Leadership conference

We're just about done with the first action-packed day our leadership conference. It's been a great day, and I'll be giving you a breakdown of the whole weekend pretty soon. Till then, I'll leave you with a video on leadership by the recently retired Desmond Tutu. Enjoy!

(To be able to watch the video below, you need flash player. If you don't have it, you can watch it here instead).

Sustainable development through good governance and tranparency

Here's a great post on overcoming corruption from the Transparency International blog by Dr. Sipho Moyo, ONE’s Africa director.

At ONE we are enhancing our aid advocacy work by highlighting attention on issues of good governance and transparency as being key elements to achieving sustainable development outcomes, including better service delivery across sectors like health, education, and better management of natural resource revenues, as well as more efficient investment in infrastructure for growth – energy, water, roads etc.

Our take at ONE is that transparency is a cornerstone of good governance as it allows citizens everywhere to hold institutions and governments accountable for their policies and performance, and thus fosters trust and helps to minimize corruption. That is why we support the emerging global governance initiatives which seek to partner with donor agencies, civil society, and governments for better development outcomes – such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) and the Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) initiative.

In further acknowledging transparency and governance as global concerns we at ONE are proud to have been part of the advocacy coalition behind the success of the critical Lugar-Cardin oil revenue transparency amendment tucked into the recent US Financial reform legislation. This requires extractive companies listed on the US stock exchange to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission all payments made to foreign governments of the countries in which they operate. This increased transparency will help to reverse the “resource curse”, which has become shorthand for the corruption, conflict and poverty that is too often associated with natural resource-rich countries. Shining light on the payments made by multinational companies will empower African civil society to hold their governments to account for revenue received – an important step in ensuring resources benefit all citizens, not just corrupt elites. We are now rolling this campaign out in the UK and Europe, which will force companies trading in those countries to be more transparent and thus have a direct, positive impact on economic growth.

The 2010 Ibrahim Index, Africa’s leading governance assessment, reveals a mixed picture about recent progress across the continent. While many Africans are healthier and have greater access to economic opportunities than five years ago, many are less physically secure and more politically disenfranchised. The index highlights both the areas of progress and the setbacks in governance, and points to the need to pay attention to the rights and safety of citizens if Africa must continue to make progress along a sustainable growth and poverty reduction path.

As we heighten emphasis on results we also believe that increased assistance should be given to core public sector institutions in developing countries for improving their capacity, efficiency, transparency, and accountability in key functions like budget formulation, implementation, oversight and procurement management. This will result in higher quality service delivery particularly as the role of parliaments, judiciary, audit agencies, civil society and media becomes more important.

Ultimately better governance helps fight poverty, improves living standards and raises development outcomes. With improved governance, infant and maternal mortality will decline significantly as resources allocated to health service delivery are fully deployed as intended. The same is true for improving education and boosting GDP. Furthermore, good governance has been found to significantly enhance aid effectiveness. Transparency lies at the heart of much of this, and will continue to be a core principle for ONE’s advocacy work across the world.

Leadership & Communication Pt. 3

Some time back in August, I shared a couple of eBooks by Aled Davies; one on working your way around difficult conversations and the other on making a good first impression. Both these books have been getting positive feedback from people all over the world attesting to how simple tips yield powerful results.

Davies has recently completed a video series to go with his Difficult Conversation eBook (you can view/download it here if you haven't already seen it). Regardless of whether you've read the book or not, these videos will almost certainly be helpful in some way.

Video 1 - Introduction (What is a difficult conversation? What problems can avoiding a difficult conversation cause?)
Video 2 - Preparation (How to prepare yourself to have a difficult conversation)
Video 3 - Emotions (how to use emotions as a tool rather than a drawback while having a difficult conversation)
Video 4 - The conversation (How to structure your difficult conversation)

Hope you find them useful!

From Chile with love

The following is a guest post from Kenneth Richardson, one of our senior mentors. Thanks for your contribution Kenneth!

As the story of our brave Chilean heroes fades into our history books, I felt that as leaders, teammates and individuals we should take a look at a few of the gifts they gave us.

