Leadership Training Report - Northern Province of Zambia. Building Gender Equitable Resilience for Adaptation to Climate Across Bean Crop and Insect Corridors (BRAINS)

The Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean and Insect Sectors (BRAINS) project conducted a two-day Leadership Training at Musombizi Agricultural Camp in Mbala District, Northern Province of Zambia, to strengthen the leadership capacities of women, men, and youth engaged in climate-resilient agriculture and community development. The workshop brought together 29 participants, comprising 12 women and 17 men, including 17 youth and 1 person living with a disability. Guided by participatory adult-learning approaches, the training covered leadership foundations, self-reflection, leadership styles, overcoming leadership barriers, communication, decision-making, advocacy, networking, and personal action planning. A pre-training assessment revealed that, although participants had experience in community leadership, they faced significant challenges, including limited resources, inadequate access to information, and low confidence. Post-training results showed significant improvements across all assessed leadership competencies, particularly in influencing collective action, project management, advocacy, public speaking, and decision-making. Participants also rated the training highly for its content, facilitation, usefulness, and engagement, demonstrating its relevance and effectiveness. Overall, the training strengthened participants' confidence and preparedness to serve as community leaders and change agents, contributing to the BRAINS project's objective of promoting inclusive leadership, gender equality, and climate-resilient agricultural development in rural communities.