The Campaign school for Women (Asia and Pacific) trainer's guide and accompanying student resource guide offer a broad framework for training women campaigners, candidates, and members of parliament, with the flexibility to accommodate the different experiences of women in politics from Asia and the Pacific. The programme, which is based on the Australian Labor Party (ALP)'s Cairn's Campaign School for Women run annually since 2007, has been designed to provide participants with the knowledge base required to develop strategies appropriate for their own country, so as to fast-track women into political governance.

The curriculum consists of an introductory session and 4 modules to be covered in 5 days:

Introduction [available online]

Module 1: Campaigning for affirmative action for parliament [available online]

Module 2: Campaigning for gender equality in political parties

Module 3: Campaigning for political equality and government action

Module 4: Campaigning for elected office

Emphasising practical skill development for women seeking to enter or already in politics, the curriculum focuses on all the campaigns required to get women elected to office in the region. It is also designed to assist women in a wider campaign for political empowerment. Special attention is paid to the building blocks of successful election campaigns, internal campaigns within parties to get more women into decision-making positions, advocacy campaigns for affirmative action measures, and the role of political parties and other organisations in getting more women into office. It is hoped that through this course participants can develop locally relevant plans of actions to get more women elected.

This document serves as a guide to conducting the training sessions. All sessions are laid out in the following structure and order:

Learning outcomes and core messages - the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that participants should have acquired by the end of each session. Core messages refer to the specific ideas and concepts that each session intends to transmit to the participants.

Content and timing - the main activities which need to be performed in a given time frame. Trainers can adjust the time period in response to the needs and interests of participants.

Implementation - the steps which trainers should take when delivering each session. The main idea is presented briefly at the start of each session. Also included are notes to trainers that are designed to provide helpful hints and suggestions for adaptations in content or techniques in light of the composition of the particular group.

Materials and handouts - each of the listed items can be found in the accompanying School for Women Students' Resource Kit and its CD, which contain the reading and workshop materials for participants to use during and after the course, and includes copies of PowerPoint presentations, extracts of articles and reports, case studies, worksheets, and references. Participants are expected to read, discuss, and refer to these materials during the training sessions.

The Introduction and Module 1 - as well as the Students' Resource Kit and accompanying CD - are available online here. To request a full copy, please see the contact details below.

Posting to the Women's United Nations Report Network (WUNRN) listserv on February 23 2009.