First off, I bet we were all impressed with how a quickly and carefully thought of solution was the response to the situation. In dealing with the problems that come our way on a daily basis, do we allow inactiveness and bureaucracy to take the better of us, or we get a good plan of action like it was done in Mina San Jose?

The gift of partnership and teamwork: This gift was demonstrated by a state-of-the-art rescue operation which included a drill rig coming from Schramm in the US, video equipment from Japan, a few South African helping hands and also fellow Chilean locals. Another big example of this gift comes from the miners themselves. Mario Sepulveda told this to a reporter:

'We found water coming off a rock shelf and used a cup, two at a time to wash each other'

We all need to complement each other’s efforts and realise that we are in teams everywhere: at home with our families, at school and at work with our colleagues, and in the country as citizens.

Determination: We know what it’s like to quit a bad habit or perhaps help someone quit a bad habit: we make up our minds on a decision and commit to it. In other survival stories, one of such determined is Steven Callahan, who survived 76 days adrift in a life raft on the Atlantic Ocean. More often than not, hope is what results from determination-the kind of hope that rose from the bowels of the earth to Camp Hope on the surface of the earth.

The gift of thanksgiving: Thank you is the one thing we learn as kids but the same thing we do not always sustain throughout our lives. One thing every single miner did was to show their appreciation and give a deeper meaning to thanksgiving. Let us allow this value to always be a part of us.

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Lastly, many of us may not be as lucky as Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron to receive mine rocks as gifts, but I believe these other gifts would go a long way in developing us one way or another the same way the handling of this rescue operation would go a long way to promote the management credentials of Chile as a nation.

Still many more gifts for us but I will just stop here. Yours are welcome!

A closer look at the 8 P's of mentoring

As many of you will already know, the main speaker at out our mentor training session was Dr Adadevoh (founder and president of the International Leadership Foundation - ILF). Dr Adadevoh has extensive knowledge on the subject of leadership, mentoring and development (as development spins off good leadership). You can find a short clip of a speech he gave at a UN Breakfast Summit after the cut (from the ILF website). He kindly agreed to host this session for the second year running. Both times, he spoke extensively on the 8 P's of mentoring, and I want to draw a little attention to them. First of all, I will give you a brief recap on what the 8 P's are:

• Purpose
• Personal assessment
• Potential
• Problem formulation
  
• Principles for change
• Plan of action
  
• Partnerships
  
• Progress tracking

All these things are central to the YLMP mentoring process, and indeed to any mentor-mentee relationship. At Databank Foundation, we believe in giving our mentors the freedom to decide how their mentoring is going to run. There are, however, a few things that we ask that you all do. I will take each in turn to illustrate this.

Purpose can refer to two things - the purpose (or destiny) of your mentee or the purpose of your mentoring relationship. We believe that every individual is made with a God-given purpose, and truly successful mentoring will help mentees uncover this purpose. The purpose of the mentoring relationship is broadly to develop leadership qualities, but of course you are free to engage in other objectives as well. These can be documented in the YLMP Progress Appraisal Form.

Personal assessment is an ongoing process that focuses on discovering gifts, talents, strengths and weaknesses. These are bound to come up in many discussions you have, so I will not go into them now.

Potential is based on purpose and personal assessment. A life mission can be formulated from these two things. All mentors are required to have some sort of discussion about this with their mentees - a cheat sheet will be provided for this.

Problem formulation and Principles for change deal with identifying the things that prevent mentees from achieving their potential, and working out what needs to change in order to overcome these barriers. Both are central to the Appraisal Form.

A Plan of action will also be formulated in the Appraisal Form in the form of specific, time based deliverables.

Partnerships are formed as soon as you enter the mentoring relationship (senior mentor, Junior mentors, mentees, Databank Foundation), and Progress tracking is engaged in throughout the year.

Thirsty for food

Rounding up Blog Action Day, I'll leave you with this post by Emily Alpert (ONE):

Okyereko Rice Cooperative Association in Ghana

It’s really hot today and I’m thirsty. Would you pour me an ice-cold glass of food?

