This online training is aimed specifically at leaders and senior staff in development cooperation and humanitarian aid organisations.
In international development and humanitarian organizations, project leadership faces unique challenges: navigating cultural complexities, addressing historical and structural inequalities, and fostering truly inclusive collaboration. This training emphasizes feminist and decolonial approaches as tools for transformative leadership. Participants will examine how power, privilege, and systemic biases shape projects and teams. By critically reflecting on organizational structures and their own leadership practices, leaders learn to create equitable, participatory, and socially just project environments. Diversity is not only acknowledged but leveraged as a driver for innovation, resilience, and impact in development and humanitarian contexts.
Content
The training explores how feminist and decolonial perspectives can transform project leadership in development and humanitarian contexts. Participants will examine power relations, systemic inequities, and their own positionality, reflecting on how privilege and bias influence decision-making and team dynamics. Practical strategies are provided for fostering participatory, inclusive, and accountable project environments, enhancing collaboration, conflict management, and stakeholder engagement. Through case studies, group dialogue, and reflective exercises, participants will translate these insights into actionable leadership practices that promote equity, social justice, and sustainable impact.
Facilitators
Şehnaz Kıymaz Bahçeci is a gender equality and women’s rights expert with over 20 years of experience driving transformative initiatives across the UN system, civil society, and academia. She brings deep expertise in gender mainstreaming, advocacy, and policy change, with a focus on building inclusive partnerships and fostering feminist leadership.
Damjan Denkovski is an independent strategist specializing in human rights, systems change, and organisational development. He works across sectors to design context-specific, actionable strategies that balance principled vision with practical implementation.
Target Group
Leaders and senior staff in development cooperation and humanitarian aid organizations seeking to lead organisations and projects inclusively and transformatively.
Location
Online (Zoom)
Format
The seminar consists of two three-hour online sessions. The sessions will be in English.
First session: Friday, 23rd January 2026, 9:00 am -12:00 pm, CET
Second session: Monday, 26th January 2026, 9:00 am -12:00 pm, CET
Costs
Participation at this workshop is free of charge. The training is limited in number of participants. Your registration is binding.
Registration
Please register for the event by 8 January 2026.
Please note that your registration is not a confirmation of participation. You will receive feedback about your admission to the course after your registration.
Further Training Opportunities on this topic
For staff members, project managers, and project officers, additional seminars on this topic are available:
- In-person seminar for staff and project officers (in German): Transformative Project Work: Diversity and Power in Focus, 3–4 March 2026 (please find more information here)
- Online seminar for staff and project officers (in English): Transformative Project Work: Diversity and Power in Focus, 2, 3 & 8 June 2026 (please find more information here)
Please contact Almut Huss for further questions (a.huss(at)venro.org).