Talking Point: Africa in prime position for 'green economy'?

UN reports [see comments section for discussion points!]:

Africa is well poised to take advantage of a host of opportunities on the continent for building a ‘green economy,’ one that generates decent jobs in an environmentally sustainable way, a senior United Nations official said today.

“This continent is in many ways the envy of the 21st century world,” Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told African ministers of finance, planning and economic development gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“Africa is rich in the kinds of natural resources that in many parts of the world have been over-exploited and diminished by centuries of unsustainable development,” he stated.

This includes not just precious and semi-precious metals, but also nature-based resources such as forests and biodiversity, which support tourism and could also underpin inventions and pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

At the same time, many parts of the continent are rich in so-called natural fuels such as wind, solar and geothermal.

“The fundamental question,” said Mr. Steiner, “is how will all this potential be harvested for the benefit of Africa’s citizens and in a way that promotes stability in Africa and beyond.”

Celebrating one year of the YLMP Blog!

This post is a little late, but the YLMP Blog is now a year old!!! It's a little unfortunate that I missed the date itself (17th March), but I'd like to take this time to say a huge THANK YOU to all who have followed and supported us along the way. The blog has changed a lot since we first began (as you can see!) and it's been a pleasure interacting with you on here.


In the year gone by, we've added a bunch of new ways you can get in touch, the highlight being our new Twitter page.

Thanks especially to Aba Tetteh, David Abegenyega, Kenneth Richardson and Elinam Adadevoh for submitting articles and other content over the past year. Here's to another great year!

Get a year's free membership at G5 Leadership

Who says leaders can't be bargain hunters?! Leadership Now (the company behind Leading Blog) is working in collaboration with G5 Leadership to bring you a year's membership (normally worth $129) totally free! As a member, you'll have access to exclusive leadership training workshops, team surveys, leadership profiles, etc. More from Leading Blog:

G5 Leadership is a new leadership training company that offers 90-minute workshops and keynotes delivered via WebEx. G5 Leadership sessions are interactive: ask the experts, talk live, take polls, send chats, post comments, and download workbooks. You’ll hear from people like Steve Farber, Marshall Goldsmith, Bill Taylor, Bob Sutton, Tim Sanders, Scott Page, Steven Smith and more.

All you have to do is go to G5 Leadership and use this access code: 'g5leadershipnow'. Once you've done that, you fill out a registration form and you'll have full access to all the training G5 offers.

Unfortunately this is not available to students; you must register with a corporate email address (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc are not accepted).

4 ways to get involved in World Water Day

As you know, today is World Water Day, a day set aside to spread the word and think about the 900 million or so people who don't have access to clean water. Over on the ONE blog, they share five ways you can get involved in World Water Day without leaving your seat. I'll share four of them below (click here to read the original post):

1. Get informed: Visit the charity: water website to learn some key facts about unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation, how this affects women and children and the vast improvements made to a community from building just one inexpensive well. You can also watch videos, read first-hand stories and help spread the word by posting a banner on your site, MySpace page or Facebook profile.

2. Donate your voice: Make your voice heard by allowing water.org to post daily status updates for World Water Day until March 26, using your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. It’s as easy as a few clicks of your mouse.

3. Drink water to give water: Although a coffee or soda here and there doesn’t seem like much of a luxury, beverages add up fast. Watch this cool, eye-opening short film made by Living Water International and take part in their Lenten H2O Challenge. You don’t have to celebrate Lent to participate — just choose a period of time where you make water your only beverage. Then set aside the money you would have otherwise spent on beverages.

4. Participate in a Q&A: Join US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero for a live Q&A webchat on Thursday, March 24. Discuss global water issues with the Under Secretary, ask her questions and learn how the US government is partnering with international organizations in efforts to improve global water challenges. The discussion will be held from 8:30 to 9:30 AM, EST. Visit the event’s Facebook page for more information on how to participate.

Desmond Tutu: African leaders must be accountable to peers

AFP reports:

Foreign military strikes in Libya against Moamer Kadhafi's rule would not be needed if African leaders held their peers to account, South Africa's Desmond Tutu said Sunday.

