The Pathway Program

The Pathway Program is the International WaterCentre’s new globally focused water leadership development program.  Comprised of three levels, the purpose of the Pathway Program is to provide an easily accessible, foundational leadership development program for water professionals and practitioners to strengthen their ability to exert influence and drive positive change in their projects and workplaces, and to address our most significant water-related challenged.

Level 1 of the Program begins in September 2024, and is a 10-week, interative, online course that introduces participants to foundational leadership concepts and provides guidance and ‘leadership stories’ (i.e. short case studies and personal stories from distinguished water leaders) on how to address common leadership challenges in the water sector.

Read on, download our brochure and watch two short films from emerging water leaders globally, to find out more about why developing water leadership skills is important, and how you can go about doing so. We are accepting applications for the Pathway Program now, to start on Monday 2nd September 2024. Join 100+ emerging global water leaders to begin your journey this year!

Water Leadership Stories

Watch these videos from two outstanding emerging water leaders from around the world – Antonella Vagliente and Yang Villa – to learn why strengthening water leadership capacity globally is important.

Program Objectives

• To enhance the ability of water professionals and practitioners to drive positive change and deliver more sustainable forms of water management.
• To provide a practical, accessible, enjoyable and effective entry-level leadership development program for water professionals and practitioners working anywhere in the global water sector, irrespective of their organisation position, leadership experience or financial resources.
• To enable a large number of water leaders from around the world each year to help build the collective leadership capacity needed to address the world’s most significant water challenges and achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal number 6.
• To help program participants to build their knowledge, skill and confidence to engage in leadership, with a focus on addressing common leadership-related challenges that are experienced by water leaders around the world.
• To help prepare program participants for their long term leadership development journey with tangible early results expected within 3 months, and knowledge of how to manage their own development throughout their careers and to engage in developing others.
• To provide a pathway for self-motivated water professionals and practitioners to move through three levels of progressively more challenging and powerful leadership development experiences if they wish to continue to strengthen their leadership capacity and magnify their impact as water leaders.

Target audience

Level 1 of the Pathway Program aims to help any professional or practitioner in the water sector to build their confidence, knowledge and skill in exerting exert influence to drive change towards more sustainable outcomes. In particular, it seeks to serve:

• A highly diverse range of water professionals and practitioners in terms of their professional background, geographic setting, organisational type, water management focus, leadership experience, seniority and demographic profile. Level 1 aims to remove as many barriers as possible to participation in a high-value, foundational leadership development initiative.
• Aspiring, emergent or established water leaders. Importantly, the level 1 course seeks to include people who may not yet see themselves as a ‘water leader’, but nonetheless want to learn how to exert influence, drive positive change in the sector, and ‘make a difference’.
• Established water leaders who want to continue their learning process and build their leadership capacity at an individual and group level.
• Organisations that recognise the importance of building leadership capacity to the delivery of their strategic objectives and want to invest in people and groups so they can more effectively initiate and drive change, lead projects and lead people. To assist in this area, level 1 of the program includes some learning activities that are conducted within small groups, which can involve people from the same organisation working together.

Pre-requisites

The Pathway Program aims to be as inclusive as possible by not assuming that the participants have a particular form of experience, occupy particular leadership roles, have particular forms of power or have already developed a ‘leader identity’. Nevertheless, participants in level 1 of the Program will need:

• The ability to communicate easily in English (both verbally and in written / typed form).
• Access to the Internet and either a mobile/cell phone or personal computer/tablet during the 10 week course, with the ability to record and upload short videos (e.g. via a mobile/cell phone). Note that all course resources will be available for download to assist those participants who do not have access to a fast or stable Internet connection.
• An email account for pre-and post-course communications.
• A local support network (e.g. access to a more experienced leader who works, or has worked, in the water sector who can act as an informal local mentor during the course).
• The time needed to participate in the course over 10-11 weeks (which is approximately 2-3 hours of time per week). Although the core activities occur over 10 weeks, we anticipate that most participants will be using an additional week to finish some activities (e.g. finalising their leadership plan).

For Domestic Participants