A BERA & CCEAM joint event

This was a joint event between BERA and the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM). Delegates enjoyed a lecture by Dr Frederick Ebot Ashu entitled ‘Sustainable Leadership for Peace and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals’, followed by a Q&A session. 

The study seeks to develop a case about Sustainable Leadership for Peace and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SLPASDGs). It seeks to collate the views of educational stakeholders all over the Commonwealth in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Canada, the Pacific and Europe understanding of sustainable leadership for peace building; (b) explore how leadership practices could be implemented for achieving sustainable development goals.

To achieve the above objectives, a background literature review was conducted to purposively select seminal and influential theoretical frameworks of sustainability leadership, leadership for sustaining peace building and leadership practices for achieving sustainable development goals framework were used to draw on evidence from interview data generated from 30 educational stakeholders (10 men, 10 women and 10 youths of different ages purposely selected from different commonwealth countries). The qualitative results reveal that trained sustainable leaders must be visionary, competent, moral, ethical, empathetic, equitable, have a sustainability mindset, systems thinking oriented, concentrate on long-term goals without compromising values and principles in managing resources effectively.

Forward-thinking leaders must realize that they are stewards of the geopolitical environments appointed or elected to serve and must be fully accountable for the 17 SDGs, also known as the Global Goals. The finding also reports sustainable leadership practices for peace-building in some Commonwealth countries include: providing leadership training at grassroots, divisional, regional, national and international level challenge issues of violence and aggression and build positive, inclusive social systems and structures to conflict or war that don’t have fixed solution. Sports activities offer a space for cross group linkage; especially for women and youths must be encourage to engage in cultural arts and entrepreneurship initiatives promotes unity and prosperity. Many developed commonwealth nations organise collaboration meetings or conferences to promote peaceful and inclusive society; peace building campaigns promote respect and understanding through dialogue. For sustainable development goals to be achieve, it is crucial for an organisation or nation to harmonise these core elements: strengthen policy framework to enable good public service delivery, to meet the needs and aspirations of citizens, encourage capacity building for leaders to adopt transformational leadership styles that engender a sense of shared responsibility toward the attainment of organisational, society and global goals.

Most commonwealth nations seek direct technical assistance, advocate for social inclusion and environmental protection. They have create partnership with local, national and international partners. These elements are interconnected and all are crucial for the well-being of individual, organisations and societies ensuring a safer future generation. Recommendations are interjected regarding how to develop our leaders for responsible leadership if any meaningful development is to be genuinely achieved among the Commonwealth nations.

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