Our Aspiration
The last 15 years have witnessed tremendous progress in human development, demonstrated through measured gains across many sectors, including health, agriculture, and education. In health and other sectors, this progress has been driven by new technologies and tools, including diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines. Yet there are concerning signs that this progress is slowing, due in part to the fact that investments in commodities have not been matched by sufficient investments in the leadership & management capacity of the individuals and teams. In order to spur the global conversation on this, the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development will convene prominent individuals from diverse geographies across public and private sectors in order to catalyze collective efforts to change the conversation about development to focus more on people, in addition to commodities and financing.
The High-Level Council held its first meeting face-to-face on Sunday, 22 September 2019 in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City. The meeting was followed by an evening panel discussion & reception, open to the public. The Council will meet over a 2-year period, generally by teleconference/video-conference, at the end of which it will produce a written report and a call-to-action for broad dissemination.
In health, major investments — primarily from Official Development Assistance (ODA), foundations, and philanthropists — assisted in purchasing and distributing crucial commodities, such as vaccines and diagnostics, particularly in lower and lower-middle income countries. In agriculture, governments have worked together with development agencies and academics to advance soil health, water utilization, and productivity, particularly for smallholder agriculture. In education, the 25% of the world’s countries that are making the most rapid improvement are focused on quality in addition to access.
Yet there are concerning signs that progress, at least in some domains, is slowing. For example, after nearly 15 years of steady declines, the burden of malaria has plateaued and even begun rising in many settings, especially in Africa. Once-promising trends in global hunger reduction have stalled over the past 3-5 years, and they have even reversed in some lower resource settings. Primary school enrollment rates have remained relatively flat since 2007, and there are wide disparities among countries.
One factor in this slowing progress is that the investments in commodities and infrastructure have not been matched by sufficient investments in the leadership & management capacity of the individuals and teams. These agents of change are responsible for ensuring that everyone under their purview gains and maintains access to primary health care, primary school education, and a stable and nutritious supply of food. The situation is further complicated by a range of important trends affecting humanity, including population growth, migration, climate change, urbanization, pollution, and water scarcity – to name just a few. Confronting these threats will further test the ability of countries to articulate clear and compelling visions within and across development sectors. To do so, they must also build highly functioning leadership & management capacity at all levels, including the most peripheral.
There are powerful examples of country progress linked to strong leadership. In health, two exemplars are Rwanda’s implementation of a community-based health insurance program and Ethiopia’s expansion of its primary health care coverage through the health extension worker program. In these cases, exceptional leadership from the public sector, coupled with strong management frameworks, led to large scale national systems change that stand out as global models of excellence. In agriculture and nutrition, Brazil dramatically reduced child stunting levels by over 80% from 1975 to 2007, and they effectively eliminated any statistical difference between the wealthiest and poorest regions. This success can largely be attributed to a multi-sectoral approach to fund and implement these programs, not just across national ministries but, perhaps more critically, at the local government and civil society level. In education, Vietnam dedicates over 20% of its federal budget to education, focusing on quality of learning that can reach students of all income levels. Vietnam has surged past many high-income OECD countries in PISA performance, as leaders look to maintain these gains while further broadening access.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulate an ambitious and inspiring blueprint for humanity to make the world a better place. Reaching these goals by 2030 will remain challenging for many countries, especially those where progress is most critical. Yet challenging should not be equated with impossible. It is likely that the next decade will witness continued economic growth in lower resource settings, fostering innovations that have the potential to be the engine for evolutionary – and sometimes revolutionary – change.
Capitalizing on these opportunities requires investment in human capital. It requires building the capacity for visionary leadership and meticulous management at all levels, in both public and private sectors. It also requires overcoming the inertia that to date has impeded true multi-sectoral collaboration in development. One only has to observe that nearly 50% of the health-related development goals lie outside of SDG 3 to realize that working in close partnership across sectors is essential, and not optional.
The High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development will convene prominent individuals from diverse sectors, with an emphasis on Agriculture, Education, and Health. Together, the Council will set a visionary course for investing in human capital for development. It will explore the landscape of leadership & management development assistance and its results to date, assessing levels of investment in leadership and management capacity building, the role of leadership & management interventions in development successes, and best practices.