Leadership training for indigenous peoples

This leadership training (LT) manual is intended to build the capacity of indigenous peoples’leaders, communities and organizations to lead and manage their organizations. The training focuses on leadership principles and organizational management.It provides knowledge and skills needed by indigenous peoples in leading and running their organizations. It also includes skills on advocacy for the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, on community development and management of projects and activities and facilitation skills.

Included at the end of the training manual are annexes containing particular context papers, specific case studies, actual experiences and samples of organizational structures, which may be used as references, models or examples by the facilitators giving the training. The papers included in the annexes are by no means complete or representative of the overall situation and experiences of indigenous peoples in the whole of Asia. Rather, they provide models and good practices to guide the facilitators and participants in conducting the training. Local facilitators would need to localize and enrich the training material using their own stories, examples and cases appropriate to the particular context and situation of the participants.

Other special topics and skills needed by leaders, such as conducting education and information, are not included in this manual, and may be taken up in other courses and specific trainings. There are also special leadership trainings for youth,women, and other sectors that may be taken separately.

Before going into the main components of the leadership training, it is necessary to do a presentation or conduct a workshop to discuss the particular situation, issues and needs of the indigenous peoples organizations or communities of the participants. This is necessary in order to provide the wider social context within which their organizations operate, which should always be considered in leading, managing and running an organization. This part should be based on and suited to the particular background and situation of the participants.

The methodology of this training is inter-active— through the conduct of workshops, role-playing and practicum to develop certain leadership skills of the participants.The facilitators will provide the basic inputs of the training, but the participants will learn from their own practice and experiences during the training. The duration of the training is flexible, depending on the level of experience, literacy,needs and expectations of the participants. Each sub-topic can be shortened or lengthened as needed. The estimated total number of days needed to conduct this basic training is 3-4 days or around 24 – 36 hours.

This training module was originally developed by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and its allied members. It was revised several times based on the feedback, assessment and evaluation by the CPA network throughout the process of its leadership training program through the years. It was further enriched as a result of a national workshop on leadership attended by indigenous participants from different regions of the Philippines.

The Basic Leadership Training module developed by CPA was later adopted in the implementation of the Indigenous Community Organizing and Leaders Training (ICOLT)Project Pilot Phase (October 2005-July 2007), which was a collaboration among different indigenous peoples organizations in Asia, namely, the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), PACOS of Sabah, Malaysia, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, and Kalumaran of Mindanao, Philippines.

The generic training modules were then translated into local languages and localized to suit the indigenous participants, which contributed to the further enrichment of the module. The experiences and lessons learned during the ICOLT Project Pilot Phase have been helpful in improving the Leadership Training module and the overall conduct of the trainings.

Finally, a workshop to refine the module was held in Baguio City on April 23, 2011 together with other partner indigenous peoples organizations in Asia who had tried out the Leadership Training in their respective organizations, namely IMPECT of Thailand and JOHAR of India. The results of this workshop have been incorporated in the finalization of this training module.

This training manual is the first in a series of education materials being prepared for the Indigenous Learning Institute for Community Empowerment (ILI). ILI is a regional inter-peoples education and empowerment program among indigenous peoples in Asia. It is an innovative capacity building program initiated and developed by indigenous peoples organizations and leaders through inter-people learning of experiences at the grassroots level. The training materials were developed through the rich experiences of grassroots-based indigenous organizations and further enriched by indigenous leaders with long years of experience and expertise in capacity building work. Likewise, the methodologies involve participatory, interactive, culturally appropriate and practical learning for the transfer of knowledge and skills in order to meet the growing needs of indigenous communities across Asia. ILI believes that the empowerment of indigenous communities is key to the recognition and exercise of their rights and in achieving sustainable development.

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