Sounds absurd, I know, but achieving a number of development goals – meeting global food security needs and building better futures (essentially, eradicating poverty) — has a lot to do with water for food. That is, availability and access to clean water for poor people in rural areas that rely on agriculture for their employment, food, nutrition and health.

Growing food requires a lot of water. Globally, agricultural production uses 70 percent of the world’s fresh water. Last time I checked, that’s HUGE, especially when you start to think about water scarcity in regions like the Middle East and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. These places suffer from exponential population growth and quickly changing climates leading to erratic and more violent weather patterns and events.

Already 1.2 billion people face physical water scarcity and 1.6 billion lack adequate access to water. So, the sheer number of people in the world now, plus the 3 billion projected to share the planet and its resources by 2050, definitely adds to the pressure. How are we going to feed, bathe, clothe and employ ourselves as our needs just continue to grow and grow?

By most accounts, it doesn’t have to be a doom and gloom scenario, but it requires that we get smart about how we use water, how we invest in agriculture and how we ensure fair and adequate access to water. So what can we do? Oftentimes, some of the first responses on how to grow more food is to use more water. To a certain point, the more rain you get, the healthier your soils and the more food you can produce.

We've been reading...

In today's special Blog Action Day edition of We've Been Reading, we focus on Water. As usual, simply click on the title of each article to read more. If you have any articles you'd like to share, please do.

Youth lead the sanitation charge in Ghana
UNICEF -- They say it takes a village to raise a child. But children themselves are equally capable of important work, as UNICEF Ghana's new hand washing project, known as "IWASH," is proving. Directly targeted at children of primary school age, the program is yielding results that are already rippling throughout entire villages. Worldwide, diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under the age of five. Nearly one in five child deaths—about 1.5 million each year—is due to diarrhea. The illness kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. More shocking even than these staggering statistics is the fact that deaths from diarrhea are easily preventable...

SA, Ghana share ideas on water provision
Sowetan Live -- Parts of Africa do not suffer from water scarcity as South Africa does, but there is a lot to learn in delivering clean, potable water to the public. Rand Water, which services about 12 million people in Gauteng, this week hosted Ghanaian minister of water resources Alban Bagbin. He was in the country to learn about and share ideas on how best to deliver water to the people. Rand Water CEO Percy Sechemane said it costs them R8 billion a year to deliver blue drop water, top quality water, to Gauteng. Though water was not a scarce resource in Ghana, Bagbin admitted that servicing it to the required quality and getting it to the citizens was an expensive exercise that needed improvement.

Melcom donates to Okyenhene's sanitation project
Ghana News Agency -- Melcom Ghana Limited, a nationwide retail outlet, on Thursday presented a number of items in aid of the Okyenhene's nationwide campaign on sanitation, dubbed "Operation Cleaner and Healthier Communities"... Mr Richmond Oduro-Kwarteng, Public Relations Officer of Melcom Ghana Limited, said the Okyenhene's initiative would help achieve sustained and improved water and sanitation in the communities. He said a healthy body and mind served as the greatest platform for the development of individuals and the nation as whole adding that a healthy life depended on the way the individual kept the environment in which he found himself.

Blog Action Day

So folks apparently today is Blog Action Day. Originally founded by Collins and Cyan Ta'eed and organised by change.org, Blog Action Day is a day set aside for bloggers around the world to come together and talk about the same issue on the same day. It's an annual event that has been increasing in popularity (and therefore effectiveness in advocacy) since it was first launched in 2007. From the Blog Action Day website:

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue... In 2007 with the theme of the environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. Last year, the conversation around climate change brought our voices around the globe to discuss an issue that threatens us all and mobilized tens of thousands of people to get more involved in the movement for a more sustainable future.

The issue for this year is Water. Recently, I blogged about a CSR water sanitation project Coca-Cola are getting involved in in Ghana, so I think I'll continue along the same thread (rather than talk about water conservation for instance). I'll do this through a Water themed We've Been Reading. But it doesn't stop there. If you're a blogger, you can show your support by registering your blog and joining in the discussion. If not, you can join the discussion anyway and help spread the word. Also, here's a neat little post from ONE with five things you can do right from where you're sitting. Every little helps!

