Women’s underrepresentation in health leadership and management—despite their large role as health service providers and clients—contributes to disparities in access to health services and the quality of those services.

Developing women’s leadership has always been a central principle in the LMG Project’s activities. One way the LMG Project turned this principle into practice was through mentoring, which is increasingly identified as an effective approach for developing individual leadership skills.

In 2014, the LMG Project established the East Africa Women’s Mentoring Network to help aspiring young women leaders by connecting them to a professional support network that was previously out of reach. This connection encouraged their development as confident advocates and leaders in family planning and reproductive health. To enroll, young women created profiles including their skills, interests, and experience on the Network’s online platform, and then the platform assessed the profiles and connected aspiring young leaders to experienced leaders.

While mentoring relationships often form in workplaces or communities, the LMG Project’s East Africa Women’s Mentoring Network fostered mentoring relationships across borders. Mentors and mentees benefitted professionally from their relationship, and they shared and overcame personal challenges.

Elizabeth Imbo lives in Kenya, but her mentor, Grace Ikirimat, lives in Uganda. Shortly before joining the East Africa Women’s Mentoring Network, Elizabeth earned a promotion at work, but felt that she still needed to develop herself as a leader and manager. Although she was skeptical at first, Elizabeth soon recognized mentorship’s potential saying, “I knew that my skills were going to be sharpened in a way that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.”

More than 100 women have participated in the network, with the majority of mentors and mentees representing three countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Similarly, the majority of network participants work professionally for either international or local non-governmental organizations.