"If Africa's leaders held their peers to account there would be no need for the people of Libya to suffer human rights violations. And there would be no need for United Nations-sanctioned military interventions in Libya," Tutu said.

"Instead, Colonel Moamer Kadhafi has for more than 40 years honed his skills in the art of resource management to win friends and influence people. And as a result, Africa seems powerless to stop him," the Nobel Peace laureate said in a statement.

Tutu said he hoped events in north Africa would bring a new period of accountability for African leaders.

"May events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya herald a new dawn for African politics in which leaders are not only accountable to their people but also answerable to their peers."

Action by pro-Kadhafi forces were an embarrassment to the continent, he said.

"The scenes of brutality being meted out with sophisticated weaponry by Libyan security forces against their own civilian population make God weep," said Tutu.

"With every blow they strike, each human rights abuse they perpetrate, they bring shame on Africa."

Greatness Summit this Friday!!!

There are only five more days until the DUES Greatness Summit!!! Food, transportation to and from Kumasi and all materials are included in the ticket price of only GH¢20 (or GH¢25 if you're not a student). Don't miss out - get your tickets today!

Click here for more information on the event.

Transactional Leadership - Contribute vs. Collaborate

This is the fifth and final installment of a five-part series on Transactional vs Relational Leadership we're following on the Lead Change Group blog. If you've not seen the previous posts in the series, I encourage you to read them before reading this one: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Today we’ll wrap up this series on the differences between Transactional Leadership and Servant Leadership. We’ve seen 4 words to disrupt our leadership foundation. These four words are: Respect, Serve, Trust, and Collaborate. We’ve compared these 4 words of Servant Leadership to four comparable words of Transactional Leadership. Let’s take a look at the difference between:

Contribute vs. Collaborate

The Transactional leader is looking for contributors. Another word for contributor is ‘producer’. Contribute something to the project, the company, the team or find yourself in search of a new job. The need to make a contribution drives some to be back-stabbing, cold-hearted corporate climbers. While others simply settle in to lower circles of responsibility, their contributions limited to the minimum required amount of effort necessary to provide value to the team. Transactional leaders search for contributors the way entrepreneurs search for venture capitalists. What do you bring to the table? How can you bring more satisfied customers, design a better product or provide a better service? If louder, faster, higher is the mantra of the trumpet player, bigger, faster, better is the mantra of the Transactional Leader. There’s always one more sale to make, one more quota to break. Contribute or die and if you contribute the most we’ll give you a fancy gold watch!

Collaboration is different from contribution. Collaboration starts with the premise that I don’t know it all and I don’t have to. Collaboration relies on the fact that there are some things I’m naturally good at and other things I don’t do well at all. Collaboration is the art of working with others. It’s what happens when I have enough respect for someone else that we’re able to serve one another. This builds the trust we need to collaborate on any project. I trust that in those seasons I am weak, you’ll be strong, when you’re weak I’ll be strong. Collaboration and cooperation go hand in hand. The respect on which collaboration is based allows us to see that any individual in the organization can make a difference regardless of position, title or job function. Collaboration is the leveraged strength of every member of a team.

I’ve heard it said that the difference between a winner and a champion is that a winner may win the game, but a champion wins consistently. Think of this year’s Super Bowl champs. They became champions by winning consistently. They didn’t win consistently because one player or one coach made a winning contribution to the team. They won because every player worked together to shape the team into the champions they became.

Put simply, contribution is how one individual adds value to the team. Collaboration is the leveraged power of the team to fulfill the vision.

Four words. Four words to disrupt our leadership foundation.

Respect | Serve | Trust | Collaborate

These four words can transform the leader inside of you. They can shape you and your team into an irresistible force that will leave a lasting and sustainable impact on the world around you.

Don’t settle for simply pointing the way. Serve well those who have been entrusted to you and lead where you are.

God bless,
Chad

We've been reading...

