self-driven and committed women professionals to give back and serve as mentors to contribute to advancing the leadership of African women in Agroecology.
About the AWOLA initiative Mentorship
The AWOLA mentors are women professionals with interest and commitment to give back to their communities and support other women in becoming leaders. The mentors are matched with mentees that align with their skills, expectations, and goals for 12 months and are expected to meet for at least four hours a month. The mentorship program is designed to be a flexible opportunity for both parties to benefit and create a growing professional relationship and community for future success. It may take several formats depending on the mentors’ availability and actual needs of the mentee. During the program, the mentor and mentee will create a cross-learning partnership to share professional advice and strategic networks that will contribute to their growth and the growth of their enterprises.
What is in it for me as a Mentor?
Mentoring is an empowering and rejuvenating experience that impacts both mentors and mentees, largely contributing to their development. Through AWOLA we aim to connect mentors to thought leadership in agroecology while providing networking opportunities with other mentors, subject matter specialists and mentees. At the end of the course mentors will receive a certificate of participation as a token of appreciation from PELUM/AWOLA initiative.
What are your fields of expertise?
A mentor affects the professional life of a mentee by fostering insight, identifying needed knowledge, and expanding growth opportunities. We are looking for mentors with 10+ years experience in leadership and working to transform agriculture, food systems and community livelihoods working in different types of institutions including business persons and farmers. Mentors should be experts in a variety of fields including but not limited to:
- Governance
- Food systems: agriculture, sustainable value chains, agroecology, sustainable agriculture
- Natural resources: environment, climate change
- Startups and scaling of businesses
- Attracting funding and/or investors
- Human Rights
- Food processing and Nutrition
- Youth and Women Economic Empowerment
- Agribusiness
PELUM through AWOLA is open to emerging opportunities, and whatever your skills are and your field of expertise is, and you feel you can positively contribute to the program. Feel free to add your own category and customize your contribution to the program.
Ideal AWOLA mentors should:
- Show commitment to investing your time in supporting mentees growth for a period of 12 months program, meeting at least twice a month
- Be able to articulate top leadership challenges in scaling up agroecology and sustainable agriculture practices.
- Need to show how they play leadership roles in transforming agriculture, food systems or livelihoods of farming communities using agroecology principles/approaches.
- Be able to access reliable internet and to commit time to a maximum of 5 hours a week towards the mentorship.