The Leadership and Governance Challenge:Overseas Africans

Michael J. Isimbabi of the The African Leadership and Progress Network writes about Leadership and Governance. "...While the international community can provide much needed assistance, it is unrealistic to count on it to free African countries from bad leaderships and poor governance, given the hard realities of global geopolitics and economics. Whatever the underlying causes of slow progress in Africa may be, Africans themselves have to take responsibility for their own progress. In this regard, the development of indigenous capacity and homegrown policies informed by local knowledge and perspectives provides the best hope for poverty alleviation in poor countries...The onus therefore falls squarely on well-off and accomplished Africans to proactively take charge of fostering good governance and the evolution of visionary and transformational leaderships in their countries. The financial, intellectual, and other resources of accomplished Africans, especially those outside the continent ("Overseas" or "Diaspora" Africans), are yet to be fully tapped and effectively utilized toward fostering African progress, particularly leadership/governance capacity building with a strong private sector orientation."