What makes leaders great? Our new East Africa Portfolio Director, Njenga Kahiro, shares his reflections.
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We heard from four grassroots conservation leaders who are championing new, innovative, and successful community-led conservation efforts across Africa. Watch the webinar and learn key insights on why community-led conservation in Africa is working.
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Across the world, women continue to make strides in spaces that previously were not accessible to them. In honor of International Women's Day, we spoke with three female conservation leaders on what changes they've seen, and what opportunities they believe there are for women leaders in this field.
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“This is unlike anything I’ve experienced before in this field’ and ‘I wish I could have been part of something like the African Conservation Leadership Network (ACLN) ten years ago!”
Reported members of the 2018 ACLN cohort that met for the second time in Naivasha, Kenya in September 2018 for a week-long session to improve practical organizational leadership and management skills.
Read More!["Leadership is not only about [managing] people and goals, but individual awareness is key."](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a816a14e5dd5be8941a4448/1531412508355-BZDT73789S2S5SVYKM2Q/ACLN_photo.jpg)
In May 2018, the second cohort began the programme at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, where seventeen leaders from nine African organisations working in Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia and Zambia. Facilitated by the Maliasili team, the first week laid the foundations for personal learning and leadership - delving deeply into self-awareness and the impact of personality on leadership style.
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Recently I listened to a conservationist tell the story of how he had founded a very successful conservation organization, only to be eventually fired by the board he had himself built up over the years. What had occurred was that his organization had established a strong track record of achievement and impact, and resulting growth in its funding, staff, and board.
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Human resources (HR) plays a critical role in shaping organizational culture. African CSOs face a complex internal challenge: how to balance the passion and commitment of individuals with an entire organization whose achievements are greater than the sum of its parts.
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As we frequently find ourselves emphasizing at Maliasili Initiatives throughout all our work with our partners, the single most important question any organization needs to answer is: What do we want to achieve? The key to answering this question, and in building the systems and plans to help an organization achieve its core purpose and mission, lies in setting good goals.
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Few places have a more urgent need for vital and dynamic leadership on conservation issues than Africa. Across the continent societies and communities are undergoing a range of changes where locally rooted leadership is critical to solving a host of growing challenges.
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Making hard choices may be the most important factor in organizational performance. The core and chronic challenge for most mission-driven organizations is attempting to address a vast and often multiplying array of problems with limited human and financial resources.
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The Board of Directors sets the tone and direction of an organization, thus effective board leadership and governance is critical in helping to ensure that a civil society organization can operate to its fullest capacity. Creating an effective board is a continual process that includes recruitment, engagement and development, as well as striking a balance between providing oversight and support to the organization’s leadership.
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Civil society organizations are under assault around the world. As recently described in The Guardian and by networks such as CIVICUS, the past several years have witnessed a surge in government efforts to restrict local organizations’ ability to operate or access external funds. At the same time, development aid often exacerbates constraints placed on civil society organizations by favoring short-term, restricted funding, curtailing investment in salaries and overheads, and imposing onerous reporting requirements.
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