Introducing this year's mentors!

We're all done with the selection process and our mentor training session was held yesterday. And so without further ado, here are our mentors for this year:

Senior Mentors

Adobea Akuffo

Dorothy L. Ametefe is an Equity Analyst who works in the Research department of Databank. She loves to socialise with people from different cultures and backgrounds and enjoys classical and jazz music.

Johnathan Kofi-Annan is currently doing a short course at GIMPA. He is a principled person who loves sports, especially football. In the future, he'd like to be an accountant or financial analyst.

Selasie Kwashie is in charge of Operations for DUES Desk. He believes that work should be done regardless of circumstances, and he doesn't give up on tasks assigned either by himself or as a result of job demands.

Wilhelm Nyako describes himself as friendly and dynamic. He works in the Research department at GMet (Ghana Meteorological Agency) as an Assistant Meteorologist. He is also a private tutor.

Kenneth Richardson is a final year student at Regent University College, who believes Sir Timothy Berners-Lee is his man of the century. He thinks bungee jumping is a really cool sport and is waiting for the day he'll have a go at it.

Aba Tetteh is a Systems Administrator at Dwadifo Adanfo, a microfinance company in Kaneshie. She likes to try anything out for the fun of it, so long as it doesn't go against her Christian beliefs.


Junior Mentors

Philip Alimo studies Business Administration at Ashesi University College. He is also a practicing sports journalist, analyst and presenter at GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation). He says one hundred years from now, it will not matter what car he drove, what kind of house he lived in, how much money he had in his bank account or what his clothes looked like; but the world will be a little better because he was important in the life of a youth.

Sylvia Ampratwom is in her second year at Methodist University. She is studying Human resource Management. She describes herself as a friendly person who loves to help everyone. She enjoys watching movies and cartoons, reading and debating.

Nana Ama Andoh

John Asamoah is studying Political Science and Sociology at the University of Ghana. He is in his third year. He loves to make friends, and he enjoys comedy to the extreme.

Kofi Awuku-Sao is an energetic and motivated prodigy. He believes in integrity, humility, Christ-like leadership and excellence. He has a flair for reading and writing. He is passionate about the plight of the under-privileged in the society and seeks to work together with like-minded people to develop Africa. Kofi is currently a studying Business Administration at the University of Ghana. He hopes to redefine the insurance industry in Ghana and the skyline of West Africa, and enjoys playing basketball, meeting new people and sharing ideas.

Ernest Fokuo is currently in his third year at Regent University. He is studying for a Bachelor of Science in Banking and Finance with French. He like ministering to people and helping them reach their God-ordained purpose in life. He believes in the saying: "So many people talk about changing the world into a better place but no one wants to be that change". Ernest loves talking to people and influencing them positively to hit their purpose in life with self-confidence/motivation and creativity of the genius inside.

Dinah Hammond

Sally Kwesie

Kwame Ayeh Larbi describes himself as industrious and a good team player. He is in his third year at the University of Ghana studying Economics and Linguistics. He is the Vice Chairman of DUES and likes writing stories and directing.

Falilatu Lawal is in her third year at the University of Ghana, studying Political Science. Falilatu is a firm believer in hard work. She enjoys meeting new people and loves banku.

Godfred Nyaku is in his third year at Central University College studying Economics. He hopes to pursue a career in corporate law, but would also like to do a Masters in Health Economics. He enjoys listening to classical music and good jazz, and also likes football and basketball.

Nicholas Osuteye is in his penultimate year at the University of Ghana. He is studying Political Science. He likes research, learning about investment and believes integrity is an important value to hold.

Thelma Owusu-Abrokwa is studying Psychology. She's in her third year at Legon. She's a quiet person who loves music.

Sired Quaicoe

Susan Sasu studies Business Administration at Ashesi University. She is currently in her final year. She enjoys eating and helping people.

Gabriel Sika-Boafo is in his third year at the University of Ghana. He's studying Psychology and Linguistics. He is a talented dramatist and musician who plays many instruments and especially enjoys the keyboard.

