Since the inception of the Political Management Training in 2011, the curriculum has been constantly improved and fine-tuned to fit the needs of young progressives in the region.   As the last activity of Socdem Asia for 2016, a working group has been convened once again to dissect the training program.  The module development team is composed of alumni, faculty members, the SocDem  Asia Secretariat and partners, and representatives from Socdem  Asia member parties.

The workshop included thematic working groups that worked on the three clusters of the training:  Ideology, Skills and Themes.  Taking into account the training needs assessment from network member parties, each team went in-depth to examine objectives, core messages, and proposed methods or exercises for each topic.  Various pre- and post- training tools were also devised by this team to further improve the learning dividend of the delegates.  As a contribution to young progressives leadership building in the region, the workshop also aimed at developing a curriculum that allows for national organizations to echo the content and enables them to attune it to local realities.

The training guide will be handy for trainers and mentors of the PMT courses and those youth organizations echoing the training to their members. The third batch of PMT delegates will be travelling to Manila on May 2017.

Seventeen young progressives from across Southeast Asia graduated from the Network of Social Democracy in Asia’s (SocDem Asia) political management training. The training program brought together participants come different progressive parties and organizations in the region with the goal of preparing promising young leaders in taking on future roles in their respective organizations. In fact all of the participants are active participants of current democratic movements in their respective countries such as the clean government Bersih movement in Malaysia and the youth movement in Thailand. It is worth taking note that the batch (“Stand by Oh”) chose to name themselves after one of their fellow participant who was detained by military authorities in Thailand (he has since been released) as a sign of solidarity with other progressives in the region.