The 2024 summit featured conversations about gender and conservation, inclusion and equality, and economic empowerment
In 2002, the Harvard Kennedy School started an executive education program called Women and Power (HWP).
“The rise of women into society’s most powerful leadership roles — across sectors and around the globe — ranks among the most profound social transformations in recent decades,” says the website.
Each year for one week, women executives from around the world come to the program to learn more about leadership across public, nonprofit, and corporate sectors; political and strategic management, communication, and negotiation; how the political process can be influenced; and the latest research on women and leadership.
Long time faculty chair Hannah Riley Bowles says the peer engagement in many ways is the most important part of the experience.
Almost every year since its inception, the alumnae of HWP have self-organized to continue learning together about different issues around the world.
Watching the “flame ignite” as the cohorts come together has been powerful, says Riley Bowles.
Last year, the alumnae launched our own website, and in a video on the site, you can see that we collectively aspire to lead with grace, use our power for good, acknowledge that power exists within each of us, lead from where we are, and invest in the leadership of others to build a better world.
This year, the annual summit was in Kenya, where 41 women from around the world came together to meet with activists, leaders, and changemakers of all ages. Eight of the alums brought a child on the trip.
Commissioner Wambui Nyutu, HWP ’22, is vice chair of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She invited Anne Wang’ombe, the principal secretary in the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action in the Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage to speak at the summit. Her remarks made the news.
During the summit, there was space for the girls and women to think how our leadership is rooted — rooted in our senses, rooted in gratitude, rooted in emotion, rooted in power, rooted in change, rooted in intention, and rooted in our memories.
Meet Dr. Winnie Kiiru, the founder of Conservation Kenya CHD
Located near Amboseli National Park near Mount Kilimanjaro, CHD stands for the Center for Human Development. Founded in 2012 by Dr. Winnie Kiiru, the center is a “dynamic grassroots organization dedicated to the revitalization of the Amboseli Ecosystem through community-centered conservation endeavors,” according to the website.
Located in the Amboseli region, which faces urgent environmental issues such as deforestation, deterioration of rangelands, human-wildlife conflicts, and the increasing effects of climate change, we integrate measures for climate change adaptation and mitigation into our conservation efforts, paying particular attention to the disproportionate impact on women and girls.
— Conservation Kenya CHD
The goal is a “sustainable future for wildlife, habitats, and the people of Kenya.”
In our time at the Center, the HWP alumnae met with local girls, their moms, and the chief of the Maasai. We planted trees and learned how to bead. We visited the greenhouse and learning center. But most importantly, we talked about the importance of owning our voices and telling our stories.
The girls said the center has helped them figure out how to take a stand on female genital mutilation, early marriage, and teenage pregnancy in their own lives.
One of the young leaders said, “Because of Conservation Kenya, now we are safe.”
She aspires to be a doctor to help others.
Meet Dr. Leela Hazzah, the co-founder and executive director of Lion Guardians
Founded in 2006, Lion Guardians is “a conservation organization dedicated to finding and enacting long-term solutions for people and lions to coexist,” according to the website.
Our approach involves recruiting young, traditional Maasai and other pastoralist warriors to learn the skills needed to effectively mitigate conflicts between people and wildlife, monitor lion populations, and help their own communities live with lions.
— Lion Guardians
A biologist by training, Dr. Leela Hazzah — an HWP alum who served on the planning committee and joined us in Nairobi to kick off the summit — started with five Lion Guardians. Now almost 100 guardians cover one million acres.
“Guardians demonstrates that conserving and protecting lions through participatory monitoring, ownership, education, and employment brings prestige and status to a Maasai warrior,” says the website.
To learn more about the work of this organization, here is the 2024-26 strategic plan and here is the annual report.
 “I know we’re making a difference,” said Hazzah. “When I first moved here, I never heard lions roaring. But now I hear lions roaring all the time.”
“I  just want the people  and the wildlife to coexist,” she said.
Learn more about WE Africa
Both Kiiru and Hazzah co-founded of Women for the Environment (WE Africa), which works to “put women at the heart of transforming Africa’s environmental movement,” according to the website.
The ongoing need for serious conversations about gender in our world
Annually the summit brings together HWP alumnae to have serious conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing women around the world, and the need for women to lead change.
This year’s summit featured conversations about gender and conservation, inclusion and equality, and economic empowerment.
Part of the cohort went on to Uganda to participate in the 7th Annual Women Human Rights Defenders’ Conference.
Editor’s Note: It was important to the HWP alums to invest in a local tour operator on our trip to Kenya. Sandridge Safaris is a family-owned company, headquartered in Nairobi since 2012, but specializing in travel throughout east Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zanzibar, Ethiopia, and Namibia.
George Gituku, who started his career in travel with Abercrombie & Kent, is the owner operator.
HWP alumnae Mrika Tahiri said Sandridge Safaris “truly exceeded all expectations. Our group felt cared for from the initial planning stages right through our return home. George’s dedication to ensuring every aspect of the trip was seamless was remarkable. His team made our trip absolutely unforgettable. From city tours to the program itself to safari, he managed it all effortlessly and with such warmth.”
George is also a director for Lion Guardians.
Thank you, George.
Behind the Story
In keeping with best practices in child safeguarding, pre-publication review was offered on this article.
