Second Cohort of African Agricultural Leaders Completes Advanced Leadership Program
The second cohort of Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) Advanced Leadership Program delegates from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda graduated on Friday December 8, 2023 in Addis Ababa. The program, an AGRA-led initiative and implemented by the African Management Institute (AMI) and Policy LINK, is a 16-month leadership development program for government, private sector, and civil society leaders spearheading and directly implementing specific country-level agriculture initiatives.
The program provided delegates with hands-on experience navigating, coordinating, and better implementing solutions to their national agriculture and food security challenges. The second cohort included 80 senior and emerging leaders from the agriculture sector, ten from each country. Seventy-seven of the participants successfully completed the program and received certificates.
Attendees at the December 8, 2023 graduation ceremony.
Policy LINK designed and rolled out the CALA coaching component, which provides executive and team coaching to delegates to help leaders generate important insights, gain clarity and focus, and make decisions to improve their results.
Yemisrach Getachew, an agribusiness advisor at International Fertilizer Development Center, one of the Ethiopian delegates, thanked the training organizers for the opportunity and pushed the participants to commit to being transformational leaders. "Challenges from climate change, environmental degradation, and social and economic inequalities are interconnected and critical to transforming food systems," she said.
“It is a turning point to be part of the global movement demanding change, and as food systems champions, we stand at the forefront of this movement. This journey requires leaders who are collaborative, bold enough, and innovative to bring resilient changes and leave a prosperous Africa for the next generation,” Yemisirach added.
Prior to the graduation, delegates presented 16 action learning projects related to agriculture. Among these were projects that explored the quality of spices in Tanzania, reducing vegetable waste in markets in Uganda, operationalizing warehouses in Ghana, and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for smallholder maize farmers as well as establishment of an avocado value chain platform for key stakeholders in Rwanda.
CALA was launched in August 2021 with the aim of equipping leaders with the skills to solve national agriculture challenges. Policy LINK has since worked to institutionalize the leadership coaching program it developed as part of the Advanced Leadership Program. To promote localization of CALA and the sustainability of its programs, Policy LINK has facilitated a transition of the coaching component to the newly formed African Network of Professional Facilitators (ANProF). ANProF, formed with Policy LINK support, has already begun managing the coaching component for Cohort III of the Advanced Leadership Program, which began in September 2023.
Resources
Policy LINK Helps Launch Agricultural Coaching Program
Coaching Delivers Results for African Leaders in Agriculture