Initiative

I. Name

Bridging the Leadership Gaps in Africa: Raising world-class leaders who transform Africa once for all in one generation.

II. Background

The new century is for Africa! Regardless of those skeptics who dubbed her ‘The Hopeless Continent’, Africa is now a rising star in the universe full of potential and hope.  Africa is the youngest continent endowed with untapped natural resources. 

However, the focus to transform Africa should be on the human capital than on any other single resource. Though she needs to tap into her natural resources, taping into her human resources should get prime attention. She should use her human potential as her competitive advantage to overcome the challenges she is facing, catch up with the rest of the world, and ultimately lead the way in the areas where she has comparative and competitive advantages.

Putting her human capital at the center requires making some changes in her approaches. As she has been lagging behind almost in every sector, far behind, if she continues the path she has been on using the same approaches and with the usual pace that led her to this point, there is no better future for its people and the coming generations. She must take this season of her seriously and as her last chance to redeem herself. This is time to chart a new path, turn a new page. Otherwise, she will remain behind forever.

Resting her only hope solely on any form of revolution- industrial or technology- must stop now. The continent took too much time and failed to capitalize on these on time. These revolutions that helped other continents alone cannot accelerate her speed of growth to catch up with the rest of the world, let alone to use them for her own competitive advantages. It is too late. What is more? Financial and in-kind assistance, technology transfers, and experience sharing from those who attained sustainable economic development alone cannot also allow her to experience true transformation in one generation.

The continent must make a paradigm shift from focusing on techniques, systems, and technologies alone to investing in her people, especially on her youth and the most crucial section of her society- women. Africa should also tap into the Diaspora community well beyond its contribution in the form of remittance.

In short, Africa needs to undergo lots of changes and use various approaches at multiple fronts before she attains sustainable development. On top of implementing multitudes of development efforts both at continental, regional, and local levels, Africa should put developing her human capital at the center. These other development efforts using her natural resources cannot be successful, both in the short and long term, without raising competent leaders in quantity and quality. We need competent leaders who lead these development efforts successfully, and in turn, enable Africa to experience a lasting and sustainable transformation in one generation.

Raising leaders at all levels should be the focal point of Africa’s transformation. That is why PRO Leadership came up with this Initiative to raise competent and world-class leaders, together with other stakeholders and strategic partners. It is impossible to achieve once in a generation world-class transformation without raising world-class leaders at all levels, who first lead themselves and the people around them successfully, and ultimately contribute their fair share in transforming their respective community and ultimately the continent.

III. Mission

The mission of this initiative is to bridge the leadership gaps so that Africa may tackle the major challenges she faces and seize the opportunities the 21st C presents, and ultimately experience true and lasting transformation in one generation.

IV. Vision

We see 1 million world-class African youth, women, and diaspora leaders transforming the continent in one generation.

V. Goal

The main goal of this initiative is to inspire, inform, equip, and empower 1 million world-class leaders that have a new mindset, the necessary leadership competencies, and solid character to transform Africa once and for all.

VI. Objectives

The following are the specific objectives of the initiative:

  • To increase awareness about the critical roles leadership development plays for sustainable economic and social development and in turn toward the transformation of Africa.
  • To design and deliver stage by stage leadership development programs in partnership with hosting and sponsoring strategic partners to equip and empower leaders at various stages of development.
  • To offer periodic refresher leadership courses together with strategic partners to continue empowering graduates of the stage by stage leadership development programs and those that are in the corresponding Cohort and TOT programs.
  • To provide support systems and materials to continue to support the different programs of the Initiative.

VII. Programs

The Initiative has the following 4 major initial programs to begin fulfilling its mission:

  1. 30 – 90 minutes awareness creation keynote ‘Bridging the Leadership Gaps in Africa: Raising world-class leaders who transform Africa once for all in one generation.’ The talk will be delivered using various platforms to highlight the critical roles leadership plays and the kind of leadership development programs Africa needs to raise its world-class leaders who in turn bring true and lasting transformation in Africa one community at a time.
  2. 1-day stage by stage leadership development programs (for 3 major stages of leadership) to launch cohorts
  3. Stage by stage Cohort and TOT (Training of Trainers) programs following their corresponding 1-day stage by stage leadership development programs.
  4. Refresher courses to Cohort and TOT members.

