This blog post was written by Aparna Arora of Society of Gender Professionals. She attended Gender and Social Inclusion in Proposal Processes training with Emily B. Brown in September 2022. Learn more about the training here.

One of the things I liked about the Gender and Social Inclusion in Proposal Processes training is that the workshop was application-oriented, offering tangible tools to bring to real work. I appreciated the space to hear participants' thoughts, the overall interactive approach to training, and the opportunity to apply concepts immediately through group work.

Emily's facilitation was inclusive, respectful, and powerful - very conducive to my learning and ability to participate. I appreciated the continuous feedback loops and was amazed at how quickly Emily incorporated the feedback I offered into the session plan the next day itself. I also appreciated that she remained flexible and responsive to the needs of the group - asking us which topics we wanted to prioritize. I liked that the group activity was adapted so it wasn't stressful and amplified learning within time constraints.

My favorite session was where Emily shared the mapping of GESI gateways by business development life cycle. On the final training day, she invited everyone to share aspects of that mapping where we needed more clarity through an interactive exercise. Emily's explanations in response to our questions were robust and useful. When Emily provided a case example of GESI integration from a real-life project utilizing the frameworks/tools discussed in this training, it solidified my learning and helped identify gaps in my group's response to the group work exercise. I also found brainstorming the challenges of GESI integration as a group very valuable. It offered a space to reflect on the insightful expert talk hosted during the training while drawing on Emily's and participants' experiences.

I am new to the field of gender and to business development, but this training opened a new career pathway for me. I can now understand the technical language contained within the job descriptions pertaining to roles in this space. Due to the training, I also have a better sense of how my skill sets fit within this sector. This is helping me in my job search process. At the same time, we had many experienced business development professionals as participants who also had positive reflections on their learning curves on the topic as a result of this training. Thanks, Emily and Team Cynara!

~Aparna Arora, Society of Gender Professionals