Barclays launch Africa Anti-Poverty Effort
allAfrica -- Around 60,000 people in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda will soon have access to financial services through Barclays' commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA) a global initiative aimed at supporting the private sector's efforts to fight poverty. Barclays' pledge is part of the bank's three-year, £10 million Banking on Change initiative, which seeks to improve the quality of life for poor people by extending and developing access to basic financial services in 11 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, working in partnership with CARE International and Plan International. "Extending access to banking and financial services within low-income communities allows poor people to manage their money more efficiently and effectively and creates new opportunities for inclusive economic growth," said Natalie Africa, Programme Manager of the Business Call to Action...

Pepsi creates bottle from 100% plant material
Geek.com -- Regardless of your preference for Pepsi or Coca-Cola, if you buy it in bottles then that isn’t great for the environment. The petroleum-based plastic used to create them can take decades to breakdown and can’t easily be recycled. Coca-Cola has already started experimenting with using renewable material in its bottles which make up around 30% of each bottle. But Pepsi has gone a step further and managed to make a new plastic bottle consisting of only plant materials, therefore breaking the link and reliance on petroleum. The new bottles use a mix of switch grass, pine bark, corn husks, and a number of other renewable materials. Importantly, Pepsi has managed to make the new bottle indistinguishable from the old one so it will have no impact on marketing or brand recognition...

Nobel Prize campaign for African women
APO -- The Italian Cooperation is working with over 30 local authorities and hundreds of personalities from the Italian and international institutional, cultural and entertainment worlds and civil society on a campaign to promote the group candidacy of African women for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize for African Women (NOPPAW) campaign sponsored by Solidarietà e Cooperazione Cipsi and ChiAma l'Africa with the support of the foreign ministry's DGCS and Minister Franco Frattini, is organising dozens of events around Italy to spotlight African women's growing role in the continent's daily life. "African women are the continent's compelling leaders, both in daily life and in social and political activities," asserted Guido Barbera, President of Solidarietà e Cooperazione Cipsi. "Africa stands on their feet. Female entrepreneurs, politicians, promoters of rights, health, peace and co-existence; it is impossible to imagine the future of Africa without picturing the many ordinary women who carry the weight of this land every day, taking on its tragedies and bearing its hopes"...

Laptops to boost Africa's e-literacy
Media Club SA -- The image seems to come straight out of a science fiction novel; a class of 50 pupils with no teacher in sight, each being taught by their very own laptop on their desk. This utopian vision could be a reality in the near future as the African Union (AU) and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation signed a memorandum of understanding in February 2011 that's aimed at providing primary school children across Africa with laptops. OLPC’s vice president of global advocacy Matthew Keller and Lidet Tilahun,vice president of the organisation’s international outreach, met with members of the AU at the union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to confirm their commitment to the two-year deal. Keller said that the partnership is yet another significant step toward ensuring children around the world have access to world-class education. He believes the AU is dedicating itself to a world where children become the agents of change...

Entrepreneurs are transforming the developing world

Randall Kempner reports (Huffington Post):

At least once a day at work (and all too often at cocktail parties), I have the opportunity to explain to a newcomer in my field why I think small and growing businesses (SGBs) are key to long-term poverty eradication in developing countries.

"If you look at the economic pyramid of a developing country, like the U.S.," I tell them, "at least 50 percent of jobs and GDP come from small businesses." Even as I write this, I'm eating Chinese take-out from Mei Wah, the second culinary venture of D.C. restaurateur Larry La. Outside of my office, I hear the vacuum of the nightly cleaning crew, managed by a local company that provides janitorial services to D.C. area businesses. Throughout my day I interact in a variety of ways with small businesses that are the fabric of the U.S. economy.

But what does this have to do with poverty in the developing world? It turns out, quite a lot. Because while formal small businesses make up the backbone of "developed" nations, they contribute to only 16 percent of GDP and 18 percent of total employment in the "developing" world. That's a big difference -- and one that we at the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) think can and should be overcome.

Small businesses are essential because they create jobs, generate income and take a stake in the communities in which they operate. They also generate goods and services for local communities. When led by the right kind of managers, they grow -- and create more jobs, more services and more wealth. And increasingly more often, they tackle social and environmental issues as well.