In a Davos-style debate, experts attending the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of Eastern Africa, co-organised by ECA and the Government of Kenya called for an end to the disconnect between leaders and followers; and for massive investment in education.
Nairobi, Kenya, 11 February 2016 (ECA) - The era of individual leadership is gone; and, carrying everyone along is the new leadership, concluded experts at a high-level round table co-organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) as part of the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of Eastern Africa.
The event, hosted by Kenya Broadcasting Corporation news anchor - Julie Gichuru - was held under the theme "The Followers and Leaders' Pact: Towards new Horizons" and featured contributions from experts in academia and the civil society, as well as from government officials in the sub-region and leaders from the organising institutions.
The discussion cut across the relationship between leaders and followers, qualities of good leadership in the present dispensation, the rights and responsibilities of leaders and followers as well as on tools to enable participation in leadership.
According to Mr Antonio Pedro, Director of the Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa of ECA, the relationship between followers and leaders should be a dynamic one that "requires new types of organisations beyond the top-down and heavily-centralised forms of government that we are used to.
"This is about new platforms for multi-stakeholder participation," Mr Pedro went on, while stating that in today's world, leaders must follow at some point, while followers must lead at another.
Giving a practical example of a survey that demonstrated a disconnect between the vision of leaders of a certain political party in Tanzania and the aspirations of their followers, Professor Kitila Mkumbo of the University of Dar Es Salaam noted that "some of the solutions to problems are sitting with the people, so the point is trusting them and adopting a shared leadership approach." He argued that to avoid the disconnect, citizens' voices must be taken into consideration in the design of policy visions.
Speaking of the qualities of leaders, two notions polarised opinions at the debate: that of the visionary leader who 'whips' followers into the direction of their vision and that of the ethical leader who functions on the demands of the citizenry. But ECA's Antonio Pedro was quick to point out that good leadership is a crossroads between the two and more options. He noted that a leader must be open to differences on the perception of what constitutes value among the citizenry, must consider the views of other stakeholders and must be committed to producing results.
In this area, the Head of Public and Private Dialogue at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) - Ms Agatha Juma, gave a caveat: "We cannot expect to have visionary leadership, whether it is political, economic or within the civil society, if we as a society do not espouse the values that we want to see in them."
On the rights and responsibilities of leaders and followers, the panellists all pointed to the need for shared leadership. Dr Grace Maingi of Uraia Trust Kenya said that, while it is the responsibility of federal and local governments, civil society and the private sector to provide public education that will lead to drive citizens' participation in policy processes, it is the responsibility of the citizens to engage leaders in policy dialogues that would help improve delivery.
Such "education is the single most important instrument for engagement," concluded Prof Mkumbo, who regretted the fact that less than 10 per cent of Eastern Africa's population have a college degree. Without proper education, citizens fall short in understanding issues on governance and engaging leaders profitably. Governments in the sub-region were therefore called upon to invest heavily in their human resources.
