Second wave of Alliance staff participate in management development programme

27 March 2008

The Alliance has secured funding from the Harafi foundation for a second year to send four of its staff on the International Masters Programme in Practicing Management (IMPM). In doing so, the Alliance hopes to create a group of senior managers with the shared experiences and learning to support the development of the Alliance, and to develop lasting and productive partnerships with the corporate sector course participants and participating business schools.

The International Masters Programme in Practicing Management is a management development programme run jointly by five business schools: the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Lancaster University Management School, UK, McGill Faculty of Management, Canada, INSEAD in France, and one of a group of business schools in Japan and Korea. It involves five modules of 10-14 days’ duration in each of the five locations, as well as participation in a two way management exchange visit. This happens over an 18-month period.

The current Alliance participants in the programme are Milly Katana from Alliance Uganda, Patricia Nawa from Alliance Zambia, Roberto Nebrida from linking organisation the Philippines NGO Support Program (PHANSuP), Andriy Klepikov from Alliance Ukraine and Sujit Ghosh from the Alliance secretariat.

"Thanks to Harafi for their visionary zeal in developing a cadre of committed leaders for the Alliance,” said PHANSuP’s Roberto Nebrida. “It has been almost a year since I joined the programme and, despite the inherent challenges of being in a such a programme while working at the same time, it was a unique and rewarding learning experience not only for me but for my organisation as well,”

“As country manager I’m always thinking about strategy, finance, public image and so on, and I felt I needed something extra to help me overcome these challenges,” said Milly Katana from Alliance Uganda. “It’s not always easy to take a step back and analyse the way an organisation is running but by doing that you get the overall strategic positioning,” she added.

Sujit Ghosh, from the Alliance’s secretariat also said that the main benefit of participating in the programme was that it has given him “the confidence to think big”. “The Alliance’s strategy for 2010 is ambitious,” he added. “The programme is giving us the tools to help us deliver.”

This year’s candidates are:

  • Robinson Cabello – Executive Director, Vía Libre, Peru
  • Rajan Mani – Director: Finance & Administration, Alliance India
  • Sam McPherson – Associate Director: Planning, Analysis & Learning, Alliance secretariat
  • Lydia Saloucou – Executive Director, Initiative Privée et Communautaire Contre le VIH/SIDA, Burkina Faso.

They will start their first module in Lancaster University on 8 April 2008.