At Regional Summits, Emerging Leaders further develop their action plans

Beginning in November, TechWomen 2020-2021 Emerging Leaders transitioned from Professional Interest Groups to action plan teams, working within their country cohorts to brainstorm and develop an action plan that addresses a socioeconomic need in their communities. From creating clean cookstoves powered by sustainable fuel to a mental health network for women facing domestic violence, past Emerging Leader country teams have harnessed the power of technology, innovation and community to create impactful projects that aim to spark change in their communities and beyond. This year, supported by a virtual team of Impact Coaches and a Peer Advisor — a TechWomen fellow who provides in-country, real-time support — Emerging Leader teams spent the month defining their issue statements and collaborating to create a concise action plan statement for their proposed projects.

After a month of the action planning process, it was time for Emerging Leaders, Peer Advisors and Impact Coaches to convene for the 2020 TechWomen Regional Summits to share their progress, workshop their ideas and get inspired by women leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the three regional summits — for country teams in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia — Emerging Leaders had the opportunity to share out their team’s issue statement as well as their draft solution. Country teams met with Impact Coaches and Peer Advisors in three rotations in order to further refine their plans and create projects that spark maximum impact.

Middle East and North Africa

The MENA Regional Summit opened with a keynote from Meg Garlinghouse, the head of social impact at LinkedIn. Addressing Emerging Leaders, Meg emphasized the importance of focusing on justice, closing the network gap and breaking the cycle of inequality. “Who you know matters much more than what you know when it comes to getting a job,” Meg explained, sharing that LinkedIn wants to make economic opportunity equitable for every member of the global workforce. “Moving from generosity to justice is a journey,” she said.

After, in their three breakout sessions, Emerging Leaders met with Impact Coaches and Peer Advisors from other country teams to present their issue statements and draft solutions. There, mentors and Peer Advisors gave feedback and provided additional resources, supporting the Emerging Leaders in optimizing their action plans. In their breakout room, team Morocco presented their project to the Impact Coaches and Peer Advisor from Libya, explaining that girls’ boarding homes in rural Morocco face severe sanitation issues and threaten the health of over 35,000 girls. Their mission is to address the water sanitation challenges while educating girls about waste management; already, they had established a relationship with a home for girls ages 12-18. The Impact Coaches and Peer Advisor followed up with questions, asking the Emerging Leaders how they define success and encouraging them to remain rooted in their mission as the action planning process develops.

Emerging Leaders from the Palestinian Territories presented their initiative that addresses inappropriate media content to the mentors from Lebanon, speaking about harmful media and its effect on children’s mental health. By providing a community-based platform for parents, the team hopes to empower parents and raise awareness on the pervasive issue. Through prompting the Emerging Leaders to work through their barriers to success, the Impact Coaches and Peer Advisor helped the team further iterate, organize and develop their initiative.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nikkia Reveillac, head of research at Twitter, opened up the SSA Regional Summit, delivering an inspiring keynote on being agents of positive change. “I want you to remember this: being a force for good means being a force for the people you ultimately want to serve,” she said. Nikkia also reminded Emerging Leaders to always make their audience a priority, encouraging them to remain “people-obsessed” in order to deliver on their mission and objectives.

In their breakout room, team Sierra Leone, joined by the Impact Coaches and Peer Advisor from Rwanda, spoke about their mission to reduce the level of malnutrition in their country. By educating mothers on using local and healthy foods, the Emerging Leaders hope to meaningfully address chronic malnutrition in children. “We are the best people to work on the malnutrition project,” they explained. “Our skills and backgrounds are a perfect match.”

Emerging Leaders from Zimbabwe expanded on their action plan issue statement in their breakout room,

sharing their initiative that will address water sanitization by cleaning household water with moringa and activated charcoal teabags. In the discussion that followed, Impact Coaches from Sierra Leone encouraged Emerging Leaders to harness the power of their in-country network of fellows to expand their idea, organize a pilot test and find new resources within the country.

Central and South Asia

On the final day of Regional Summits, Emerging Leaders from CSA had the opportunity to hear from TechWomen mentor Roojuta Lalani of Salesforce, who spoke to Salesforce’s president and chief legal officer Amy Weaver in a fireside chat. Amy spoke to Emerging Leaders about her path to leadership, giving advice on finding their own leadership style and how to bring diverse voices into the workforce. “It comes down to women’s voices being heard and women being seen. I try to challenge myself every day — what have I done to have women be seen, and women be heard?” she said.

In their first session that followed, team Kazakhstan spoke to the Impact Coach and Peer Advisor from Tajikistan about the 400 women die each year from domestic violence — a number that has sharply increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. While most efforts are focused on the consequences of violence, the Emerging Leaders hope to center on the root cause, using their platform to empower women and men through education tools. The discussion that followed was focused on ways expand their network and knowledge base, utilizing resources that already exist in other countries to support their own work.

With their project, team Tajikistan hopes to tackle electricity challenges with their impact project, creating special backpacks with solar panels that children can use at night to do homework. Alongside the Impact Coaches from Pakistan, the Emerging Leaders worked through the logistical challenges they may encounter, reviewing cost, viability and ways they can measure their success.

At the conclusion of each summit, Emerging Leaders reconvened in the main room to share their takeaways moving forward. After gaining an international perspective, accessing new resources and problem-solving their challenges, Emerging Leaders were walking away with increased clarity and energy to further develop their action plan projects.

Next up? Pitching! After submitting their finalized solution and social impact statement — and after a month-long break — Emerging Leaders will reconvene to learn the essential elements of delivering an impactful pitch. And, although the spring program will continue in a virtual setting, the knowledge-sharing and commitment to community on display at the Regional Summits served as a reminder of how impact and change can be created, even if we are not physically together.

Be sure to follow along on Twitter as Emerging Leaders continue their TechWomen journey!

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