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ADVANCING GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

With a longstanding partnership dating back to 2018, KORUMO has established itself as the go-to partner for gender-transformative leadership. From our pioneering work in GIZ's ATVET projects across Africa to designing the flagship Accelerating Gender Transformative Leadership programme for SNRD Africa, we have refined a proven model that blends training, coaching, and systems thinking. Our approach has been successfully adapted across diverse GIZ portfolios—from Green Innovation to S4D—and scaled globally through open-source eLearning and specialised coaching for gender, diversity, and inclusion. Today, we are the trusted provider empowering organisations and leaders to drive deep, structural change.

Like the caterpillar that turns into a butterfly, transformation is the shift from one state to another, a fundamentally different state; the change is irreversible. Gender-transformative change means that individuals and groups are no longer held back by gender and other markers of difference, enabling them to develop their full potential and thrive.

We can depict a project setting as a lotus flower. The lotus flower grows in muddy waters and matures into a strikingly beautiful flower. In wisdom traditions, the lotus flower is often used to narrate the journey of change, the challenges encountered on the way, and the astonishing transformation at the end. The journey of project staff, country teams, stakeholders, and women beneficiaries to become gender-transformative leaders is truly enriching and rewarding. As change navigators, we gained many insights along the way.

Lotus flower diagram

These Are Some of Our Insights:
  1. Transformative change requires system's interventions

    Critical reflection and conscious action are needed at different levels.

  2. Change starts with me

    As a change-maker, you are challenged to engage in critical self-reflection, to become aware of and examine your own beliefs, norms, and values.

  3. To transform (gender) inequality, interventions are needed in four domains:
    • Individual: A person's self-belief and agency to exercise their rights.
    • Relations: Power is exercised, reproduced, or confronted in relations between individuals and groups.
    • Culture: Social norms and stereotypes are reinforced or challenged.
    • Systems: Policies, institutions, and rights undermine or promote equality.
  4. Light touch, deep reach

    A mix of individual coaching, team coaching, facilitation, and training takes individuals and teams on a personal journey toward becoming confident and competent gender-transformative leaders.