Too often political parties in Kosovo have trouble increasing the role and numbers of women in their party structures.  The Women’s Leadership Academy, supported by USAID and NDI, offers intensive training sessions on policy development and campaign communication skills to help develop future women political leaders.  Following this training, the WLA participants spent three months conducting research and meeting with institutions and key stakeholders on the economy, education, healthcare, and women’s leadership to inform the creation of a set of original policy proposals.  The final, detailed proposals from the most recent WLA cohort of 32 talented women were presented at a ceremony on September 5^th, attended by representatives from Kosovo’s political parties and civil society.  

This event was an important opportunity for political party representatives to interact with WLA graduates – many of whom are considering running as candidates in the October 2017 local elections – and to consider including the recommendations from the position papers in their local election platforms.

The participants of the WLA were selected from a pool of more than 100 women from political parties, parliament, civil society, business, and media  that participated in the 5^th annual Week of Women (WoW) this past March.