At Executive & Strategic Leadership Programme: Senior leaders, managers tasked to adopt sustainable management model.

The two-day session, which began September 8, brought together about 20 executives and senior managers for intensive discussions on leadership and organisational effectiveness.

Placed on the theme: “Managing organization and building resilience”, the programme was organised by the Nkafu Policy Institute, a think tank of the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation.

The programme was inspired by Nkafu Policy Institute's 14 years of institutional leadership and engagement with public, private and civil society organisations across Central Africa and beyond.

The residential programme examined the leadership challenges confronting institutions in an increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing environment.

Opening the session, the co-chair of the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation and Executive Chairman of the Nkafu Policy Institute, Dr Denis Foretia, encouraged the participants to focus on the fundamental leadership question of how to “build organisations that can deliver”.

The Associate Professor said emphasis should not be on developing ambitious visions, but on creating the systems, teams and organisational cultures capable of turning those visions into measurable results.

The Deputy Director of the Nkafu Policy Institute, Dr Julienne Mesumbe, said the programme was designed to allow the participants share ideas about what holds organisations aback and to explore innovative ways of addressing those challenges.

“We have issues around the world culture, we have issues about people in the organisation buying the vision and the mission of the organisation, we have issues around shared values, we have issues around trust in the organisation,” Dr Julienne said.

Going by her, effective leadership not only requires humility but also the willingness to learn from teams and collaborators. She insisted that leaders needed to adapt to a rapidly changing world and, bring people and resources together to move organisations from being merely good to becoming great.

During the session, participants examined governance and accountability, strategic planning, resource mobilisation and financial sustainability, evidence, communication and policy influence, building partnership and collaboration, among others.

Participants said the programme's focus on institutional sustainability is particularly important in the civil society sector, where organisations often struggle to maintain their impact beyond the generation that created them.

Ngega Vanessa Achu, a participant and Project Manager at the Network for Solidarity, Empowerment and Transformation for All, NewSETA, said strategic leadership was often overlooked when discussing development projects.

“When we hear about civil society, we're always thinking about projects being implemented for the good of the local people of Cameroon, but usually we forget that for good projects to be implemented, we need strategic leadership,” she said.

Achu said she wanted to learn how organisations could sustain their work after their founders or key employees were no longer involved. She pointed to long-established companies in the Western world as examples of institutions that have survived successive generations of leadership.

She argued that African institutions needed stronger strategies for sustaining their missions beyond the lifespans of their founders.

Another participant, Berinyuy Cajetan, who is President of Ethical and Sustainable Future for All, maintained that resource mobilisation remains an immediate obstacle to institutional growth. 

He then expressed his wish to gain practical knowledge on organising and mobilising resources to advance his organisation's vision and mission.

“Resource mobilisation is one of the problems that we are facing at Ethical and Sustainable Future for All,” he said, identifying limited funding opportunities and leadership challenges among the difficulties confronting civil society organisations in Cameroon.

About the Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation

The Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation was established to catalyse Africa's economic transformation by focusing on social entrepreneurship, science and technology innovation, public health, and progressive policies that create economic opportunities for all. 

Foretia Foundation partners with local governments, policymakers, private enterprises, civil society organisations, and development partners to expand resources available to entrepreneurs, farmers and small business owners, aimed at improving individual livelihoods.

About the Nkafu Policy Institute

The Nkafu Policy Institute is an African think tank with a mission to provide independent, in-depth, and insightful policy recommendations that enable all Africans to prosper in free, fair, democratic, and sustainable economies. 

The Institute's team of analysts, experts, and researchers works on governance and democracy, health and education, peace and security, science and technology, and economic policy.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3905 of Thursday September 10, 2026