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- Convenors:
-
PB Anand
(University of Bradford)
Shailaja Fennell (University of Cambridge)
Serag El Hegazi (University of Bradford)
Anisha Samantara (University of Bradford)
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- Formats:
- Roundtables Synchronous
- Stream:
- Power, learning and emotions in achieving the SDGs
- Sessions:
- Friday 19 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to critically examine the tension between the focus on good institutions versus the focus on leadership for realising the SDGs. What are the challenges in focusing on leadership and does it lend itself to approving authoritarian regimes? What about capabilities and citizen agency?
Long Abstract:
Leadership is among the topics emerging as the new silver bullet within development studies. However, leadership means different things to different scholars, it is a contentious issue and the so called strong leadership models can be justifications for authoritarian regimes. Diverse models of leadership exist (see for example, Northouse 2018; Mister and Singh, 2017). However, leadership within public services context and especially in relation to sustainable development poses important challenges. This requires elaborating what is meant by the vacuous and subjective term leadership and how this can be adapted to development. There is a need to conceptualise leadership within the mainstream ideas and theories of development including (but not limited to) the capability approach (Sen, 1999; 2009), collective action (Ostrom, 1992) and participatory development (Chambers, 1997) and post-development (Escobar, 1995). This panel aims: (a) to examine the tensions with regard to leadership vis-a-vis the role of institutions (North, 2003; North et al, 2013) and quality of government (Rothstein, 2012) ideas; (b) to explore the extent to which and how good quality institutions and relevant ideas about leadership can co-exist and interact; and (c) the implications of these for development studies research and education in the context of achieving the SDGs. We use the expression institutions mainly from the new institutional economics drawing upon North, Ostrom and Williamson.
This roundtable welcomes contributions from academics, students as well as practitioners with a view to identify potential themes for further discussion and academic research.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 19 June, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
The paper draws suggestions for using the SDGs from: reviews of past global-scale development movements, as in the UN Intellectual History Project; the SDGs' own emergence process; and the Global Migration Compact's elite-level global norm generation but dangerous divorce from domestic politics.
Paper long abstract:
The SDGs are an exercise in formulation, propagation and attempted use of norms, to capture attention, re-orient expectations, mobilize energies, creativity and coalitions, and establish frames for accountability, on a global scale but with appropriate national-level ownership, leadership and adaptation. Good leadership and good institutions are both essential, and we must look in a disaggregating way at the variety of tasks, stages and scenarios. The paper draws suggestions from past and current experiences that may be complementary to other studies in the panel, including the following. First, it looks at long-time-scale reviews of past global-scale development movements, as reflected upon in the UN Intellectual History Project (led by Weiss, Jolly and Emmerij), the intellectual history of UNDP (Murphy), and similar studies. Second, it looks at lessons from the novel features in the process of emergence of the SDGs themselves, analysed in several recent studies (e.g. Kamau et al., Dodds et al., Gasper), including a combination of leadership by various Southern actors, institutional reengineering (e.g. within the procedures in global consultations), and attempts to combine the attention-capturing-and-coordinating roles of a goals-targets-indicators framework with at the same time great flexibility and implied calls for 'local' leadership in many locales. Third, it looks at the salutary case of the Global Compact on Migration, which shows remarkable comparable elite-level processes of global norm generation, but a dangerous divorce of these processes from domestic political debates in many member countries, and implied needs now for huge efforts to compensate and adjust.
Paper short abstract:
This paper is an attempt at looking beyond the mere presence of institution, to gauging the potentials of sound leadership in building strong and resilient institutions that could in turn, positively impact on health outcomes. while facilitating the realisation of health related SDGs in Nigeria.
Paper long abstract:
Nigeria has some of the most disturbing health indicators in sub Saharan Africa and indeed the world. The WHO estimates that about 157 out of 1000 Nigerian children annually die before their fifth birthdays, from preventable/treatable diseases. This is aside the fact that Nigeria contributes about 10% of global maternal mortality though it hosts just 2% of the world female population. This narrative positions Nigeria as the 2nd highest contributor to global under five mortality, and registers Nigeria as a major contributor to global disease burden. Efforts at addressing this challenge is mostly hinged on a constellation of institutional and policy frames, like the National Health Act 2014, the National Health Policy 2016, the National Health Insurance Scheme, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, as well as a wide array of international support and interventions for strengthening the health care delivery system, facilitated by a fairly large health human resource base (as reported by the registers of the various health professional bodies and associations). Ironically however, the presence of these institutions do not seem to have had a corresponding effect on health outcomes in Nigeria. This paper is an attempt at looking beyond the mere presence of institution, to gauging the potentials of sound leadership in building strong and resilient institutions that could in turn, positively impact on health outcomes, while facilitating the realisation of health related SDGs in Nigeria.
