Girls Wanna Run! Training Nepal's Generation Next!

The 2025/26 cohort of Young Women Political Leadership Course (YWPLC) concluded their feminist political leadership program with their graduation ceremony on June 20th, 2026. The program was held over eight months, from November 2025 - June 2026, where the fellows explored politics, leadership, and the issues affecting the communities. Although the graduation marked the completion of the course, the 19 graduating fellows will continue to be a part of the Women LEAD community as alumni .

With the journey of the 2025/26 fellows concluded, a month later in August, the team started to prepare for the next cohort. We opened the applications for the YWPLC 2026/27 cohort in August. We received over 150 applications from young women representing a wide range of diversity in academic backgrounds, geography and ages. This intersectionality reinforces our belief that politics and leadership should never be confined to a specific academic field, religion, or age group. We went through a rigorous screening and selection process to select 20 fellows for this cohort. 

The fellows this year come from diverse academic backgrounds like law, finance, computer science, social science and economics to name a few and also stand at different points of their educational journeys. This cohort comprises  young women from different geographical areas such as Kavrepalanchowk, Gulmi, Khotang, Nuwakot, and other parts of Nepal. All blended together in a cohort helps build the fundamental block of YWPLC, where political leadership is accessible to young women, wherever they come from and whatever path brought them here.

The Politics Institute (PI), the foundational component of YWPLC, is being conducted from September 19 to 30. During these 2 weeks, fellows explore political leadership through sessions ranging from the fundamental question of what politics really is to the challenges, gaps, and opportunities within Nepal's constitution. They also examine revolutions around the world and the legacies they left behind. We ensure that every topic is taught through a feminist lens in order to help the young women recognize their own role in creating change and form their own perspectives. Politics Institute offers the pathway to the fellows to understand government, political ideologies and where Nepal falls in that spectrum. Following PI, we will have a 1:1 with the fellows to assess their understanding and identify further needs, on the basis of which, further follow-up sessions and the rest of the program is tailored accordingly.

Through YWPLC, we build directly on Women LEAD's vision  to build a better world where young women co-create the future by creating space for young women to learn about politics, feminism, and leadership, and to reflect on how these ideas relate to their own lives and communities. At the heart of the course is feminist leadership, with an emphasis on understanding power, representation, and the different experiences that shape people’s participation in public life. It offers an opportunity for fellows to develop their understanding, question existing ideas, and become more comfortable to participate in conversations and spaces that may have previously felt distant or inaccessible. 

This journey is only just beginning. Stay tuned as we share more from the fellows as YWPLC 2026/27 unfolds.