ABOUT ILD

The Institute for Leadership Development in Africa (ILD) was formed by David Altman to address some of the most urgent problems facing Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. Programs developed by ILD in partnership with leading institutions and experts around the world are designed to build human capital and give emerging leaders tools to build their country’s capacities in business, government and nongovernmental organizations.

ILD engages the best minds in academia, government and the private sector in developing practical solutions to the pressing problems of converting policy to action.

Creating more leaders with the professional skills to lead the country’s companies, government agencies and municipalities is critical. Enhancing innovation and development capacities to implement strategies and policy is consistent with the advancement of the social and economic development objectives. “Ultimately, our success will depend on our ability to implement and execute the plans we make.”

For any state organization to be successful in today’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world requires that its leaders set the right direction and create meaningful work; engage all stakeholders and hold them accountable for performance; ensure that processes and systems facilitate focus and execution; and lead effectively—maintaining relationships of trust to achieve and sustain desired results. At the core, developing this capacity requires that leaders commit to doing their own development work as a foundation for driving collective effectiveness at all levels of the organization in order to maximize societal impact.

South Africa has much to celebrate 20 years into democracy with millions of marginalized South Africans gaining access to social services and welfare they never had before. Nevertheless, the democratic transition has not succeeded in eradicating the legacy of colonialism, apartheid and dispossession. Building a capable, developmental state in South Africa, with strong institutions able to innovate and implement solutions to legacy problems, is a key objective of the National Development Plan: A Vision for 2030 (NDP). Achieving a capable developmental state is not a technical exercise in state and good governance formation, but requires a rethink of the relationship between the state and society, with an active citizenry as envisaged in the NDP being a key driver of innovative solutions. Successful developmental states have facilitated broader societal involvement in development through an “embeddedness” binding state and society together through networks that build the capabilities required to transform material conditions. Through innovative institutional reform, maximizing the state’s resources and combining these with both private and civil society innovation, the collective focus of the state and the people has led to dramatic up turns in economic growth rates and development. The innovative potential of building, consolidating and developing the networks through which the state may embed itself in society through strong institutions capable of executing solutions is not well understood but may hold the key to socio-economic transformation.

INNOVATION CULTURE