Anthony Tawiah is a student/entrepreneur in his final year at Regent University College. He is studying Management with Computing. He is a passionate young person who has resolved not to be a victim of the system but to be part of a solution to create a positive impact on his generation. He lives as "a pilgrim not in control, a steward not an owner, and a soldier without security".

Samson Tingbani studies at the University of Ghana. He is an AIESECer, and is guided by the words "Live in the future but do not forget the past as those who forget the past are bound to repeat their mistakes".

To view profiles of our 2009/2010 mentors, click here.

Update: Mentor training session

Morning everyone! Fantastic news this morning about the success of the Chile mine rescue operation, thank God. It's been amazing to watch (also a great demonstration of leadership by all concerned), and I hope they all make it up safely.

I'm back as promised with an 'update' as it were on yesterday's training session. As I mentioned earlier, we had a few technical hitches at the start which made it take a while for us to get going. I'd like to apologise for this; time really got the better of us. It wasn't all bad as that gave us time to introduce ourselves and start to get to know each other. Once the issues with the projector were resolved, we got underway.

The session was led by Dr. Adadevoh, founder and president of the International Leadership Foundation. With extensive experience in both leadership and mentoring, he was the perfect person to kick start our journey. He began by asking everyone for words with a similar meaning to mentorship. In the discussion that followed, many words were offered - coaching, teaching, discipleship, grooming, training, counseling... etc. He then proceeded to point out the key differences between mentoring and some of these processes.

Next, Dr. Adadevoh introduced us to his wife and mentor, Mrs. Adadevoh, who shared with us the importance of beginning with the end in mind. She used the example of carbon to illustrate her point. Carbon, she explained, subjected to high heat and pressure eventually forms diamonds - the hardest and arguably most valuable stone in the world. The same carbon under low temperatures and pressure forms graphite, which, although useful, is nowhere near as valuable as diamonds are. Applying this principle to mentoring, it is quite clear that mentors must be prepared to work through the 'heat' and 'pressure' to help their mentees be the best that they cam be. As mentors, our job is to refrain from providing answers. Rather, we should act as a catalyst that helps our mentees to arrive at the answer themselves, only faster. We should promote self help and not dependence.

Dr Adadevoh then went on to explain about the 8 P's of mentoring: purpose, personal assessment, potential, problem formulation, principles for change, plan of action, partnerships and performance tracking. Lastly, he discussed traits an effective mentor should posses. Finally, he handed over to Mrs. Adadevoh who talked about being a lifelong learner. Mentoring is reciprocal; mentors both teach and learn from their mentees. She talked briefly about a book she was reading, Release your Brilliance by Simon T. Bailey. With that, we ended the session. Introductions were run through again for the benefit of the cameraman and those who were not present at the start.

***
I've noticed that quite a few people have been looking at the 'Meet our Team' (formerly meet our mentors) page. I'll be updating that as soon as I'm done with this post - you can have a look here (or use the link at the top of this page). The profiles of our 2009/2010 mentors are still available; you'll be able to find a link to those on the bottom of the Meet our Team page.

Mentor training session

We've just finished our mentor training session. We were hit with a few technical hitches at the start, but that aside, things went really well. I'll be back here tomorrow with a proper update!

New Coca-Cola CSR project to launch in Ghana

On Friday it was announced that Coca-Cola and USAID will launch a $1.5m clean water and sanitation project across various parts of Ghana. They also hope to improve access to these areas. Coca-Cola is a keen advocate for sanitation and public health; they have launched similar initiatives in Egypt, China, Brazil, Vietnam and various other African nations. Earlier this year, they spent one million dollars buying and distributing treated mosquito nets in the Eastern region. They have also initiated various malaria and HIV education and prevention programmes over the years.

This project was announced at a Coca-Cola 'media soiree' in Kumasi; the first of many meetings with journalists designed to keep the public well informed of their activities. According to Philippe Ayivor, Franchise Manager of Coca-Cola Equatorial Africa, "40 per cent of the Ghanaian population lacks access to safe drinking water and 80 per cent lacks access to basic sanitation facilities." This, he told Ghana News Agency, is bound to have a negative impact on the country's development. "It is therefore important", he continued, "that we bring the health needs of the people to the fore for the appropriate attention and focus".

