The Jordan Institute for Womens Leadership Program is aimed at addressing the low participation of women in political and economic life by promoting political participation, economic empowerment, and community leadership. The program targets professional women who have the potential to become transformational public servants and civil society activists. Our initiative defends that, in order to do away with gender disparity, Jordan must invest in empowering women. As long as women remain economically dependent, their existing conditions of will not be changed significantly. Thus, educated women should insist on exercising their civil, social, political and economic rights.

The first stage of the initiative is the announcement of the program on social media and in newspapers. Hundreds of applications are received, and participants are selected following a written test and interview. A 3-person committee selects the participants based on the following criteria: higher education, aged between 20-40, minimum participation in civil society, ability and potential to become a leader and creativity. The selection process reflects a concern for choosing a diverse group of women from different economic, religious, ethnic and national backgrounds. Once the participants are selected, they are given a provisional program. ACHRS asks them for feedback on the topics they would like to see included in the workshops. The final program is approved after consultation with the participants. In addition to workshops and debates, ACHRS organized trips to Tunisia and Lebanon, where participants were given the opportunity to visit parliaments, meet with representatives of political parties, NGOs and other civil society organizations working on capacity building and women’s empowerment. The same 3-person committee selects 16 trainers from Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon. The trainers are highly skilled academics and human rights activists. The 144 hours intensive program is held over a period of 6 to 12 months with established dates and topics agreed upon by the participants. Since 2010, ACHRS has organized a total of 12 programs. The main aim of the program is not to just deliver lectures on democracy, women’s rights and civil society, but rather to stimulate discussion and critical thinking by using a participatory approach. By the end of the program all participants receive a certificate, and asked to commit to the principles of human rights. We encourage them to participate in other events related to human rights and civil society while creating social networks.

Capacity building is arranged every year through trainings of the program and workshops. We have always followed goal number 5 of the Sustainable development goals regarding the guarantee of ensuring women's participation and equal opportunities for decision making at all levels in economic, political and social life. Technology is used to give visibility to the program, facebook is used to announce the initiative of the program and invite women to apply for the test in order to participate to the course. During the program all the activities are update also by using social media.

After receiving hundreds of applications, ACHRS committee carefully selects the participants and designs an in-depth program with highly qualified trainers. The program is entirely designed by ACHRS members, and implemented in cooperation with the Arab Womens Organization, the Amman Forum for Human Rights, Karama, and the Ministry for Political and Parliamentary Affairs. The Women Leadership Program relies almost entirely on voluntary human resources. ACHRS received funding for four of its program held between 2010 and 2013, and in 2017, most of the trainings were organized and led by volunteers. The centres mission is to empower women, which led ACHRS to continue hosting trainings even without the financial abilities to remunerate the trainers of pay for expenses like transportation and administration costs.

Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS)