“We didn’t just need another event. We needed a journey.”
The Women’s Caucus of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) presented its inaugural mentorship initiative, the “Asian Women Education (AWE) Mentorship Program” at the first in-person meeting of the decade-running women’s program, Alliance of Her of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Held on February 18-20, 2026 in Bratislava, Slovakia, the gathering brought together around 25 leaders and allies of women’s political leadership initiatives from across Europe and partner regions to exchange insights, strengthen collaboration, and advance efforts to empower more women to lead in politics.
The program opened on 18 February with brief introductions from participants and direction-setting led by Adam Vink, the Program Manager of Alliance of Her (AoH), before heading together to a dinner reception on a boat docked at Danube River, just in front of the hotel accommodation. It was an evening of warm introductions, catching-up stories, and first steps toward building bonds that will carry through the succeeding days.
On 19 February, the women kickstarted the day with presentations of five (5) women’s leadership programs from Europe and the MENA region. Each presentation highlighted success stories, local realities, and aspirations of program designers and organizers working to expand women’s political participation. These were followed by another set of two (2) programs before having a quick lunch. The momentum carried on immediately after with six (6) remaining programs including the CALD AWE Mentorship Program — a three-month hybrid initiative designed to support emerging women leaders from Southeast and East Asia.
Representing CALD as Program Lead for its Women’s Program, Chelse Racar Caballero introduced the AWE Mentorship with an overview of the current landscape of women’s political leadership in Asia and the existing efforts of CALD to be an active contributor to the achievement of gender parity in the field of politics. “The challenge in front of me wasn’t just to curate something from scratch, it was to inherit the vision of the CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson, Jaslyn Go — that what started a simple conversation of wanting more personal, collaborative, and intentional for the women of the network eventually became a daunting question of: how do we transform AWE from a staple annual event into a structured leadership pipeline?” Caballero shared. “That became the turning point of wanting women not just to attend events but also to journey through it”, she continued.
Caballero explained that just as many good ideas, AWE Mentorship Program didn’t begin with a grand strategy document but rather with scattered pieces of mutual hopes, shared needs, and common considerations. She narrated the humble beginnings of the program and highlighted the crucial role of every mentor, leadership coach and inaugural mentee who showed up fully despite them being part of an experimental first cohort. The organizers were learning alongside the mentees while deliberately creating a safe and supportive space – a playground for experimentation and real conversations where it was okay to acknowledge gaps, confront weaknesses, and grow together as a community. By the time of program culmination, rather than presenting abstract theories, mentees shared strategies shaped by actual gaps in governance, representation, and access.
Caballero also updated the group that call for applications for the second cohort of the AWE Mentorship Program is on its way for its launch in June, with the program’s central focus on strengthening three core dimensions of leadership: (1) internal empowerment – recognizing that effective leadership begins with self-awareness; (2) collective empowerment – emphasizing that solidarity and sisterhood is a strategy; and (3) practical empowerment – developing concrete skills that women actually need when they decide to run, organize, negotiate, or lead. She then concluded her presentation by reiterating that program’s belief that when women are mentored intentionally and supported collectively, they don’t just enter politics – they change it.
After all the presentations, the remaining hours of the day were dedicated for the Learning Labs, three parallel workshops on key programme challenges: (1) Measuring Impact and Managing your trainer network; (2) Communications & Branding; and (3) Alumnae Engagement. Participants selected the topic most relevant to their work. The day concluded with a dinner, fostering deeper discussions and partnerships.
The final day, 20 February, began with a morning walk to the office of Progressive Slovakia, a liberal and social-liberal political party in the country, for a rich and stimulating exchange with Beáta Jurík, Member of the Slovak Parliament. This was followed by a session led by Anna Wangen, Social Media Manager of AoH, exploring future communications strategy to connect the ecosystem of initiatives supporting women in politics. Before concluding the meeting, Vink presented the key insights and ideas during the Learning Labs held the previous day.
The Alliance of Her Exchange meeting served as a platform for program leaders to share lessons from their respective initiatives, discuss challenges in advancing women’s political participation, and identify opportunities for collaboration across regions and the globe.
The meeting concluded with renewed commitments among participating organizations to continue collaboration, share resources, and expand opportunities for women leaders globally. As Jana Sproul from Rainbow Platform, one of the participants, reminded the group: “Let’s not forget to bring forward each other’s names as we step into rooms of opportunities.”
Categorised in: News Article
This post was written by CALD
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