Successive major declarations (Monterrey, Marrakech, Paris, Hanoi) have called for greater country ownership and accountability for results, principles which require expanded leadership capacity at national, sub-national, public, and private levels, especially along the vectors of vision, effectiveness and accountability.
As such, leadership development becomes a critical entry-point for affecting change in societies, institutions and organizations. However, this is an area where the international community traditionally has not focused much attention—particularly when it comes to national-level political leaders.
Moreover, much of the existing work on leadership development focuses on training individual leaders. There is an increasing recognition that leadership development needs to go beyond training individuals, to supporting the institutions of leadership to achieve real results. Still, efforts to promote leadership as an institution are hampered by the lack of a common conceptual framework, and standardized vocabulary and tools for assessing needs and evaluating results.
Concept Note Capacity Day 2007
Background Notes on Leadership
For a summary of Bank work related to Leadership Development, see the extensive Summary of Leadership Development, Bank-wide.
Capacity Day 2007 was structured around three different leadership development challenges, which were examined in three sessions. A case representing a typical challenge for leadership was presented during each. The moderator then turned to a panel of distinguished discussants for their perspectives. Each session concluded with commentary from leading academics in the field. A brief description of each session is provided below.
Session I: New leadership teams in fragile countries:
President Johnson-Sirleaf provided the first keynote address (via VC from Monrovia), and treated issues pertaining to the challenges faced by new leadership teams in fragile country contexts. The panel relating to this session commented on the needs and responses presented in the fragile state case, relating the discussion to responses and solutions found in other, similar contexts. The discussion also touched on the IDA country context, reflecting on today’s leadership challenges in more stable, but still poor, countries. [ back to agenda ]
Session II: Strategies for institutionalizing leadership development in middle income countries:
The keynote presenter for the session, the Dean of the School of Public Policy at Tsinghua University in China, Dr Xue Lan, shared his perspectives on China’s approach to developing leaders, how to stay abreast of global innovation, and thinking on the kinds of leaders needed for the future. The panel discussed similar challenges faced by other middle income countries, and the different approaches to meeting those challenges. [ back to agenda ]
Session III: Introducing and establishing a results focus:
The Madagascar case was presented by the Minister of Education, Haja Nirina Razafinjatovo. The discussion that followed dealt with what characteristics are needed by leaders and their teams at different levels in the system to more effectively achieve results and implement reforms, policies and strategies.
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Session IV: Towards an agenda for more effective leadership development: The event concluded with a wrap-up that prioritized the main messages emerging from the previous sessions along the lines of vision, effectiveness and accountability, and reflected on the entry points and instruments for engaging with this agenda from the Bank’s perspective. [ back to agenda ]
