Leadership Training Called a “Precious Asset.”

The pandemic requires us all to adapt, and I conducted a five-day training for the national federation of livestock associations in Guinea using Zoom. I previously served as Peace Corps country director in this West African county and, in 2019, returned to conduct an in-person leadership training. With the support of Winrock International and my highly skilled former Peace Corps colleague, Ousmane Diallo, I developed a remote program this time. Aside from being ready to teach at 5 am eastern time for five days, I was concerned about the technology, but it worked pretty well. Clearly Guinea, a poor country, is making technological gains!

We had about 40 people from throughout the country and, using Zoom, many were able to skip long rides on challenging roads. Ousmane and I also conducted a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and recommended clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the federation board of directors and increasing the number of women in leadership roles. One participant emailed afterward, “My thanks go to the trainers and organizers who have kindly given us this precious asset.”