The G.A.I.N.S
Capacity-Building Program

From Practitioner to Consultant — G.A.I.N.S

When you speak, rooms should listen.

Most gender practitioners do excellent work that gets filed and forgotten. Fifteen years in boardrooms, ministries, and factory floors taught me the difference between being right and being heard. The G.A.I.N.S Program teaches the second one, with AI carrying the machinery.

Join the waitlist Find your level — six minutes
Entering this field

Everyone tells you what you're missing.
Nobody hands you the path.

Ask anyone building a career in gender work — starting out or ten years in — and you'll hear the same list: a credential here, a toolkit there, a new AI tool every week. All of it useful. None of it in order. So good people stall at the same wall:

01

“Where do I even start?”

Degrees, certificates, frameworks, portfolios — every list is different, and every list is long.

02

“I know the field. I can't sell the work.”

The analysis is solid. The proposal, the pricing, the positioning — nobody's curriculum.

03

“The toolkits speak donor.”

The rooms that decide budgets speak money. Nobody teaches the translation.

04

“Which of the hundred AI tools is for this work?”

And which ones client data must never touch. Every week the list changes.

05

“It's all built for another region.”

Your rooms are North African and West Asian — working in Arabic and English. The tools assume neither, and machine translation reads translated.

06

“I have nothing a client can look at.”

Years of solid work, all of it inside someone else's report. No portfolio with your name on it.

The hand you're dealt entering this field — hover a card

The stack

Most consultants are good at one or two of these.

The ones who write strong materials often can't hold a room. The facilitators can't write proposals. Almost none can price their own services. I learned this list as an owner growing five companies — not as theory.

01 Training materials Work you can bill for
02 Facilitation that holds a room Work you can bill for
03 Proposals that win Work you can bill for
04 M&E frameworks Work you can bill for
05 Reporting & documentation Work you can bill for
06 Procurement, bidding, contracting Work you can bill for
07 Pricing & financial proposals Work you can bill for
08 AI workflows, run privately Work you can bill for
By the end of the program, you'll have practised all eight and built credible evidence across them.
The G.A.I.N.S Program teaches every one. See the package
Why this program exists

That wall is why I built The G.A.I.N.S Program.

Every piece of that wall became a lesson. One sequenced path where there was a scattered list. One method, GAINS, worked deeper at each level, until you can translate between the two languages this field keeps apart: development value and business value. The business side is here because nobody else teaches it: writing the proposal, pricing the work, positioning yourself. AI is set up safely around your expertise and completes the stack you already have. It replaces none of it. You finish with a portfolio and a practice.

Find your level — six minutes
Abdelfattah presenting the business case for gender-responsive investment to a private-sector audience, pointing to the challenges it addresses
Nobody handed me a way through that wall. I found a route and billed my way through it. The program is that route, written down.
— Abdelfattah · gender-mainstreaming strategist and business owner
The shape of it

Three levels. One spine: GAINS.

GAINS is a seven-question method for turning a gender ask into work a client can evaluate and fund. Three levels run on that one spine. Each level works the questions deeper, and each ends in something you can put on the table.

Each level keeps every strand and shifts the weight — Level 1 builds the base, Level 2 sharpens judgment, Level 3 builds a business case a client can evaluate.

Genderexpertise Businesstranslation AI machinery Field tools Consultingpractice
Level 1Level 2Level 3
What you'll learn to do

Read what rooms miss. Rewrite what they publish.

Two of the crafts The G.A.I.N.S Program trains until they're yours — taught the way I bill them. Both are live below: move your pointer through the first, watch the second happen.

Craft 01 — the reading

Learn to read what others miss.

Every organization publishes a paragraph like this one. You'll learn to hear what it doesn't say — and to say it in the room.

Our organization committed ≠ budgetedis deeply committed to equal opportunity. We one photo, zero managerscelebrate the women of our workforce and encouraged = optionalencourage an inclusive culture where who reports at 6 p.m.?everyone can thrive, in line with values without line itemsour values.

Move the lens over the paragraph — on a phone, drag

Craft 02 — the rewrite

Learn to get policies rewritten.

A commitment with no budget line, no owner, and no deadline is a press release. You'll learn to end engagements with tracked changes, board minutes, and named owners — it's Level 3 →

Workplace policy — §4.2Tracked changes: ON

4.2.1The company is an equal-opportunity employer budgets for equality — line item, owner, deadline.

4.2.2Employees are encouraged to report concerns have a named, trained, 48-hour grievance path.

4.2.3We value diversity in our workforce count it, pay for it, and publish the numbers.

Adopted — board minutes
The Method Behind It — GAINS →
The package

One program, three ways in.

Start where you are: Level 1 ($195), Level 2 ($265), Level 3 ($195). Placement recommends a route and may waive lessons without marking them completed. Each level includes its own capstone. Level 3 includes the Independent Practice Portfolio and its defense.

Level 1 — Foundation

The floor, not a refresher.

Career-starters begin here. Working practitioners can use placement guidance to accept an approved route that may start at Level 2.

