In addition, male leaders recognized the potential of women leaders. Therefore, enabling women leaders to foresee possible solutions beyond the short term is an important point for development. However, despite the empowerment derived from natural resources, their leadership for sustainable development and service-orientation, women leaders struggled to identify tangible benefits for their community.

Reciprocal positive feedback loops existed between women’s perceived leadership capabilities, and education or development of networks. They felt empowered by their capabilities around education, leadership, service, value and action and disempowered by gender inequality, level of access to education and difficult family situations. Women leaders explored what sustainable development and leadership meant to them, linking these two concepts explicitly to their feelings of empowerment. Using participatory research methods, and a six-day long residency (24 women leaders in Dique Channel, Colombia) we analysed elements of women’s leadership, selected by local female community leaders, which could facilitate pathways to sustainable livelihoods in marginalised Colombian Caribbean fishing communities. However, problems with gender inequality, marginalisation and other social aspects exist here, as in similar countries with good economic indicators. Within Colombia, a strong national policy focus on using natural resources and on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has driven development, moving the country from the bottom to the top of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) list. In coastal regions that traditionally depend on ecosystem services, sustainable development is of paramount importance.

The Color of a Leader by Alicia Perry