Partners
Background
The Leadership for Development Alliance (LDA) seeks to strengthen leadership development approaches being perfected and disseminated by African and U.S. universities, through the use of Information Technologies and related capacities. It is led by Gonzaga University and includes the University of Pretoria the Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon State University, University of Botswana, the Municipal Council of Tshwane (Pretoria) and University of Western Cape. The LDA is still informal and based on relationships between individuals who have chosen to cooperate. Specific activities by the LDA are covered by appropriate written agreements and a formal agreement between partners can be expected by December 2004. The LDA sprang from initial support to Professor James Beebe, PhD. through the Department of State Global Technology Corps, and has proven itself very effective in launching joint activities across the oceans, levering grants and support totaling $367,000.
Activities
The primary focus of the activities under this Alliance is refining and disseminating cross-cultural leadership tools based on Rapid Assessment Process (RAP). RAP is intensive, team-based ethnographic inquiry to quickly develop a preliminary understanding of a situation from the insider's perspective. Professor James Beebe, Ph.D. on behalf of the LDA will coordinate these activities, they will include:
- Developing a web-based interactive
training program on RAP for the HIV/Aids Research Unit of the Municipal
Council in Tshwane (Pretoria);
- Adapting the Tshwane program for use with the nursing faculty of the
University of Botswana for their HIV/Aids program; and
- Adding Cross-cultural Leadership based on the use of RAP as a Leadership
Tool to the graduate IT program at the University of the Western Cape
in South Africa.
All three activities involve collaborative development of web-based training programs focused on RAP as a cross-cultural leadership tool. The Internet will be used to make available resources and to provide interactive cooperation with participants before and after face-to-face activities. The Tshwane and the University of Botswana activities focus on training and research related to service delivery for HIV/Aids while the University of the Western Cape activity focuses on adding leadership to an IT graduate program.
Funding
USAID is supporting the LDA in order to allow an expansion of its efforts to include other partners. USAID funds are from the Leland Initiative and are administered by Computer Frontiers Inc. (CFI), under a sub-contract with the General Services Administration. The objective is to increase access of African countries to information on the Internet and other GII (Africa Global Information Infrastructure) technologies which Africans can use to promote sustainable development activities and to make new technologies (known as telematics) more accessible, transferable, and manageable. Other support for these activities is being provided by Gonzaga University, the donated time of the professionals from the different partner institutions involved, and select U.S. technology firms including Comotiv.
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