The leadership link in CBOs institutional development
Workshop reveals a powerful profile of grassroots CBOs in East Africa
Ten (10) men and 11 women participants attended the CBOs consultation organized by EASUN in Moshi, Tanzania, from 26th to 30th September 2010. The workshop brought together CBO leaders from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, to examine and work out strategies for the institutional development of CBOs as strategic development actors at grass roots levels.The workshop raised awareness about the nature of CBOs as development organizations and assessed the extent to which CBO are currently functioning effectively as such, within the grassroots communities of East Africa. Thinking in institutional development terms, the purpose of the workshop was considered to be a question of leadership within the CBOs themselves, and in local communities where they work.
In the opening session of getting to know one another, participants shared their stories issues that occupy and challenge community based organizations in East Africa. It was an inspiring moment, when participants expressed excitement about getting up close to listen to their varied experiences within the region: “I have always heard about Safe Neighbourhood (Uganda)” says a Tanzanian woman from “Faraja”, a health education CBO in Dodoma, “now I am happy to meet its leader.”
Participants from Kenya and Uganda recalled the saga of Migingo island on Lake Victoria, where the rhetoric between the two countries approached the ridiculous, soon after the violent aftermath of elections in Kenya in December 2007. Apparently, the piece of rock belongs to Kenya, while the water around it belongs to Uganda, so went the discussion that led to politicians on either side referring to the possibility of militarily defending their territorial integrity, and access to fish in the national interest. Others, on the other hand, wanted to hear more about the work of ECOVIC (Uganda), and its exemplary leadership in the management of natural resources around the same Lake Victoria.
A particularly compelling story was shared by a participant who had travelled by bus from Kenya: “As I crossed the border between Kenya and Tanzania I saw that vast land that is extremely dry. It was difficult for me to imagine how people who live on this stretch of land survive. In Arusha and Moshi I witnessed political campaigns toward the coming elections in Tanzania. Politicians were seeking to be elected on platforms that promised different services, including improved water supply. I could not help but wonder to myself: “how long....for how long have they been promising water to the people living in this vast dry land, and when will it ever come? With the experience of such promises hardly being fulfilled, particularly for rural communities, it was almost a sad joke to hear some of these politicians promising to leverage good governance if elected.”
Aggrey Omondi, from Community Resource Centre, which provides services in agriculture, peace and reconciliation around Kisumu (Kenya) was taken up by the story of Mr. Fenest Shayo, from Marangu in Tanzania. Out of a population of 30,000 in Marangu, around 340 have declared their status as being HIV positive. He was fascinated to experience Mr. Shayo’s commitment to work at that community level to encourage others to declare their status.
We at EASUN were particularly pleased to bring together these grassroots civil society leaders who work daily with their minds, hearts, hands and feet, to address questions related to social and political violence, environmental degradation, HIV & AIDS, poverty and gender equity. The stories they shared demonstrated much initiative and creativity in their engagement with real questions of the poor and marginalized groups in rural areas of East Africa.
The leadership link is transformational
The real development question for an organization is normally linked to the need to develop capacities and practices that may lead it toward achieving its stated vision. Vision carries conviction. Its realization requires that an organization is able to sustain its purposefulness through both its governance practices and the delivery of services to beneficiaries. A vision is essentially a description of the result of an organization or group “practicing their values” through governance and service.
Coming to work in an organizational setting is thus a contract for practicing its stated values. An important institutional development role of leadership, therefore, is to ensure that stated values are internalized, owned, and are being worked with. This understanding and focus shaped the essential intervention in the CBOs workshop in Moshi i.e., developing transformational leadership abilities of participants. Through metaphoric work, workshop exercises equipped participants with skills for facilitating participatory processes of surfacing organizational values.
An institutional development trajectory for CBOs
The learning process toward understanding the nature of CBOs as development actors within grassroots communities was guided by a case study of Ugunja Community Resource Centre, based in Kisumu, Kenya. The case study highlighted how this CBO had engaged with local communities during and after the 2008 post election violence in Kenya.