The promiseUnderstand gender concepts and systems, examine evidence, make a bounded recommendation and explain its value. Put that understanding into learning materials, a facilitated activity and responsible AI use.

18 lessons building the Foundation Case File. You bring the work together, explain your decisions and revise after feedback.

$195 Level 1 on its own · self-paced Join the waitlist

After this level, you'll be able to…

  • Use core gender vocabulary precisely and catch misuse in a real document
  • Examine how norms, power and discrimination shape a supplied case
  • Connect rights and accountability to the decision a project or organization faces
  • Distinguish what the evidence supports from what you still need to find out
  • Use GAINS to connect a bounded intervention with stakeholder value
  • Create learning materials and practise facilitating a bounded activity
  • Choose an appropriate AI route, check its output and protect sensitive information

Level 2 — Advanced

The craft level. One consulting engagement, worked end to end.

For practitioners who have the Level 1 foundation or approved equivalent. Work through a supplied consulting case with guidance and clear professional boundaries.

The promiseTurn an initial brief in a supplied consulting case into a coherent engagement: scope, evidence, diagnosis, intervention, resources, evaluation and handover. Explain the decisions that connect each part.

16 lessons building the Junior Consultant Dossier, from the initial scope through defense, revision and handover.

$265 Level 2 on its own · self-paced Join the waitlist

After this level, you'll be able to…

  • Define an engagement's scope, assumptions, responsibilities and evidence needs
  • Build a cited claims record and resolve conflicting evidence
  • Design field instruments with consent, safeguarding and referral boundaries
  • Evaluate a bounded AI workflow using controlled data
  • Turn a validated diagnosis into an intervention with a theory of change
  • Connect implementation resources, gender-responsive budgeting and M&E
  • Prepare and defend a non-priced technical response, report and handover

Level 3 — Pro

The owner level. Run a practice, not a string of projects.

For practitioners ready to price, package, and defend their own work. Everything in it is something I've had to get right in my own businesses.

The promiseRun the professional chain from choosing an opportunity to bidding, pricing, negotiating, delivering and closing the work. Build a responsible AI system that supports your practice and can be checked and recovered.

18 lessons building the Independent Practice Portfolio, including its defense and revision. Actual bounded AI operation is part of the technical practice.

$195 Level 3 on its own · self-paced Join the waitlist

After this level, you'll be able to…

  • Decide which opportunities fit your expertise, capacity and professional boundaries
  • Build a compliant technical offer and a financial proposal that agree
  • Defend a bid and negotiate within clear limits
  • Plan mobilization, obligations and change control for a fictional contract
  • Manage delivery quality, risk, safeguarding, reporting and closeout
  • Operate and evaluate a bounded private or hybrid AI workflow, including recovery
  • Defend and revise an Independent Practice Portfolio that connects the whole engagement
The Full Program

All three levels, together

$495
3 levels · 52 lessons · Unit 0 to get started

The whole program: all 52 lessons, plus Unit 0. Your work builds into a Foundation Case File, a Junior Consultant Dossier and an Independent Practice Portfolio. You explain your decisions, receive feedback and revise. The full program also includes 2 one-on-one sessions with me.

Founding rate · $495

The Q4 2026 cohort start date will be confirmed before checkout opens.

Bought level by level, the same three come to $655.

This is skills-based professional learning. It prepares you to build credible work and compete more effectively; it does not guarantee employment, contracts, revenue, or client adoption.

  • 52 lessons across three levels: 18 in Level 1, 16 in Level 2 and 18 in Level 3. Unit 0 is separate.
  • The field kit — Templates, checklists, and the AI workflows you keep — reusable on your very next client.
  • Cohort pacing and live-session dates will be confirmed before enrollment opens.
  • Three level capstones, developed through practice, feedback and revision
  • 2 one-on-one sessions with me
  • 6 months of course access from the cohort start date
  • Placement recommends a route; waived lessons are recorded as waived, not completed
  • Milestone quizzes — untimed, no penalty, nothing locks you out
Join the waitlist

Organization seats

1–2 seats$1,000per seat
3 seats and up$800per seat

The same package for your team, customized to your context and industry. Up to ten seats per order, cohort track, the same portfolio standard. From 3 seats the rate drops to $800 a seat — three seats is $2,400 instead of $3,000.

Enquire about org seats
Sponsorship order — cohort track
  • 01All three program levels, customized to your contextper seat
  • 02Complete review of your gender-related policiesincluded
  • 03Implementation & activation plan, fully designedincluded
  • 04Consultation sessions with me× 4

The skills belong to each practitioner — portable beyond this role.

Stays with your people

All prices in USD

If the fee is the only thing keeping you out, applications for a fully-paid seat are open now. Apply for a fully-paid seat →
Two ways in

Already practicing — or always wanted to?

Working practitioners

Get your judgment hours back.

You know the field. What's eating you is the machinery: desk reviews, transcripts, formatting, reporting. The program helps you streamline appropriate parts around your expertise, never instead of it, and sharpen a business case designed for adoption.

