Online Certificate on Women's Leadership - Make Your Voice Heard
The UNITAR Online Certificate on Women’s Leadership equips participants with practical skills to thrive and excel in leadership roles. The programme nurtures self-confidence, sharpens communication, and creates opportunities for mentorship and peer exchange.
It also addresses the persistent challenge of gender stereotypes, providing a platform to deconstruct barriers and engage stakeholders in advancing gender equality. Participants are empowered to strengthen their leadership potential, enhance their public presence, and overcome self-doubt or societal expectations.
Designed for professional women across sectors, community leaders, and aspiring leaders, the training combines personal growth with a gender lens on workplace and societal obstacles. Its holistic approach ensures long-term impact through interactive workshops, applied learning, and active networking.
For more information about future courses or are if you are interested in organising a customised training for your organisation, please reach out to Ms. Manon Balcaen (manon.balcaen@unitar.org).
Insights from our experts
UN Women
“The Women’s Leadership Programme is driven by the fact that women’s equality and empowerment is good politics, good economics, good for social inclusion and an important way of ensuring peaceful and just societies.”
- Nikhil Seth, Former UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNITAR Executive Director
Training and capacity building are essential to converting ambition and commitments into measurable and impactful change. Since 2015, UNITAR has been working with partners across the UN System, to support the achievement of gender parity targets and ensure women’s full and effective participation in decision-making processes.
With the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 .5 on inclusive decision making, the Women’s Leadership Programme seeks to address the gender imbalance that exists at the highest levels, including in multilateral negotiations and decision-making, in public and private sectors.
Today, the Women’s Leadership Programme aims to deliver training and awareness-raising activities to many more women worldwide, to building skills, providing coaching and mentorship opportunities, and organizing high-level events to achieve transformati
The Programme’s Activities
UN Photo
Since its launch in May 2015, the Programme has held Geneva workshops for female delegates to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Congress, the Radiocommunication Assembly/World Radiocommunication Conference, as well as an open workshop to women from Geneva’s International community and one in New York for the female delegates to the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
This year, UNITAR is further strengthening its efforts to provide support for women all over the world through a new 4-day e-workshop titled "Women's Leadership: Make Your Voice Heard". This training equips women with the tools and knowledge needed to not only succeed, but excel in leadership roles. It fosters an environment where self-confidence is nurtured, assertive communication is honed, and valuable mentorship relationships are forged. The skills acquired during these four days are not merely theoretical; they are pragmatic, and ready to be applied in real-world scenarios.
Since 2020, around 300 women enhanced their professional skills relating to leadership, public speaking, and mentoring by participating in UNITAR’s Women’s Leadership workshops. In groups of around 25, participants learned how to own their personal and cultural leadership style and maximize their unique strengths.
UNITAR’s Division for Multilateral Diplomacy were able to increase the number of female beneficiaries thanks to a generous contribution of the Government of India. In total, more than 150 women from 36 different countries were trained online on Gender, Women’s Leadership and Mentoring.
Testimonials From Former Leaders
Socio-economic barriers and gender stereotypes often limit women’s opportunities to develop leadership skills and access decision-making roles. UNITAR is committed to changing this reality by ensuring women have fair and equal opportunities at all levels of leadership.
Building on prior experience, UNITAR delivered the Women’s Leadership e-Workshop (9–11 November 2020), designed to promote gender equality and strengthen women’s full and effective participation in leadership and decision-making. The training was based on the premise that empowering women has a multiplier effect, strengthening peace and security, enhancing equal opportunities in the labour market, and contributing to sustainable development.
“I am very grateful for this e-workshop. In my opinion, it is very well conceptualized, and it has achieved its objectives.” – Former participant
The programme provided participants with essential skills to thrive in leadership positions, including:
- Recognizing the power of perception, developing emotional intelligence, and owning personal strengths.
- Identifying and overcoming damaging biases while strengthening confidence and resilience.
- Building leadership competencies such as executive presence and effective verbal and non-verbal communication.
- Breaking the “glass ceiling” by developing strategies to advance in leadership roles.