Paper short abstract:
Despite the increase in international economic integration amongst countries which has propelled many countries towards achieving sustainable development goals, institutional issues such as leadership and governance have continued to play a great role in the underdevelopment of the African continent
Paper long abstract:
Many African states are endowed with natural resources, yet the economic realities of African states show stagnating economic growth, weak institutional infrastructures and poor governance structures. These realities can be attributed to the role institutional factors such as governance and leadership play especially. The governance and leadership issues in Africa are brimming with disappointment when measured against the backdrop of their resource endowments. A number of empirical evidences point towards corruption as a major root cause of leadership and governance challenges (Carril-Caccia, Milgram-Baleix, & Paniagua, 2019; RodrÃguez-Pose & Cols, 2017) which not only impede growth and development of the African states but also contribute to other social crises such as poverty, unemployment, political instability and violence, insecurity and terrorism. This paper focuses on a selected African country, Nigeria, to investigate the perceived parallelism of a nation's underdevelopment and leadership and governance challenges. This study's findings extend the importance of strong governance systems and strong leadership in the growth and development of nations. Therefore, since the actualisation of the UN's sustainable development goals depend on the continents' leadership and governance quality, the paper advocates for an adoption of servant-leadership by actors as the way forward towards progressive advancement of Africa.
Paper short abstract:
National, county and cooperative leadership significantly influence the coffee sector in Kenya. A key observation is that the institutional framework of cooperatives is a double-edged sword that has served to both empower and dis-empower farmers. This has been dependent on leadership at all levels.
Paper long abstract:
Leadership and institutions are widely acknowledged as being integral to development. In exploring the extent to which good quality institutions and leadership co-exist and interact, several pertinent questions arise. Can significant development occur in the presence of 'good' leadership and 'bad' institutions? Conversely, can development occur in the presence of 'good' institutions and 'bad' leadership? In studying the co-existence and interaction of leadership and institutions, I use the coffee sector in Kenya as the basis for analysis. The sector offers a unique study of leadership and institutions for several reasons. Economically, coffee contributes significantly to the GDP and foreign exchange. More importantly, it is a source of livelihood for more than 700,000 farmers and millions employed in the sector. Commonly referred to as a 'political crop,' the national government has strictly regulated its production since colonial terms. At the local level, the devolution of the Kenyan government in 2010 resulted in County governments taking over certain agricultural functions. Coffee cooperative leadership is also key to the functioning of the sector. Small-scale farmers with less than five acres are mandated to cooperative membership. In this paper, I will analyze decisions made by national, county and cooperative leaders, to effect changes in the coffee sector and make it more profitable for farmers. A key observation is that the institutional framework of cooperatives is a double-edged sword that has served to both empower and dis-empower farmers, depending on the leadership at the cooperative, county and national level.
Paper short abstract:
This study was an examination of gender and leadership challenges in Nigeria. The findings revealed that restrictive religious practices in various professions and marital obstruction were among the challenges confronting women in getting to the leadership post in Nigeria.
Paper long abstract:
This study was an examination of gender and leadership challenges in Nigeria. Descriptive design of survey type was used. A total of 600 staff of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State were randomly selected using simple random sampling technique. Researchers developed questionnaire using 'Gender and Leadership Challenges Questionnaire' with reliability coefficient of 0.88 for data collected. Mean, standard deviation and bar-chart were used for analysing and presenting the research questions. The findings revealed that restrictive religious practices, patriarchal settings in society, sexual harassments, maternal mortality, poor access to education and scholarship facilities in various professions and marital obstruction were among the challenges confronting women in getting to the leadership post in Nigeria. It was also indicated that women in leadership post to certain extent can reduce extreme poverty and economic empowerment of women, eliminating employment discriminatory practices against women and addressing labour issues affecting women, empowerment of women in organization, greater enrolment of girls into educational institutions and inspiration for women who occupied and are occupying positions of authority. The study recommends among other things that in order to have women participated in leadership and politics, gender equality initiatives should be implemented at all levels of governance both in private and public organization. Government needs to work towards changing the political structures which produce gender inequalities. Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making positions will provide a balance which more accurately reflects the composition of society, interests and the general good of all citizens.