See the packagePlacement quiz — see whether your route may waive Level 1
Starting your career

This work has an on-ramp now.

If you've always wanted a career pushing gender equality forward, Level 1 is a structured place to start: precise concepts, evidence, analysis, learning materials and a first bounded recommendation you can explain.

See Level 1 — $195Not sure? Take the six-minute quiz
From the field

One human voice. One hard number.

A voice from the room, next to the result it belongs to — both from programs already delivered.

What one participant named
“We are taught from a young age to be tough and not cry, because if you show weakness, you're not a real man.”
Anonymous participant · masculinity program
What changed across the group
83%

of 406 matched participants improved their post-assessment score.

Matched pre/post assessments · camps 1–7
A word from me

Fifteen years, both sides of the table.

Abdelfattah Elsharkawy presenting at a workshop podium

I'm Abdelfattah Elsharkawy, and I've worked gender mainstreaming from both sides of the table. The work that later became GAINS began in my practice in 2017; at Smart Civic Solutions, we codified it as a seven-question method for moving from an organizational challenge to a gender-informed diagnosis and a practical intervention. Along the way that's added up to more than 10,000 people trained and a contribution to Egypt's first national Anti-Sexual-Harassment Policy. I've advised decision-makers across the public and private sectors. I've also been the decision-maker: pricing the work, writing the financial proposals, and negotiating procurement as owner of multiple businesses myself.

That's why everything in this program is something I actually bill for. The frameworks are the ones my consultancy runs on. The AI workflows are the ones running my own practice — on infrastructure I built myself, because pasting client data into a chatbot was never acceptable. And the business lessons are my own P&L talking, not theory.

GAINS — codified at Smart Civic SolutionsGenderPro — GWUCBAP — IIBASEP — directory-listed ↗Trainer of trainers

More about me →

Join the waitlist Find your level — six minutes
The two commitments

Not lessons — how every lesson is done.

Commitment 01 Our region

Built for North African and West Asian rooms.

The founding course is English-first. A separate Arabic course will be re-authored and tested later rather than mechanically translated. Regional context and language-quality judgment remain part of the learning.

Commitment 02 Our data

Client data stays under your control.

A four-question safety screen before any client data touches a tool, growing into a full decision tree with bias checks. Sensitive work routes local-first. This is the quieter thread — and the one that protects you and your clients.

Placement quizzes advisory route, not mastery
Milestone quizzes untimed, no penalty
Practice Binder evidence you improve
The level capstones defend and revise
Join the waitlist
Questions

Before you decide.

Can I enroll now?

Not yet. Checkout is closed. Join the waitlist for enrollment updates at the $495 founding rate and the confirmed Q4 2026 cohort schedule. Standalone levels open at the same time.

How much time will this take each week?

The program has 52 lessons across three levels: 18 in Level 1, 16 in Level 2 and 18 in Level 3. Unit 0 is separate. Your work builds into one capstone for each level. Cohort pacing and live-session dates will be confirmed before enrollment opens.

Is the course in Arabic or English?

Both, and Arabic is a standard here rather than a translation. You get the terminology precisely in each language, and a full lesson goes to spotting and fixing Arabic that reads translated — in your own work and in what lands on your desk. The AI lessons carry the same rule: a model that flattens your Arabic is one you correct before anything goes out.

I work outside North Africa and West Asia. Is this for me?

Yes. The method travels — the seven GAINS questions don't change when the country does, and neither does the work of pricing, proposing and defending what you do. What's regional here is the evidence and the language: the data you learn to cite is North African and West Asian, and the Arabic standard is built for rooms that work in both languages. Bring your own context to the same questions and the work holds. The examples won't always be your rooms. The method will be.

Do I need to be technical for the AI parts?

No. The AI lessons begin with a four-question safety screen, not with a tool. Level 1 ends with your first small automation, built using nothing beyond what that level taught you, and each level after it builds on the same footing. The technology is set up around your expertise; the judgment stays yours, and nothing here asks you to become a developer.

How is this different from a gender training or a ToT?

A training hands you concepts. A ToT hands you someone else's curriculum to deliver. Here you work a real case end to end with the GAINS method: diagnosis, intervention design, safeguards, KPIs, ROI logic. Every lesson leaves an artifact, and several are strong enough to show a client. It also teaches what trainings skip — writing the proposal, pricing the work, positioning yourself, and setting up AI safely around your expertise. Awareness is a by-product here. The deliverable is a practice: work you can sell, run, and defend.

Where does my client's data go?

Nowhere you haven't decided it should go. Before any client data touches a tool you run a four-question safety screen, and across the levels that grows into a full decision tree with bias checks. Sensitive work routes to local tools first, so the data never leaves infrastructure you control. You also leave able to answer this question when a client asks it of you.

What if I need a refund?

For a cohort seat, you can request a full refund, with no questions asked, until three calendar days before the published cohort start date. After that cutoff, requests are reviewed case by case. For a standalone self-paced level, the full-refund window is three calendar days from purchase. Submit the refund request form or contact support@asharkawy.com.