For the second year, the Duke Center for International Development (DCID) at the Sanford School of Public Policy is hosting the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship (LDF), a leadership development program organized through World Learning and funded by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative of the U.S. State Department. The program provides early- and mid-career professionals from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with the opportunity to gain academic and practical experience in leadership training and leadership development, network with like-minded peers and professionals, and build on skills in conflict resolution, participatory governance and communication. At the end of the program, LDF program graduates are equipped with the theoretical and practical knowledge they need to begin effectively addressing current political and social challenges in their communities.
This year’s 13 participants come from six different countries across the MENA region. Their backgrounds vary widely from engineering to sociology. They will study leadership, policy analysis, program planning, and communication while at Duke, and then go on to Washington, D.C. for the program’s practice-based component.
Like all DCID executive education programs, the program will be co-taught by a diverse group of Duke faculty and outside experts, and will include a mix of classroom lectures, site visits to local government offices and cultural landmarks, and community-building activities. Leaving the classroom and meeting local civic leaders is a cornerstone of DCID’s mid-career executive training model; faculty note that these experiences help participants draw meaningful insights through comparison to their home country systems and structures.
The LDF fellows will be at Sanford until August 23.