Note: We will closely work with the Host, the Sponsor, and other relevant stakeholders to design and deliver the right program (s) for your people. And also, in consultation with our strategic partners and other stakeholders, we will review these programs periodically and update them if necessary. We’ll also include additional programs as time goes and when the need arises.

VIII. Strategic Partners: PRO Leadership would like to partner with all stakeholders who care about the true transformation of Africa. PRO Leadership has identified its strengths and areas it can add value to propel the Initiative forward. We would like to attract other stakeholders as strategic partners to support the Initiative based on their areas of strength. The two key stakeholders we are looking for:

  1. Hosts. Hosting partners invite PRO Leadership to deliver the launching keynote, and work with us to arrange the stage by stage leadership development programs, and host the Cohort and TOT programs.
  2. Sponsors. Sponsoring partners support the Initiative by sponsoring Hosts financially and in kind.

To learn more about the partnerships we are looking for and areas to partner with, click here…

IX. How the Initiative works:

  1. The Initiative is led by a book specifically dedicated for the Initiative (it will soon be published by Success Pathways). It will be used as a refrence book. We will distribute the book together with our sponsoring partners to reach as many stakeholders as possible. This is our believe that those who got the book may join hands with us to futher spread the Initiative’s message, and also join hands with us to implement the Initiative in their organization/community.
  2. We create platforms by ourselves and together with our strategic partners, and also use all available platforms created by other stakeholders to increase awareness using a keynote. The latter highlights the roles of leadership development to transform Africa in one generation, and the kind of leadership programs necessary to raise competent leaders who will play this once in a generation responsibility to transform Africa once for all. This 30 – 90 minutes program allows us to connect with potential Hosts who may invite us to implement the Initiative in their organization/community, and Sponsors who may support the Initiative financially and in kind.
  3. Some who attended the keynote may decide to work with PRO Leadership and host a cohort. They will host the first stage (foundational) 1- day leadership development program and then establish a Cohort program to keep growing the cohort members until they graduate at this foundational stage. When members graduate from the 1st stage cohort program, the Host will arrange the 2nd stage (intermidiary) leadership development program together with us, and again the attendees will join the 2nd stage Cohort program, and continue to grow at this stage until they graduate at this intermidary stage. The Host then arrange the final and 3rd stage program (advanced) and its corresponding cohort program. We will keep working with the Host to provide refresher courses through out the 3 stage-by-stage programs until members graduate, and also after graduation if they’re interested to keep growing as a cohort. This is our believe that many cohorts may maintain the fraternity and remain connected and grow together in the rest of their lives, and we’ll be by their side on this rewarding journey.
  4. However, some Hosts may desire to have more than just one cohort to expand the Initiative’s reach within their organization/community by keep creating new Cohorts. With such Hosts, we’ll work with them to establish a TOT program for each stage of leadership development progarm so that the graduates of the TOT programs will continue to train others and establishing new Cohorts at various stages. On top of supporting their Cohort programs, we’ll also support, together with other strategic partners, their TOT programs.

Please reach out if you have any questions about how to implement the Initiative in your organization/community. Send us an email via [email protected] 

Notes:

  • If you would like to get some copies of the book when it is published, please let’s know so that we’ll inform you when it becomes available.
  • If you would like us to speak at your future events about the critical place leadership development plays to transform Africa, reach out and we will work with you to customize the talk to align with the theme and participants of your event.
  • Whether you are interested to implement the Initiative within your community (organization) as a Host or to sponsor it for another community (organization) of your choice as a Sponsor, please reach out and we will give you more detail. Send us an email at [email protected] Use Bridging the Leadership Gaps in Africa Initiative on the subject line.
  • We have already formed a strategic partnership with Success Pathways, LLC (www.successpws.com), which participates as part of its corporate responsibilities in the design and delivery of the Initiative’s programs. Success Pathways also agreed to give huge discounts to our other strategic partners who may need its services. If you need customized organizational and leadership development programs for your own team leaders, supervisors, managers, and executives, feel free to reach out to Team Success Pathways at [email protected] If you mention that you’re one of our strategic partners, you may get discounts.