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Women’s Leadership Program Cohort 8

Posted: 9 December 2021

Women’s Leadership Program Orientation Retreat

After the official launch of the 8th Cohort of the Women’s Leadership Program (WLP), the participants engaged themselves in the orientation retreat, a key component of the program. The participants were given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a myriad of informative sessions, get to know one another and enhance their understanding of the Community Development Projects.

The orientation retreat took place from the 30th of October to the 31st of October. The main intention is to increase participants’ self-awareness, team building skills and other key skill sets.

The orientation retreat commenced with Mrs. Enkhtuvshin Lunden (Country Program Manager of AAM) and Mrs. Tsolmon Bayaraa’s (Executive Director of Zorig Foundation) “Individual differences and personal style assessment” session, in which the participants assessed their personality traits to better understand their individual differences. In addition, the participants partook in team-building activities and other salient sessions.

To mention the vitally important sessions – Mr. Marc Tasse, Director of Programs at Mercy Corps shared his invaluable expertise of over 30 years, discussed project management tools and methodologies with the participants.  The participants were thoroughly immersed in all sessions and expressed their interest by actively participating in the discussions.

Another major component of the orientation retreat is correlated to the Community Development Projects (CDP) that the participants are to implement within the program. The CDP is an inextricable component of the program, where participants are able to contribute to the development of Mongolia, learn how to create high-performing teams and utilize learnings from the program. To help them gain better understanding on how to implement their CDPs, 3 guest speakers from the WLP Alumni were invited to present their group’s projects and share their experience with the participants. Subsequently, the participants brainstormed, worked on their project briefings and discussed their passions and ideas in contributing to the Mongolian society.

The second day of the retreat was focused on enhancing the participants’ skill sets that would aid them in implementing their projects. The second day commenced with a Design Thinking workshop, implemented by Ms. Khishigjargal Enkhbayar, Secretary General of the United Nations Association Mongolia. The participants were able to get creative and make their visions into reality through the workshop. Following this, Mr. Tuvshin Erdenebaatar, Chief Executive Director at UBP Media shared his expertise in managing social campaigns and discussed ideas on how to successfully impact more people through campaigns. Finally, Mr Ryenchin Myagmarsuren, Program Coordinator at Zorig Foundation shared tips on developing substantial presentations as it would be of assistance when the participants must present their Community Development Projects.

Overall, the participants expressed that they have learned a lot from the sessions and were excited to further learn from each other and the program. The two-day orientation retreat played a significant role in solidifying the participants’ connections with each other and their understanding and expectations from the program.