Minister challenges new Uongozi Institute board of directors to deliver

Minister of State in the President's Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) Angellah Kairuki on Thursday September 22, 2017 challenged the new appointed members of Uongozi Institute board of directors to strengthen the institute's capacity towards development of leadership for sustainable development in the country and in Africa.

Speaking at during the launch of the new board of directors for the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (Uongozi Institute) at Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, she said Africa strove not only for catching up with the rest of the world, but to excel. “In Tanzania, we aspire to becoming a middle income nation by 2025," she noted.

"A critical component to the success of these plans will be the ability of leadership to provide guidance through a transition we know we have to change regional and national contexts."

To ensure that Tanzania achieves the desired middle income status vision, the minister urged the new board to steer the institute in carrying out its mandate and realise its vision of creating a prosperous, equitable and sustainable Africa.

In addition, Ms Kairuki thanked the government of Finland and other development partners for their significant contribution to the establishment and development of the institute and assured them of government support to the institute and the new board of directors.

The government of Finland played a great role in the establishment of the institute in 2010. A new agreement has also been reached between the governments of Tanzania and Finland to continue supporting it for the next four years, according to Ms Kairuki.

For his part, the Uongozi Institute Chief Executive Officer, Prof Joseph Semboja, expressed his optimism that the new board would drive the institute to the next level in accordance with the institute's strategic plan, whose the new board will oversee.

"On behalf of the institute, let me first thank outgoing members of the board for their remarkable support and contribution. We are happy and confident that the new board will drive us to the desired level," he said.

More than 1,700 African leaders have been trained and more than 70 leadership courses have been delivered, including an internationally recognised postgraduate diploma programme on leadership, amongst other Uongozi Institute's achievements since its inception in September 2010, according to Prof Semboja.

For his part, Finnish Ambassador to Tanzania Kari Alanko assured the Uongozi Institute management and the government of the new board's commitment to raising the institute to a higher level and continue its early successes in the development of leadership for sustainable development in the country and in Africa a whole.

The newly appointed board of directors include Ambassador Kari Alanko (Chairman), Finnish Ambassador to South Africa, Prof Idris Kikula, Vice Chancellor of the University of Dodoma, Dr Laurean Ndumbaro, Permanent Secretary in the President's Office (Public Services Management and Good Governance), Dr Stergomena Tax, Executive Secretary of Southern African Development Community, Prof Penina Mlama, Professor at University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Christina Duarte, Former Minister of Finance, Planning and Administration - Cape Verde, Ms Lina Soiri, Director of the Nordic Africa Institute-Sweden  and Mr David Walker, Former Director of the European School of Administration -United Kingdom.