Building Leaders’ Skills
Connecting Women Leaders
Creating Unlikely Allies
Supporting Accountable Leaders
Samaan Aawaaj will support Indigenous women from marginalized communities in North Bengal, Bangladesh. Photo courtesy of Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh
Led by Coady Institute in partnership with women-led organizations The Story Kitchen and DidiBahini in Nepal and the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), the project aims to strengthen inclusive governance, protect human rights, and advance gender equality through rights-based, intersectional approaches.
Our Partner Organizations
CCDB will work with emerging leaders from the most marginalized communities in Dinajpur, promoting inclusive and collaborative approaches within community structures.
Read more about CCDB
The Christian Commission for development in Bangladesh (CCDB), established in 1973, is a national organization dedicated to creating a just and caring society where people live in peace, dignity, and harmony with one another and the environment.
CCDB works closely with marginalized and climate-affected communities to build sustainable livelihoods, promote gender equity and social justice, and strengthen resilience to poverty and disaster. The organization’s “People-Centered Development Approach” places communities at the core of decision-making—valuing their knowledge, priorities, and leadership in shaping solutions that last.
Through the Sammaan Aawaaj Project, CCDB will work with emerging leaders from the most marginalized communities in Dinajpur, promoting inclusive and collaborative approaches within community structures. The organization supports local leaders to advance equality, transparency, and accountability, helping to build environments rooted in trust, shared power, and mutual respect. This approach reflects CCDB’s long-standing commitment to equity, participation, and care as the foundation of sustainable development.
DidiBahini anticipates working with local women’s groups to think through what leadership looks like and how they can practice it in ways that feel genuine and just for them.
Read more about DidiBahini
DidiBahini (DB), established in the early 1990s, is a national organization dedicated to advancing gender equality, social justice, and women’s rights in Nepal. For nearly three decades, DB has worked at community, national, and regional levels to strengthen women’s leadership, prevent gender-based violence, and challenge the systems that marginalize women and girls. The organization is widely recognized for its evidence-based approach, pioneering initiatives such as Women in Politics, Gender in Governance, and Nepal’s first Safe City campaign, along with long-term leadership and capacity-building programs for women and marginalized groups.
At the community level, DB supports women and girls through lifelong learning, leadership development, digital and financial literacy, psychosocial support, and livelihood strengthening, creating pathways for voice, agency, and representation.
Through the Sammaan Aawaaj Project, DidiBahini anticipates working with local women’s groups to think through what leadership looks like and how they can practice it in ways that feel genuine and just for them. With their deep links within the Nepali feminist movement, they will play an important role in linking women leaders across the project locations, contributing to a movement of activists.
TSK practices feminist leadership by co-creating leadership spaces with communities, supporting decision-makers to be more inclusive and building environments based on trust, safety and mutual respect.
Read more about The Story Kitchen
The Story Kitchen (TSK), established in 2012, is a space to amplify the voices of the marginalized and silenced communities ensuring they are heard and truly valued. TSK centres inclusive, community driven leadership that values lived experience as a source of knowledge and change.
Working closely with marginalized women, survivors and community groups, TSK challenges systems of privilege and exclusion while promoting leadership grounded in collaboration, reflection, and care and a shared sense of responsibility.
Through the Samaan Aawaaj Project, TSK practices feminist leadership by co-creating leadership spaces with communities, supporting decision-makers to be more inclusive and building environments based on trust, safety and mutual respect. Our vision is to redefine leadership as accountable, equitable, and grounded in shared power. Through which it inspires a transformative leadership that helps communities grow stronger and drives meaningful change.
News and Events
Holding Each Other to Our Values: A Collective Practice of Feminist Leadership
Samaan Aawaaj advances feminist leadership as a collective, accountable, and values-driven practice that intentionally shares power, centers excluded voices, builds allies, and persistently challenges inequitable systems to support just and thriving communities.
Claiming ‘Equal Voice’ at the Grassroots in Nepal, Bangladesh
This new three-year initiative, funded by Global Affairs Canada (4.8 million CAD) and set to begin in April 2025, seeks to enhance inclusive governance, promote and protect human rights, and advance gender equality in Nepal and Bangladesh.