The workshop used the example of the role Ugunja had played, in that difficult situation, to assess the likely advocacy profiles of CBOs generally, and identified needed capacities to strengthen, for CBOs to become effective institutions in the development of local communities. Key capacity areas identified include: 1) peace building, 2) mobilization of community groups; 3) networking; 4) identity construction; 5) empowerment (training, awareness raising, courage building, facilitating participation, mobilizing local knowledge). Based on those capacity areas, participants created metaphors to characterize the strengths and gaps currently experienced by CBOs in East Africa. The same images were used to create and perform poems, music and body movement routines, all of which acted as mirrors for participants to identify and document values associated with transformational leadership.
For more information about CBOs; institutional capacity development contactatieno.olwal@easun-tz.org
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Becoming a transformational leader in civil society
“Training civil society organizations to manage institutional development” was the title of our report in E News of August 2010, which highlighted the completion of Module 1(cycle “N”) of the FOD (Facilitating organization Development) course by 14 civil society leaders from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The content of the course is geared toward building transformational leadership qualities in East African civil society. Toward the end of the module, when participants had engaged with new skills and tools for facilitating change in organizations, the focus turned on their own personal development as facilitators and leaders. Based on practice questions that had emerged for them in their practical projects on facilitating change in others, each participant developed 2-3 change objectives that would lead to their increased effectiveness as facilitators and leaders in transforming situations.
Personal development questions for leaders in East Africa
What do the change objectives of participants in the FOD course tell us about development needs of civil society leaders East Africa? We can get valuable insights from 8 change objectives put forward by CSO leaders in cycle “N” of FOD training, including what they expect to achieve with specific plans in that direction. The change objectives (left column in the chart below) were prioritized by different participants from their experiences and emerging questions as they practiced tools for organizational diagnosis in the first week of their FOD training.
| Change Objective | Goal |
| Postpone my own opinions as I support others to examine their development questions. | I am enabling individuals and organizations to clarify their real questions or problems. |
| Empty myself so that I am able to listen more actively. | I am enabling others to explore their own questions with courage and depth. |
| Strengthen working with critical events as an exploratory tool. | I am open to working with emerging issues in situations I facilitate or lead. |
| Practice skills and tools that surface real issues in organizations. |
I am supporting ownership of emotional and unconscious processes in individuals and organizations. |
| Strengthen listening skills. | I am supporting organizations to see their questions without being hindered by my own baggage. |
| Strengthen skills in trust building. | I am generating confidence and mutual appreciation in individuals and organizations I facilitate. |
| Strengthen skills in the use of reflective learning tools. | I am facilitating learning and nurturing emotional intelligence in communities and organizational situations. |
| Strengthen use of tools/processes that draw on people’s creativity and initiative. | I am promoting participation and ownership, in learning and decision-making processes. |
In the end, an organization, community, or nation-state is only as good as the individuals who lead them. Even with the most sophisticated structures and systems, the quality of leaders (including individuals serving on boards) can make a difference between an organization that is merely good and one that is great.* At this point, it may be particularly revealing to revisit the table above and read only the bolded right hand column items 1-8. What, in your view, does this ask of leaders, and leadership development interventions, in the East African region today?
What is transformational leadership?
Transformational leadership is based on leaders’ shifting the values, beliefs and needs of their followers. It is known to result in superior performance in organizations facing renewal and change...transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality....producing changes in attitudes, beliefs and goals, which transform them. This is significantly different from the more traditional transactional leadership, which involves mostly an exchange relationship between leaders and followers.
For your feedback or more information contact mosi.kisare@easun-tz.org.
The next FOD training cycle starts in August 2011. For information and application materials contact alando.anyona@easun-tz.org
*The reference above about “good” or “great” is drawn from author Jim Collins (2001) Good to Great: why some companies make the leap and others don’t.
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