Responsive, flexible leadership key to improving wellbeing of poor – SEND West Africa
The Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND West Africa) says it has over the 25 years demonstrated leadership as key to making a difference in the lives of poor.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of SEND West Africa, Mr Siapha Kamara, good leadership was essential to the development of a country and the world at large.
Mr Kamara said this at the SEND West Africa’s 25th Anniversary Public Lecture held in Accra last Wednesday on the topic, ‘Years of Championing Transformative Advocacy and Livelihood Security for the Poor and Vulnerable.’
“A good leader is a leadership that serves, leadership that do what it says, leadership that derives its thinking from the people it works with, that learns and adopts and leaderships that is flexible and responsive,” he said.
A member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the civil society coalition on Local Governance Reforms, Dr Esther Offei-Aboagye, said 25 years of SEND-Ghana had been immensely instrumental for the country.
She stated that, SEND-Ghana over the years had been working with the poor, families, farmers and small entrepreneurs to be able to build their capacities
“SEND has been working on a principle that a lot of people can make a difference in their own lives, give the space and the support, this is why you will see SEND in livelihood support, corporates building, in agriculture support and in helping rural communities but at the national level people know SEND for the social accountability,” he said.
Dr Offei-Aboagye noted that SEND was also known for its Gender Module Families, which allowed both males and females to share roles in order to change the narrative of what men must do or what women must do.
“We have a lot to learn from SEND-Ghana in a sense that it works, speaks for itself that is why some donors have been with them for these 25 years and some are also showing interest in helping them,” she highlighted.
Dr Offei-Aboagye, who is also the Chairperson of STAR-Ghana Foundation stated that through the years, the vision of SEND had remained the same which was to create a West Africa where men and women were empowered.
She urged SEND to continue to support vulnerable people by building local level support systems.
The Board Chair of SEND West Africa, Ms Janet Adama Mohammed, in her remarks said SEND West Africa was established in August 1998 as a livelihood and food security promoting non-governmental organisation focusing on the North Eastern part of Ghana.
She however, said it had developed into a multi-dimensional response organisation that worked around the human security, development, and peacebuilding in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
BY CECILIA LAGBA YADA