I can't help but feel that on some level it is slightly strange (to put it mildly) that Coca-Cola has decided to focus on public health given that their drink is what it is, but I suppose the same could be said about many other corporate giants. Of course it's nice to see them giving back to society.

New session starting up!

It's October, the rainy season looks as though it's just about over, and we're only a few weeks away from launching the second Young Leaders Mentorship Programme! If you sent us an application, you should already have heard from us about a possible interview. If you mentored with us last year and are carrying on again this year, you will have received a number of emails with various details.

So getting right to business, I have some dates for your diary. We'll be kicking off with an Introduction and Training session for our mentors on Tuesday the 12^th of October. Next will be a Leadership Conference which will take place between the 30^th and 31^st of October for all mentors and mentees. Not everyone will need to be present for the whole time - we will provide you with schedules and all the information you'll need for the conference during the training session. We'll be making various changes to the mentorship programme this time around; you'll be hearing plenty about them during the training session as well. Make sure you keep those dates free!

Looking forward to seeing you all :)

1.4 billion reasons to end poverty

If you're in the UK at the moment, I've got some news for you. ONE has teamed up with The Global Poverty Project on a tour showcasing their groundbreaking presentation, 1.3 Billion Reasons. Throughout October and November, they will be visiting various universities, festivals, libraries etc across the UK; if you're around and have some spare time try to pass by! Click here to find an event near you.

According to ONE, "this ‘Inconvenient Truth’-style presentation is traveling the globe breaking down the complex issue of global poverty and inspiring action. We all have friends who remain unconvinced that fighting global poverty is worthwhile in the current economic climate. So it’s more important than ever to show that we can and must end extreme poverty within our lifetime".

Even if you're not in the UK at the moment, there are still ways you can get involved. On their website, you make a commitment to one or more of their causes, including talking to friends and family about poverty, buying fair trade products and volunteering. The more people we have working together, the more likely it is for us to see extreme poverty eradicated in our lifetimes.

We've been reading...

The bright side of development
The Guardian -- Melinda Gates has had enough of bad news. So has her husband, Bill. I suppose you don't build a company like Microsoft without a sizeable chunk of optimism. So now the pair are attempting to tackle the doom-laden negativity that sometimes seems endemic to their current field of endeavour. Bill and Melinda want to talk about success in improving the health and welfare of the world's poorest people. At the UN's Millennium Development Goals summit in New York last week, Melinda was in relentlessly positive mode...

World Bank chief urges rethink of development economics
Reuters -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called on economists to rethink the way they look at issues affecting developing nations and said he was overhauling the way his institution approached research. Zoellick said development economics was often too narrowly focused and not transparent to those affected by policies that emerged from the analysis. He said the global financial crisis and the rise of developing countries had forced a rebalancing of the world economy and raised questions about policy approaches...

Ghana Cocoa Board transaction to benefit small-scale farmers
Africa Good News -- A record number of commitments have been secured for the Ghana Cocoa Board's annual pre-export finance facility. The facility from the 1.2billion US dollar transaction will be used by the Ghana Cocoa Board to pay small-scale farmers cash on delivery of their cocoa beans to various buying centres at harvest time. The deal was confirmed last week by Stanbic Bank Ghana, a member of the Standard Bank Group, one of the joint mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) for the transaction along with Crédit Agricole, ICBC, Ghana International Bank and SMBC...

Nigeria at fifty
allAfrica -- Politicians, civil society groups and labour organisations have reflected on the state of the nation, 50 years after independence and given a verdict: We have recorded more failures than successes. Just as President Goodluck Jonathan will this morning present a special presidential address to the nation today to mark the country's 50th independence anniversary. The eldest son of one of Nigeria's founding fathers Chief Chukwuma Bamidele Azikiwe, while lamenting the retrogression the nation has made, however, added that "we must rededicate ourselves and work purposefully in the next 50 years so as to meet the dreams and aspirations for which our founding fathers made so much sacrifice"...